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I saw the thread:
https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...-before-action
and thought I should ask on here.
I signed up with Solarplicity with dual fuel. They had my initial meter reading off by (iirc) 1000 units for my electric. Eventually, I complained to the Ombudsman and they found in my favor. In short, they should credit me £105.
At some point, they stopped charging me for gas. I contacted them and they said my gas supply was not with them and they couldn't tell me who my account was with. Eventually, EDF were given my electric AND GAS account as they took over a lot of the accounts. I moved away from them to a far chapear tarrif and shortly after I started receiving emails from Barratt Smith & Brown asking me to pay 298.18.
Eventually the offers became lower and lower. It reached under £200 and I offered £0.01 without prejudice as I didn't and still don't believe I owe anything and despite me asking, they haven't done any checks or provided any bills.
In october last year, they emailed threatening to pass it to their "legal partners" and I replied with:
"As per my previous communications, the balance has been disputed with solarplicity and yourselves.
I have had replies from your staff so "due to us receiving no communication from you despite our tireless attempts" is utter tosh.
When you are willing to be serious about this, let me know otherwise file the court paperwork."
(don't judge, I was fed up of these people)
They replied with
"Afternoon,
Apologies, I can't see any notes on the system regarding a dispute.
Are you able to tell me what the dispute is?"
I replied
"The meter readings were not correct from what I provided and therefore the bills were not correct.
The ombudsman investigation ordered solarplicity to correct this but they did not."
About 5 months later, I have another email chasing me for £90, the lowest offer so far.
I advised that I'll offer £3 to settle and they replied that they spoke to the other colleague that I spoke to last year that I was disputing the closing readings... it was both the opening and closing. (I don't have to hand right now what they were - but I can get them if needed).
I provided the ombudsman decision and they said "Looking at the ombudsman report it states you are owed a credit of £105. We have reduced your balance by £208, we feel the settlement offer is fair and therefore payable."
I jokingly replied "Take the £105 off the £90 offer received yesterday and you owe me £15"
A bit of back and forth and they said they won't pay me £15....
They wrote to me again retracting the offer demanding full payment advising:
"Despite our previous communications and settlement offers the above account remains outstanding. We have now taken the decision to withdraw the offer and are demanding full payment with immediate effect.
This demand provides you with a last opportunity to pay the above balance and charges before your account is passed to our third-party collection’s partners."
This never amounted to anything
A few weeks ago, I received a letter before action with reference "Our ref: BSB_LBA_Final" not very unique...I sent a SAR and they replied with...well, nothing really. I've attached an image. No letters, no emails, just something they could have stuck together in Word imo.
They also said it's for Yorkshire Energy (they corrected this when questioned).
So, my questions are
1 - Should I follow the advice provided in Post 5 by DES8, which is:
"I would write back and tell them the debt is disputed and they should act in accordance with
the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Consumer Credit sourcebook which states the following.
"A firm must not ignore or disregard a customer's claim that a debt has been settled or is disputed and must not continue to make demands for payment without providing clear justification and/or evidence as to why the customer's claim is not valid." 7.5.3
"A firm must suspend any steps it takes or its agent takes in the recovery of a debt from a customer where the customer disputes the debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds." 7.14.1
"Where a customer disputes a debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds, the firm must investigate the dispute and provide details of the debt to the customer in a timely manner." 7.14.3
Add that they should stop collection activity as this matter was settled by the ombudsman in your favour in mm/yyyy ref no xxxxxxxx and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment is harassment.
Warn them that if they continue to demand payment you will complain to the FCA about their actions."
2 - I am confident that I don't owe money considering payments to them and the ombudsman giving £105 credit. I'm confident that should they make a court claim, I have all the information to prove I don't owe money / confident they don't have proof I do.
3 - Post 7 on that other thread states from the OP says: "They have come back and informed me that all Solaplicity debts are being passed back to the Administrators within the next 7 days."
4 - In reply to their letter before action, i said:
"As previously stated, I am unwilling to make any payment for this as there has been no investigation into the account.
The final balance was considerably lower and possibly non existent.
Please also note, you have failed to fulfil the SAR I requested.
Any court action will result in costs to yourself. I will seek to recover any expenses I may incur.
I make one final offer of payment without prejudice of £1. Should you not accept this, please proceed.
Many thanks,"
It implies that I dispute the debt but doesn't specifically say it. Should I? (I know, this is a copy of another question really...)
The comment about the SAR was correct at the time. I received it a couple of days later (see screenshot)
5 - Should I request a proper SAR/report them to the ICO?
6 - Not related to this but I was with Yorkshire Energy and they also went bust... My luck! Same firm were chasing me for £60ish. I told them my meter reading was (as stated on my new provider's opening reading) vs what YE claimed it was (estimated by them somehow...) and asked them to pay up. They referred me to Scottish Power.
To me, they don't really seem to have a clue about accounts given to them and just chase money aimlessly.
https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...-before-action
and thought I should ask on here.
