Can any Southwest Water customer legally be issued a debt demand and then be taken straight to Court for a CCJ with no defence ?

Southwest Water debt letters and their CCJs again, they seem to be the bane of people's lives.

Hi, to save starting a new thread I'll use this for Southwest Water "debt",

which looks to be a Southwest Water Christmas [problem] .

An elderly member of my family lives in a retirement complex,

and received a demand for a Southwest Water debt,

with a County Court claim (leading to a CCJ) just before Christmas 2017 (dirty trick really, there was no time to defend it).

She's usually very good but she's somehow upset these 'people'.

It seems she received a Southwest Water demand letter for over £200 which apparently was for the year.

I know she's always paid her bill at the Post Office,

so the SWW demand and the resultant CCJ are a mystery.

Today the Court letter came and she's now got a CCJ for six years;

obviously she admitted the "debt" either to save herself trouble or out of some sense of duty.

The same trick was played on a neighbour last year, just before Christmas.

My conclusion is to beware.

Hello and welcome to CAG.

I'm afraid that tagging on to someone else's 2013 thread probably isn't going to help. Please start a new thread of your own.

Best, HB

[Posts now moved to existing thread - DX]

Hi and good evening

Question, if I may:

can any Southwest Water customer legally be issued a debt demand, and then be taken straight to Court for a CCJ with no defence ?

Southwest Water debt letters and their CCJs again,

they seem to be the bane of people's lives.

I was advised that this website may be helpful,

so here goes...

I have what appears to be a Southwest Water Christmas job.

An elderly member of my family lives in a retirement complex,

and received a demand for a Southwest Water "debt" (>£200).

They also issued a county court claim (leading to a CCJ) just before Christmas 2017

(dirty trick really, there was no time to defend it within the fortnight).

She's usually very good but she's somehow upset these 'people'.

I know she's always paid her bill at the Post Office, so the SWW demand and the resultant CCJ are a mystery.

I'd call it a damn cheek.

If she'd been defaulting on a large sum for a long time, I would sort of understand it, but I'd expect South-west water to be regulated in these things.

Today the Court letter came and she's now got a CCJ for six years;

obviously she "admitted" the "debt" without telling us,

either to save herself trouble or out of some sense of duty.

The same thing happened to a neighbour just before Christmas last year.

My conclusion is to beware, and I'd be interested to hear if South-west Water broke any rules in this case or others.

I accept that the CCJ can't be undone now.

Many thanks.

why cant it?

what address did they sent the claimform too?

she had 33 days not 14...

Thanks for your reply @dx100uk.

Apparently the claim was sent direct to her and had to be answered within 14-16 days

(clearly stating "you only have a short time to answer this letter").

The Court letter arrived shortly before Christmas 2017 and the holidays.

Naturally she was frightened and just wanted it to go away;

she didn't even think of going to the CAB.

She's also paid the first instalment this evening.

If the CCJ could be set aside or SWW did not follow rules (for a defence before Court),

I'd be interested to know.

However I'm thinking that SWW have won here.

Regards.

have you checked the bill is correct?

she had 19 days from the date on the claimform to ack it

then shed get a total of 33 days to file a defence

so looks like she missed the 19days?

What date was on the claim form ?

have you checked the bill is correct?

she had 19 days from the date on the claimform to ack it

then shed get a total of 33 days to file a defence

so looks like she missed the 19days?

Thankyou for replying.

Goodness, I can't state the date here and now, and I don't live with her, I'm sorry.

Difficult to check her bill and she pays weekly,

I will be sorting through her bills and receipts.

As I said before: she did not miss the 19 days ; she completed the claim form and returned it within the 14-16 days stipulated on the form.

Remember she is elderly, and like some people she isn't up to speed with these things.

She would need advice and support like most vulnerable people.

Whichever way it's cut, Southwest Water tactics here are pretty shocking and morally questionable.

I'm alleging that Southwest Water have sent these Court letters just before Christmas, with scare tactics.

They've done this to others I know personally,

and in my experience over many years they've usually been unhelpful and inflexible.

Quick to go to Court too.

I might ring a lawyer but as I've said,

SWW seems to have won here with their cut and dried blanket policy.

In future she will better off paying in advance,

I will keep her receipt and and hopefully she'll escape SWW methods and penalties.

Thanks for your replies in any case.

you are making to many assumptions and the things you are intimating are not correct .

so if she completed the claimform

which you have not said she did till now

what did she put down?

she must have admitted the debt to now have a CCJ with a payment order in return?

Blaming it to a sneaky SWW smacks of not understanding things properly

take the blinkers off please

there is no issue with claimform being issued 'at christmas'

theres no loss of time to respond, the courts are only closed for one day.

Thankyou.

I must assume you haven't read -

- and have no interest in-

- the question I posed at the beginning.

I also disagree with you.

Rather than engage in your partisan conversation and aggressive rudeness I'd sooner seek more qualified advice elsewhere.

Thankyou.

well answer the questions then.

you came here slagging off sww that they've pulled some trick to get a ccj as its the holidays.

theres no such trick..it makes no diff

so she sent back the form and admitted the debt ??

what date was the claimform?

did they abide by the new pre action protocol?

As I said before: she did not miss the 19 days ; she completed the claim form and returned it within the 14-16 days stipulated on the form.

WHERE: no you didn't..

to interested in slagging the system off

Thread temporally closed.

Regards

Andy