environment agency

[essex man]

i had a letter at the weekend from the environment agency concerning an outstanding invoice - demanding payment within 15 days or would be passed to debt collection agency.
this i found confusing as pay their bills by direct debit and looking at computer could see no invoices for amount quoted, maybe bill has been lost in post and direct debit has fouled up somehow i think?
anyway... i ring up, after 15mins on hold, woman informs me that the letter has been generated automatically and concerns a bill i have not received yet!!!!
after gently expressing concern at my time being wasted, she agreed and said phones were jammed with similar calls but at least was keeping her in a job.
wondered if anyone has experienced similar or if anyone chases their customers for payment before they send the bill???!!!

 

[Princess Pooper]

We also pay our EA rent by DD. Then last autumn we got one of these letters re: unpaid rent from March and looking back we could see it had not gone out the bank and there was no invoice in my file(it's only a few hundred quid). We asked for an invoice and paid it. No idea what happened to our DD payment, we certainly didn't cancel it. Oct rent invoice arrived OK and we paid by cheque but no Mar invoice has arrived yet. Not had a reminder for a bill not yet due though! Seem pretty hopeless all round.

 

[matthew]

What do you have to PAY the Environment Agency for, if that isn't a rude question?
Except to keep off the farm, possibly.

 

[essex man]

Ho ho! yes would certainly pay for that!

Sadly they charge me irrigation license fees and drainage charges not to stay away, in fact it tends to mean the opposite

 

[Princess Pooper]

What do you have to PAY the Environment Agency for, if that isn't a rude question?
Except to keep off the farm, possibly.

We sold land to them when they created a flood storage scheme which meant it could be flooded up to 5m deep. We rent it back from them at a low rent - it's absolutely useless as grazing now as it is mainly deschampsia but it is worth a lot in BPS and HLS payments!