Discovered CCJ had been slapped on me.

milkloss · Sep 27, 2018

I’ve got an issue that I might need professional advice on but I thought I’d try the TFF knowledge base first.

The old man passed away three years ago with a decent lump of a leccy bill: three and a half grand. I think this was due to the meter readings somehow.

Anyhow the electric company pulled a ccj on me this time last year over this debt as I had spoken to them about the bill issue around three or four months after his death. I have only just discovered that it existed and was on my file. It gets rather complicated becasuse brother was supposedly helping out with all the administrative tasks associated with the old mans passing etc etc but I ended up coming to an agreement with eon (not knowing about the ccj) to pay over time in my name and with a new leccy account in my name. Start a fresh so to speak as I was now living in the house.

I now find out about the ccj and when I first contacted them this week about it I discover they had the address wrong and it was the old electric account number. The postie should have delivered it nonetheless but it was wrong enough to cause confusion as the house name was very much misspelt. The house was empty with building work occurring during this time too. The details in the ccj seem to be correct from what I can gather but the electric firm had the wrong address although I am struggling to confirm this in any useful format for an appeal.

Obviously I would like it removed from file but a satisfied against it would be better than nothing. I’m not really prepared to have a satisfied ccj but this is quite a serious matter for me as my credit rating has been top notch all my life. Yes, cash comes in fits and spurts but I would pull everything together to avoid this sort of action.

I’m unsure how to tackle this as the ccj seems correct but the electric firm had the address wrong. The debt had been relocated to a different account within the electric company. There is a chance the ccj correspondence went to the house but considering it had its roof off and was half demolished for rebuilding for many months I’m not sure any mail would have been passed to anyone that could deal with it. No bailiffs or collection officers turned up at anytime that I’m am aware of.

Sorry I haven’t proof read this particularly well but this is worrying me a fair bit.

Help appreciated.

farmerm · Sep 27, 2018

Firstly I would be amazed the electric bill could be £3.5k for a domestic property unless the old chap had a lot of plants growing in the loft..! If the Meter was faulty it must have been faulty for a long time and EOn should have changed the meter sooner. Secondly I don’t know but surely EOn should have claimed the debt against your old mans estate not by transferring it to you?

Sounds like a nightmare. Good luck

renewablejohn · Sep 27, 2018

Go back to the court who issued the CCJ as by the sound of it the debt has nothing to do with you and should have come out of your fathers estate. If no estate then utility would be forced to write off the debt. Have a word with debtline they should point you in the right direction.

milkloss · Sep 27, 2018

farmerm said:
Firstly I would be amazed the electric bill could be £3.5k for a domestic property unless the old chap had a lot of plants growing in the loft..! If the Meter was faulty it must have been faulty for a long time and EOn should have changed the meter sooner. Secondly I don’t know but surely EOn should have claimed the debt against your old mans estate not by transferring it to you?

Sounds like a nightmare. Good luck

Thanks, size of the bill is something I’m working on. I have had serious issues with the farm meter readings in the past and ended up with a 48k bill which took a lot of getting in top of! I have a feeling the wrong reading was given over a period of time or some such issue (missed digit). Not denying it’s owed......... or was as that account now has zero balance but still a CCJ in my fking name. It should have been against his estate but I reckon it got limped on me when I said I was dealing with it.

Dry Rot · Sep 27, 2018

I suppose it is a genuine ccj? Don't these things have to be signed for before they get as far as court? I'd be asking them for proof.

Proof that the electricity had actually been used and proof that the demands had been sent/received, and also proof that notices of court action were sent out. Someone must have signed for them.

This is a known scam. British Gas tried it on me. They didn't get far!

renewablejohn · Sep 27, 2018

milkloss said:
Thanks, size of the bill is something I’m working on. I have had serious issues with the farm meter readings in the past and ended up with a 48k bill which took a lot of getting in top of! I have a feeling the wrong reading was given over a period of time or some such issue (missed digit). Not denying it’s owed......... or was as that account now has zero balance but still a CCJ in my fking name. It should have been against his estate but I reckon it got limped on me when I said I was dealing with it.

The original court which put the CCJ on is the one which needs to reverse it and there not normally very happy with utility companies abusing there power and misdirecting the court. As I said speak to debtline as this is typical utility practice where they try and assign the debt into the current family rather than persue the deceased estate.

milkloss · Sep 27, 2018

Slowly gathering info. Turns out it’s to do with electric used between 2013 and mid 2016 but they cannot pinpoint usage by readings as they are all estimates part from the final which involved a 700 quid reduction. If the old boy passed at end 2015 I can’t see it was my debt.

They have marked the CCJ as satisfied, should I be happy with that or go for removal entirely? I could do without the hassle but if it’s going to affect my credit then I will chase it down

clemmo · Sep 27, 2018

Personally I would go for removal completely could seriously hinder any future credit applications why should something be on your file that was nothing to do with you?

David. · Sep 27, 2018

Scottish Power?
They are anuses of the first order.

renewablejohn · Sep 27, 2018

milkloss said:
Slowly gathering info. Turns out it’s to do with electric used between 2013 and mid 2016 but they cannot pinpoint usage by readings as they are all estimates part from the final which involved a 700 quid reduction. If the old boy passed at end 2015 I can’t see it was my debt.

