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    • Just to clear it up, sorry I don't make sense sometimes. I have paid £4000 £1200 of that was suppose to clear the £1200 debt.   Meaning I have sent a extra £2800 on top of my normal mainternance money.   Thank you
    • Try CPR 31.15 Possibly but a party is not compelled to disclose any documents pre allocation
    • Hi, I shown my key worker a letter that was sent to me saying that I owe £1200, she setup a standing order around 2021, this was to pay back money I owed, with my mental health status I have had complex issues to deal with and I just simply forgot about this standing order so it has been running for about 3.5 years acording to my key worker, anyway I'm not worried about the money that was sent that I call a overpayment, it went towards supporting my child's household so I am just happy with that, I am a little sad that I am being told I still owe this £1200, I have sent bank statements over 3 years worth but they have not taken away this £1200 bill and still say I owe it   Thank you
    • She did try contacting EON in the early days of the debt but they refused to speak to her because she could not pass the security checks. She didn't know the answers on an account she hadn't opened?   I also saw this article recently which could be what has happended here: Debt collection agencies in the UK are using fair means or foul to link people to an address where an unpaid debt has been run up, sometimes years after they have moved out The Guardian Anna Tims Mon 22 Apr 2024 The letter from the debt collection agency arrived out of the blue, and it was intimidating. It informed Joshua Simpson* that he owed £2,212 to Octopus Energy, and accused him of ignoring previous requests to settle the bill. If he did not stump up within 14 days, he was told, further action would be taken to recover the money. Simpson checked his Octopus account – it was in credit. Then he noticed the address where the debt had been accrued between 2022 and 2023. It was his childhood home – which his family had sold 18 years previously. "Since I was only 16 when we left the property, I was astonished that they'd linked my name [to it]," he says. "The debt collection agency insisted I provide a tenancy agreement to prove how long I've lived at my current address. I couldn't, since we bought our home. "They are now actively pursuing me for this debt, causing me a huge amount of stress. We are about to remortgage, and if this debt prevents us switching to a better deal, we will face real financial hardship." Simpson had been sucked into the shadowy world of "identity tracing", whereby investigators recruited by creditors seek to locate individuals who have moved home without paying their bills. It is an unregulated sector where anyone can set up as an agent in a back room without a licence, or scrutiny, and use fair means or foul to identify debtors. Reputable companies join a trade association that operates a code of practice, but membership is not mandatory, and mistakes are common. Last year, a teenage boy was chased for a debt of more than £900 by debt collectors acting for the energy company Ovo. A "trace agent" had somehow linked him to the debt because his parents had previously rented the property in question. An investigation by the Observer established that the debt had been run up by a subsequent tenant. The consequences of mistaken identity can be catastrophic. Individuals who are erroneously linked to a debt face, at worst, court action, bailiffs and a ruined credit rating. At best, they can endure weeks of stress and paperwork in order to prove they are not the debtor. It is estimated that 20m identity traces are made in the UK every year, many on behalf of companies that are owed money. Personal data is often obtained from credit reference agencies, which record applications for credit, and details are supposed to be verified with several different sources before being used for debt enforcement. In practice, however, this does not always happen. Simpson's details had been passed along a chain of intermediaries before the demand was issued. Octopus had given the unpaid account to a debt collection agent, which had contracted a tracing service, GBG, to find the debtor................ Full Article: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/oct/04/a-cry-for-help-energy-providers-play-the-villain-in-dramas-to-chill-the-blood ..............The Financial Ombudsman Service, which investigates complaints about financial firms, states that debt collection agents have to produce convincing evidence to link an individual to a debt, rather than rely on names, addresses and birth dates. According to the trade association, the Institute of Professional Investigators, an unknown number of investigators and trace agents are operating below the radar. Many more are merely inept, as data protection compliance training is not mandatory. "We have been campaigning for many, many years to try to get all private investigators regulated," says secretary general Glyn Evans.
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Bathroom disaster


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Without going into the full scale of the problem my daughter contracted a bathroom fitter to replace her tiny bathroom. Two weeks on, and two men the bathroom is only half completed and it is a right shambles..from the tiling, leaking toilet which is also coming off the wall, leaking sink which has flooded the new units and ruined them, and also the new flooring, damage to the shower profiles so that the shower cubicle will not fit...the plumbing is all wrong, plus exensive damage to areas of her property. There is a long extensive list of problems.

