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Hi, I'm just looking for a little advice.
I've been contacted by the LCS debt management company for British Gas saying that I owe a sizeable amount. They don't seem to have my real name (they contacted be by my nickname but I would never sign up to anything official with that) or my current address (I gave a forwarding address while I was trying to sort a new place to live).
Technically there is a valid reason to do so, I went through hell trying to sort out the gas at this past address. The previous tenant had erroneously registered the flat with British gas business and run up bills of over £14000! My friends and I moved in, a group of young students, and were charged with changing over all accounts.
So we rang up British Gas to find out if there was an account at this address, the agency somehow didn't know, they're a large company with a lot of lettings nationally based far away. British Gas told us that there was no account because we were ringing up the domestic side, and the account was held with British Gas business, the two departments barely communicate. Myself and my friends, admittedly naively assumed that our gas usage was combined with our electricity and didn't think much of it. It was only when we starting receiving court summons for the missing £14000 that we realised.
The problem was that our tariff has been set being charged as a business, no one knew where this guy was, and it took a lot of time to transfer us over to the domestic side.
After easily 24 combined hours on the phone to British gas, both business and domestic I managed to get an account in our name, a direct debit, and proper rates. The best thing was when British gas told me the previous tenant was the guilty party and wrote off the debt for the interim period, telling me I wouldn't have to pay anything under the business account. Yet this is the period LCS is now chasing me for.
I just want to know the best thing moving forward, if I ignore them will there be ramifications. I realise it was a little too good to be true that they would wipe out the missing balance, but at the same time I'm not sure how they have come to this amount. I was going to contact British Gas, but the first thing I would have to do would be to give my new address/mob number/email so I hung up. Any advice would be really appreciated.
I've been contacted by the LCS debt management company for British Gas saying that I owe a sizeable amount. They don't seem to have my real name (they contacted be by my nickname but I would never sign up to anything official with that) or my current address (I gave a forwarding address while I was trying to sort a new place to live).
Technically there is a valid reason to do so, I went through hell trying to sort out the gas at this past address. The previous tenant had erroneously registered the flat with British gas business and run up bills of over £14000! My friends and I moved in, a group of young students, and were charged with changing over all accounts.
So we rang up British Gas to find out if there was an account at this address, the agency somehow didn't know, they're a large company with a lot of lettings nationally based far away. British Gas told us that there was no account because we were ringing up the domestic side, and the account was held with British Gas business, the two departments barely communicate. Myself and my friends, admittedly naively assumed that our gas usage was combined with our electricity and didn't think much of it. It was only when we starting receiving court summons for the missing £14000 that we realised.
The problem was that our tariff has been set being charged as a business, no one knew where this guy was, and it took a lot of time to transfer us over to the domestic side.
After easily 24 combined hours on the phone to British gas, both business and domestic I managed to get an account in our name, a direct debit, and proper rates. The best thing was when British gas told me the previous tenant was the guilty party and wrote off the debt for the interim period, telling me I wouldn't have to pay anything under the business account. Yet this is the period LCS is now chasing me for.
I just want to know the best thing moving forward, if I ignore them will there be ramifications. I realise it was a little too good to be true that they would wipe out the missing balance, but at the same time I'm not sure how they have come to this amount. I was going to contact British Gas, but the first thing I would have to do would be to give my new address/mob number/email so I hung up. Any advice would be really appreciated.
xx
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