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Some time ago my energy supplier Igloo went into administration and all monies owing to it were passed to Barratt Smith Brown Limited to collect. My debt was disputed, which I advised them of both by email and letter, but they never replied to any of my communications. The date of the administration was October 2001 and the company moved from Administration to Creditors Voluntary Liquidation in September 2022.
Regardless of that I have continued to receive monthly text messages and emails chasing up the money which state Igloo Energy (In Administration). This is something of an unfortunate error considering that it is now in Liquidation. In the last two weeks I have received the same text message as before stating "In Administration" but I also got an email telling me that they had now purchased the debt, so I now owe the money to them. However, there has definitely been no notice of assignment from the Liquidator acting for Igloo.
So I did a little bit of research into Barratt Smith Brown themselves. On their website they claim to have 25 years of experience in debt management, which is quite an achievement for a company that was only incorporated in November 2016. Their latest set of accounts at Companies House show that they have the grand total of £1.00 of fully paid up share capital on their balance sheet and that they are in negative equity to the sum of £393,855, which is a deterioration in their position from the previous year when they were in negative equity to the sum of £168,292. That's a deterioration of £225,563!!! The accounts also state that they have fixed assets of only £506, they had a bank overdraft of £210,707 and that they owed £165,513 to HMRC for VAT. They also have £40,000 in outstanding bank loans.
It also appears that they have done these accounts themselves, because no accountancy firm is named on the documents filed at Companies House. A company in this financial situation should not be trading without some sort of statement as to its continued long term viability from an external accountant.
Their latest communication to me stated that they were "going to apply for a CCJ". Of course, I know that they can't do that without issuing a claim, which must be preceeded by a pre-action protocol letter. What they sent me can't in any way meet the criteria of such a letter. So I intend to continue to ignore everything I get from this company because at some point in the next 12 months they are likely to go out of business unless they undergo a drastic turnaround in trading or the shareholders inject a serious amount of funds.
This debt collector looks to be in deeper sh*t that the people it will be pursuing for unpaid debts!
Regardless of that I have continued to receive monthly text messages and emails chasing up the money which state Igloo Energy (In Administration). This is something of an unfortunate error considering that it is now in Liquidation. In the last two weeks I have received the same text message as before stating "In Administration" but I also got an email telling me that they had now purchased the debt, so I now owe the money to them. However, there has definitely been no notice of assignment from the Liquidator acting for Igloo.
So I did a little bit of research into Barratt Smith Brown themselves. On their website they claim to have 25 years of experience in debt management, which is quite an achievement for a company that was only incorporated in November 2016. Their latest set of accounts at Companies House show that they have the grand total of £1.00 of fully paid up share capital on their balance sheet and that they are in negative equity to the sum of £393,855, which is a deterioration in their position from the previous year when they were in negative equity to the sum of £168,292. That's a deterioration of £225,563!!! The accounts also state that they have fixed assets of only £506, they had a bank overdraft of £210,707 and that they owed £165,513 to HMRC for VAT. They also have £40,000 in outstanding bank loans.
It also appears that they have done these accounts themselves, because no accountancy firm is named on the documents filed at Companies House. A company in this financial situation should not be trading without some sort of statement as to its continued long term viability from an external accountant.
Their latest communication to me stated that they were "going to apply for a CCJ". Of course, I know that they can't do that without issuing a claim, which must be preceeded by a pre-action protocol letter. What they sent me can't in any way meet the criteria of such a letter. So I intend to continue to ignore everything I get from this company because at some point in the next 12 months they are likely to go out of business unless they undergo a drastic turnaround in trading or the shareholders inject a serious amount of funds.
This debt collector looks to be in deeper sh*t that the people it will be pursuing for unpaid debts!
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