They have marked the CCJ as satisfied, should I be happy with that or go for removal entirely? I could do without the hassle but if it’s going to affect my credit then I will chase it down

Who the hell do they think they are giving false details to a court. Go for complete removal and nominal 500 pound compensation for illegal CCJ being filed on your credit report. Would still advise getting in contact with the court as something has seriously gone wrong with the system if the first you have heard about it is by checking your credit report.

milkloss · Sep 27, 2018

Thanks for all advice everyone. I will try to get the CCJ removed but I wasn’t in a great place back then after the old boy died to be fair and had a lot to sort out that I wasn’t entirely on top of. The bank wasn’t happy so got the OD sorted, had a baby and the mrs wasn’t great as well as my own health issues etc etc. Now farm with no debts to speak of at all but in order to push forwards I will need finance at some point. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not accepting responsibility for this CCJ, sure the debt was a family issue but not mine personally. I’m just going to have to think a while to get enough facts down that will make a sensible argument and not sound like some bad payer trying to wriggle out of it.

Thanks again

spin cycle · Sep 27, 2018

you poor bugger.....best of luck getting sorted

livestock 1 · Sep 28, 2018

You need to contact the customer complaints dept. There’s something called back billing you will not need to pay all or any of it. Mention it to them tell them you are going for it or taking legal action. They have been fined millions for making up false bills.

Fallowfield · Sep 28, 2018

There must have been a court action against you for there to be a court judgement against you.

If there was a court action against you there must have been a summons served on you.

Did you receive a summons or any notification of a court action?

I suggest that in the first instance you phone the court that has issued the CCJ and find out the details of the court action it relates to.

Then speak to a solicitor or a Citizens Advice office.

honeyend · Sep 28, 2018

Who was your dads executor? I would hand it over to them. Any debts are paid out of his estate. Its not your debt.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=217
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5889404&page=3#topofpage

I would make a timeline, what happened and when and forward it to the Energy Ombudsman

milkloss · Sep 28, 2018

Fallowfield said:
There must have been a court action against you for there to be a court judgement against you.

If there was a court action against you there must have been a summons served on you.

Did you receive a summons or any notification of a court action?

I suggest that in the first instance you phone the court that has issued the CCJ and find out the details of the court action it relates to.

Then speak to a solicitor or a Citizens Advice office.

That’s what’s bothering me as there was never any correspondence or bailiffs etc turn up at the property. I’m sure any builders would have told me and it’s only a stones throw from the farm.

I will consult someone in the know and probably argue that the court order was made against the incorrect person. It’s frustrating as they orphaned the ccj when they changed the electric account into my name which effectively paid of the debt in the old account and it’s seems I paid that debt in the new account which wasn’t linked to the ccj in anyway.
Whether it was crafty tactics or what I don’t know but I have personally paid my fathers debt completely unaware there was a ccj lurking in the background so I do look guilty in that respect.

JCMaloney · Sep 28, 2018

The claim, and judgement, would be against your fathers estate. Not the person administrating it or its beneficiaries.
As advised go back to the original court papers and that is where the solution will be.

glasshouse · Sep 28, 2018

milkloss said:
I’ve got an issue that I might need professional advice on but I thought I’d try the TFF knowledge base first.

The old man passed away three years ago with a decent lump of a leccy bill: three and a half grand. I think this was due to the meter readings somehow.

Anyhow the electric company pulled a ccj on me this time last year over this debt as I had spoken to them about the bill issue around three or four months after his death. I have only just discovered that it existed and was on my file. It gets rather complicated becasuse brother was supposedly helping out with all the administrative tasks associated with the old mans passing etc etc but I ended up coming to an agreement with eon (not knowing about the ccj) to pay over time in my name and with a new leccy account in my name. Start a fresh so to speak as I was now living in the house.

I now find out about the ccj and when I first contacted them this week about it I discover they had the address wrong and it was the old electric account number. The postie should have delivered it nonetheless but it was wrong enough to cause confusion as the house name was very much misspelt. The house was empty with building work occurring during this time too. The details in the ccj seem to be correct from what I can gather but the electric firm had the wrong address although I am struggling to confirm this in any useful format for an appeal.

Obviously I would like it removed from file but a satisfied against it would be better than nothing. I’m not really prepared to have a satisfied ccj but this is quite a serious matter for me as my credit rating has been top notch all my life. Yes, cash comes in fits and spurts but I would pull everything together to avoid this sort of action.

I’m unsure how to tackle this as the ccj seems correct but the electric firm had the address wrong. The debt had been relocated to a different account within the electric company. There is a chance the ccj correspondence went to the house but considering it had its roof off and was half demolished for rebuilding for many months I’m not sure any mail would have been passed to anyone that could deal with it. No bailiffs or collection officers turned up at anytime that I’m am aware of.

Sorry I haven’t proof read this particularly well but this is worrying me a fair bit.

Help appreciated.

tell them to f off

pipkins · Nov 8, 2018

They can't bill for energy used more than 12 months ago...if you Google "backbilling" you'll be able to see if they've broken the rules.

I've just got rid of npower who were chasing me for electricity from 5 years ago, I was able to prove I let them know that I was residing in the property and that they failed to provide correct bills. Threatened them with the ombudsman (but only because I knew I was cast iron correct) and they have dropped it entirely. It took me two emails and a photo of some correspondence to get them to back off so well worth a look.

milkloss · Apr 12, 2019

So I’ve had a chance to do an official information request from them (eon) and it turns out they at one point had the wrong address, only a line wrong but enough for a pedantic argument. They also had estimated bills from long before Fathers death and then transferred this estimated debt to me after his death which included a years estimated bills whilst was in the property.

Anyhow, I won’t type too much more about the circumstances because, without having sat down and properly digested the facts, I might confuse myself!! It’s quite easily done when typing/writing something down as it imprints in the memory even if false...

Looks like I have enough info to get this ccj (albeit satisfied) removed from my file but how to go about it? I know I have to file with the court and pay a charge (few hundred quid but worth it I guess) but do I have to represent myself in person (not keen) or get a solicitor local to the court, Northampton I think, to do it for me (again, worth the money I expect)?

Advice appreciated.

Discovered CCJ had been slapped on me.

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