 

She asked him to stop work a week ago and has managed to get three quotes to re-do the work. Each new plumber has stated how appalling the work is and it all has to be started again, with the tiles taken off and taken back to the basic plumbing.

 

Meanwhile, he sent her an invoice - by hand on the Monday, and initiated court proceedings on the Wednesday two days later without any discussion regarding the remedial works.

 

Firstly, I understand that a business cannot issue proceeding against an individual until they have followed the new Pre Action Protocol (PAP) which came into being on the 1st October 2017, which is quite a lengthy list and the first one is giving the debtor at least 30 days to discuss the debt.

 

Secondly, and a bit more importantly, he has started the action in his personal christian name and not the name of his business. She had a contract with his business, not him personally...surely this is wrong and would fail in court?

 

She is trying to get an appointment with a Solicitor who deals in civil matters but it is proving difficult .

 

If anyone could enlighten her on the two question/issues I have posed, that would be most helpful. Thanks

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She won't need a solicitor. She can do it herself. She's worried about it all then she should have a look at how making a familiarisation visit guide.

 

Please will you post up the claim form here in PDF format.

 

She should start making a detailed note of everything that has happened.

 

Make a detailed statement about how the work was commissioned in what was agreed.

 

Make a detailed statement of how the work was conducted including dates and times of attendance by the plumbers.

 

Make a detailed statement about everything that has gone wrong and the condition of the bathroom now. Lots of photographs.

 

Get written opinions/quotations from the people who have already seen it and have said how bad it is. Ask those people if they would be prepared to give evidence in court. You may need to pay them a fee for this but assuming that you win, the fee will be paid by the losing side.

 

It doesn't matter what name the guy is suing in. It's just a technicality so don't get hung up about it. He certainly should have followed the pre-action protocol and doesn't appear to have done so. This is not fatal but it is worth referring to in your defence.

 

Start making statements that I have suggested and also post up the claim.

 

Don't get involved in any phone calls but if you do then make sure that you have read our customer services guide first and implemented the advice there.

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Thanks. Everything you have listed that she should do, she has already done, Photos, quotes, invoices for new tiles and other materials.

 

She has done the statement etc., of which he has a copy.

 

She has not been able to live at home for the past several weeks now as the contract was for him to do both the kitchen and bathroom. He ripped out the kitchen along with the bathroom so she has no living facilities. Just a washing up bowl and cold water from outside tap, and takeaway meals.

 

Her company has paid for accommodation to get her away at the weekend as she is so distressed as the builder/plumber/Mr cowboy has been threatening her and she is afraid to go home. Her company is willing to pay for the solicitor if she can manage to get one. I spoke to the police and they asked her to call them if he contacts her in a threatening matter again.

 

I have also had abusive text messages from him when I asked him to leave her alone. The police said to save all messages which we both have done.

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Please post up the claim form in PDF format.

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If you simply want to go to a solicitor then you should find one and you won't need any help from us

 

In fact you might end up getting conflicting help and that will simply cause problems

 

If you want help from us then you will have to post up the claim form so that we can help you for a reply

 

If you go to a solicitor then they will also want to see the claim form

 

Do you think you are likely to ask the solicitor why they would want to see it?

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If you simply want to go to a solicitor then you should find one and you won't need any help from us

 

In fact you might end up getting conflicting help and that will simply cause problems

 

If you want help from us then you will have to post up the claim form so that we can help you for a reply

 

If you go to a solicitor then they will also want to see the claim form

 

Do you think you are likely to ask the solicitor why they would want to see it?

 

I do appreciate your advice and I did explain that I don't personally at this time have the claim form. I further explained that I have no scanner so if I did have the claim form I would simply be unable to scan and post it - hence I asked why you needed to see the actual claim form. In other words, is there something I can describe from the claim form that would help with my query. I am not being difficult or unwilling to upload, simply cannot.

 

If my daughter goes to a solicitor then she would have no need to ask why he needed it, she can simply give it to him - different scenario as she would not need to scan and upload to a solicitor.

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If a solicitor is being paid for then she should go and use that advice

we are happy to help and advice is completely free but the people who come to us to at least need to have the basic equipment necessary to let us look at documents

Do let us know how it goes

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Momma, you can take photos of documents with a mobile phone and then convert them to pdf documents. Our upload guide has details.

 

 

HB

 

Hi Honeybee, I am sure that people with smart phones and the correct software could do this. I don't have that sort of phone.

 

Thanks for all the replies and help anyway. :-D

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