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This is going to be long. I apologise in advance.
In Feb 2015 we were turned down for a mortgage due to a default notice being registered on my husbands credit file from Sainsbury's Energy.
The history to this is that we left Sainsbury's energy in March 2014.
In August 2014 we received a debt letter from Wescott debt collection agency to say we owed £360 to Sainsbury's Energy. We called straight away and opened a dispute. We paid £120 even though we didn't need to at that time but wanted to look willing and that we were trying to swerve paying (if we did own it). Our dispute was that we never received any letters from Sainsbury's to say we owed this money and before we paid it in full we wanted proof of what owed.
A few days later we received a letter from Wescott confirming our dispute and told their investigation can take several weeks and for us to basically wait to hear from them. We still have this letter.
That was our last communication until we were turned down for a mortgage.
Following this we complained to Sainsbury's with no luck.
We then went to the ombudsmen and they sided with Sainsbury's as they are not allowed to take into account debt companies and couldn't take it in to consideration that we opened a dispute case. Which I find rather odd but never the less.
We have since requested all our info- SAR - from Sainsbury's and have received this, including all the recorded phone calls between them and us.
Having listened to the phone calls there's a few issues that have arose:
1. They have no record of our payment in August of £120 to Wescott OR the fact we opened a dispute. Wescott never communicated this to Sainsbury's energy.
2. They said they sent us a default notice on the 7th December. They then said they didn't and Wescott did and then they admit there was a fault their end and our default notice was never sent. This is all on their own recording they sent us.
That conversation was between two customer services agents at Sainsbury's and we've only just heard this information. They actually then lie to us and tell us that they never send default notices, even though they've just had a long conversation about our default being one that was never sent due to their computer error.
3. They told us they sent us final bills in April and May and then a reminder in June. We didn't receive any of these. In fact, we never received any communication from them the whole time we were with them but never thought anything of it.
3. They asked if our bills were sent paperless and then said they didn't have an email address registered but in the written elements of the SAR they say they did have this (because we gave them one when we opened the complaint but they make out they always had it, even though the phone calls proves this isn't true). This is important as it could show the bills were never sent.
Our question is. Is there anyway we could possibly get this default removed? We feel procedures were not followed correctly. We are aware it's not a legal obligation for energy suppliers to send a default notices and therefore we can fight this as a reason for removal. We feel miscommunication between Sainsbury's and Wescott have caused this default to be registered. We were in dispute and told not to do anything until we heard back from them and we didn't. Silly really in hindsight.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
In Feb 2015 we were turned down for a mortgage due to a default notice being registered on my husbands credit file from Sainsbury's Energy.
The history to this is that we left Sainsbury's energy in March 2014.
In August 2014 we received a debt letter from Wescott debt collection agency to say we owed £360 to Sainsbury's Energy. We called straight away and opened a dispute. We paid £120 even though we didn't need to at that time but wanted to look willing and that we were trying to swerve paying (if we did own it). Our dispute was that we never received any letters from Sainsbury's to say we owed this money and before we paid it in full we wanted proof of what owed.
A few days later we received a letter from Wescott confirming our dispute and told their investigation can take several weeks and for us to basically wait to hear from them. We still have this letter.
That was our last communication until we were turned down for a mortgage.
Following this we complained to Sainsbury's with no luck.
We then went to the ombudsmen and they sided with Sainsbury's as they are not allowed to take into account debt companies and couldn't take it in to consideration that we opened a dispute case. Which I find rather odd but never the less.
We have since requested all our info- SAR - from Sainsbury's and have received this, including all the recorded phone calls between them and us.
Having listened to the phone calls there's a few issues that have arose:
1. They have no record of our payment in August of £120 to Wescott OR the fact we opened a dispute. Wescott never communicated this to Sainsbury's energy.
2. They said they sent us a default notice on the 7th December. They then said they didn't and Wescott did and then they admit there was a fault their end and our default notice was never sent. This is all on their own recording they sent us.
That conversation was between two customer services agents at Sainsbury's and we've only just heard this information. They actually then lie to us and tell us that they never send default notices, even though they've just had a long conversation about our default being one that was never sent due to their computer error.
3. They told us they sent us final bills in April and May and then a reminder in June. We didn't receive any of these. In fact, we never received any communication from them the whole time we were with them but never thought anything of it.
3. They asked if our bills were sent paperless and then said they didn't have an email address registered but in the written elements of the SAR they say they did have this (because we gave them one when we opened the complaint but they make out they always had it, even though the phone calls proves this isn't true). This is important as it could show the bills were never sent.
Our question is. Is there anyway we could possibly get this default removed? We feel procedures were not followed correctly. We are aware it's not a legal obligation for energy suppliers to send a default notices and therefore we can fight this as a reason for removal. We feel miscommunication between Sainsbury's and Wescott have caused this default to be registered. We were in dispute and told not to do anything until we heard back from them and we didn't. Silly really in hindsight.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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