Scottish Power letter ref warrant

Dipply75 · 22nd July 2008, 16:07

Hi all

A friend has £300 o/s with Scottish Power. She last paid towards her bill in January but has had problems. The last bill dated 10/03/2008 totalled £209.80.

She received a letter dated 10/07/2008 stating that they visited on the 2nd June to hand deliver a letter notifiying intention to apply for a right of entry warrant if full payment was not made.

It then says 'if you do not pay now, the application for the warrant will take place on 4th August 2008. If you want to attend the warrant hearing, you must notify us in writing within 14 days of the date of this letter. If you do not write, we will assume you do not want to attend the hearing and we will apply for the warrant in your absence.'

Now, she will speak to them and try and make a payment arrangement etc but my question is, can they demand that she must tell them if she intends to go to the hearing withing a time limit or they will not tell her where etc and just go ahead?

I thought they would have to give her the details anyway. Is this just to see if she intends to go and frighten her into quick payment?

Can anyone advise please?

ATD · 22nd July 2008, 16:33

They are obliged to tell you when and WHERE the magistrates hearing will be. I've not come across it being done like this, but I don't think it would make it illegal. See Energywatch FAQ's - search the word "warrant" then look at the post "What steps must a supplier take..."

From past experience of the BG field reps - if a customer turned up at court the rep would automatically pull the warrant application, as the Magistrates would be 99.9% unlikely to grant it - they don't seem to like big companies

I'd ring and ask to be advised of the name of the court and time of hearing...I would suspect more flexible payment options may just be made available at that point - just a guess mind you.

Dipply75 · 22nd July 2008, 16:43

Hello again ATD

and thank you again. Just the info I was looking for. Will get a letter sent to them asap anyway, play by their rules for the sake of her coming complaint etc but with this we can now phone them with some understanding of her rights etc. Guesswork understood.

Hopefully I can help you at some point!

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