I signed up with Solarplicity with dual fuel. They had my initial meter reading off by (iirc) 1000 units for my electric. Eventually, I complained to the Ombudsman and they found in my favor. In short, they should credit me £105.
At some point, they stopped charging me for gas. I contacted them and they said my gas supply was not with them and they couldn't tell me who my account was with. Eventually, EDF were given my electric AND GAS account as they took over a lot of the accounts. I moved away from them to a far chapear tarrif and shortly after I started receiving emails from Barratt Smith & Brown asking me to pay 298.18.
Eventually the offers became lower and lower. It reached under £200 and I offered £0.01 without prejudice as I didn't and still don't believe I owe anything and despite me asking, they haven't done any checks or provided any bills.
In october last year, they emailed threatening to pass it to their "legal partners" and I replied with:
"As per my previous communications, the balance has been disputed with solarplicity and yourselves.
I have had replies from your staff so "due to us receiving no communication from you despite our tireless attempts" is utter tosh.
When you are willing to be serious about this, let me know otherwise file the court paperwork."
(don't judge, I was fed up of these people)
They replied with
"Afternoon,
Apologies, I can't see any notes on the system regarding a dispute.
Are you able to tell me what the dispute is?"
I replied
"The meter readings were not correct from what I provided and therefore the bills were not correct.
The ombudsman investigation ordered solarplicity to correct this but they did not."
About 5 months later, I have another email chasing me for £90, the lowest offer so far.
I advised that I'll offer £3 to settle and they replied that they spoke to the other colleague that I spoke to last year that I was disputing the closing readings... it was both the opening and closing. (I don't have to hand right now what they were - but I can get them if needed).
I provided the ombudsman decision and they said "Looking at the ombudsman report it states you are owed a credit of £105. We have reduced your balance by £208, we feel the settlement offer is fair and therefore payable."
I jokingly replied "Take the £105 off the £90 offer received yesterday and you owe me £15"
A bit of back and forth and they said they won't pay me £15....
They wrote to me again retracting the offer demanding full payment advising:
"Despite our previous communications and settlement offers the above account remains outstanding. We have now taken the decision to withdraw the offer and are demanding full payment with immediate effect.
This demand provides you with a last opportunity to pay the above balance and charges before your account is passed to our third-party collection’s partners."
This never amounted to anything
A few weeks ago, I received a letter before action with reference "Our ref: BSB_LBA_Final" not very unique...I sent a SAR and they replied with...well, nothing really. I've attached an image. No letters, no emails, just something they could have stuck together in Word imo.
They also said it's for Yorkshire Energy (they corrected this when questioned).
So, my questions are
1 - Should I follow the advice provided in Post 5 by DES8, which is:
"I would write back and tell them the debt is disputed and they should act in accordance with
the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Consumer Credit sourcebook which states the following.
"A firm must not ignore or disregard a customer's claim that a debt has been settled or is disputed and must not continue to make demands for payment without providing clear justification and/or evidence as to why the customer's claim is not valid." 7.5.3
"A firm must suspend any steps it takes or its agent takes in the recovery of a debt from a customer where the customer disputes the debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds." 7.14.1
"Where a customer disputes a debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds, the firm must investigate the dispute and provide details of the debt to the customer in a timely manner." 7.14.3
Add that they should stop collection activity as this matter was settled by the ombudsman in your favour in mm/yyyy ref no xxxxxxxx and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment is harassment.
Warn them that if they continue to demand payment you will complain to the FCA about their actions."
2 - I am confident that I don't owe money considering payments to them and the ombudsman giving £105 credit. I'm confident that should they make a court claim, I have all the information to prove I don't owe money / confident they don't have proof I do.
3 - Post 7 on that other thread states from the OP says: "They have come back and informed me that all Solaplicity debts are being passed back to the Administrators within the next 7 days."
4 - In reply to their letter before action, i said:
"As previously stated, I am unwilling to make any payment for this as there has been no investigation into the account.
The final balance was considerably lower and possibly non existent.
Please also note, you have failed to fulfil the SAR I requested.
Any court action will result in costs to yourself. I will seek to recover any expenses I may incur.
I make one final offer of payment without prejudice of £1. Should you not accept this, please proceed.
Many thanks,"
It implies that I dispute the debt but doesn't specifically say it. Should I? (I know, this is a copy of another question really...)
The comment about the SAR was correct at the time. I received it a couple of days later (see screenshot)
5 - Should I request a proper SAR/report them to the ICO?
6 - Not related to this but I was with Yorkshire Energy and they also went bust... My luck! Same firm were chasing me for £60ish. I told them my meter reading was (as stated on my new provider's opening reading) vs what YE claimed it was (estimated by them somehow...) and asked them to pay up. They referred me to Scottish Power.
To me, they don't really seem to have a clue about accounts given to them and just chase money aimlessly.
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