Hi All, It has been ages since I posted on here after getting lots of help last year with a Powergen dispute which, with CAGs help, I thought I had resolved. It has sort of cropped up again and I was wondering if people think I should take this further with complaint or court action. Brief history.... DCA started chaising me for over a grand that Powergen claimed I owed from a shared rental property between 2002 & 2004. After requesting an SAR and going through it with a fine tooth comb it seemed that Powergen were unable to prove to me how they came to this figure. The only reference was right at the top of the SAR which was "balance brought forward" from before 2002. I said I wanted to know how they came to this figure, meter readings, meter tariffs etc or leave me alone. Pre-payment meters were fitted in 2002 anyway so all elec used from then on was paid for up front. There was also some confusion with the DCA at this point as they sent me a letter asking for £32 for the same account, which was much better than £1200 but I still refused to pay it as it just wasn't possible to prove what it was all about. Anyway, the same DCA wrote to me today, some 12 months after it had all gone quiet chasing the original £1200 for, get this, under payment on a pre-payment meter scheme between 2002 & 2004. Now it seems to me that they have just moved this debt forward to post 2002 and are now claiming it is for underpayment on a pre-payment meter so they can try and recover it when I already know through the SAR that they have no way to prove how they came to this figure and that it was indeed from before 2002 anyway. I spoke with the DCA on the phone and politely explained the situation, told him to look back at their records and I looked forward to seeing them in court if they wanted to take it any further. His exact words were... "erm, I know when to back pedal so I think we will just leave this as it is" He said that the only reason it had cropped up again was because a £10 payment had been made to the account in the last twelve months, which he assumed was the £10 SAR request fee which had got muddled up. I very much doubt the DCA will be back as he seemed to understand he didn't have a leg to stand on, however I am now wondering whether or not to take this further myslef. Powergen or the DCA have obviously changed the source of the debt to make it look like it is still valid. I have written proof in the form of the SAR that the debt is from before 2002 and they have since altered the details to make it look as though it is post 2002. I think I am holding their smoking gun but can't decide if or how I should now press the issue. On a seperate and unrelated issue the same DCA has also tried to chase my partner on behalf of Powergen for electricity used in her house before she even lived their. They obviously failed to find the previous tenant, found out who was living there currently and put HER name to the debt. Fortunatley the rental agency were able to provide details of the tenancy agreements and she proved it was not her problem, but there is another case of this DCA just making things up as they go along. I just hate the idea that if someone like my gran got themselves into this sort of situation they would be raiding the savings account to pay some bully DCA who were chasing money based on falsified details. Any suggestions on how to slake my vindictive thirst would be appreicated For those interested this DCA work out of a building called Leodis Court in Leeds and have a number of different names.

Sounds plausible but the DCA sent out the bill for £32 not powergen themselves. When I spoke to the DCA earlier she also said something really odd which peaked my interest. Something along the lines of a payment of £10 was made against the original which then left just £32.28. She seemed to be reading this out loud from a screen and then stopped herself and changed the subject before I could get to the bottom of what she was saying. Now I sent powergen a £10 cheque for the SAR and made it very clear what it was for and even rang them to check they had recieved it a few weeks ago. It seems as though something weird is going on in the background. It was about three weeks ago now that powergen confirmed on the phone they had my SAR request and would be sending out a confirmation of reciept. I still have not had anything through. If they do not conform to the SAR does that leave the debt unrecoverable?

Hi folks, In January I sent an SAR to powergen after getting a huge electricity bill for a property I lived at a few years ago. They were chasing me via LCA for £1200 or so. Today I got a letter from LCA stating that i needed to pay £32.28 for consumption of electricity at the same address and for the same time period as they were chasing for the £1200. The reference numbers were all the same so it was obviously the same account. I rang powergen presuming that my request for SAR had made them look at the account and the £32.28 was the new figure they had come to. But no, my account with them still stood at £1200 and the system just said it was being looked into by the meter department. I rang LCA and they said the account still stood at £1200 and could not give me an answer why they had sent me a demand for £32.28. They are going to get back to me. So what do I do now. I am tempted to send £32.28 with a copy of the demand back to them for full and final settlement, but then that would mean I am accepting liability for the debt, which I have not yet done as it was a shared house with loads of tenants which is why I wanted the SAR in the first place. I guess they have just made a mistake with the demand for £32.28 but where does that leave me? Also the SAR will be overdue in a couple of days so any advice on how to deal with non-compliance would be really appreciated.

Right then... I got through to the courts and they told me the CCJ was from the DVLA. I phoned the DVLA and they said that it was for failure to re-tax a car that I had not owned for a couple of years. It seems that the individual I sold it to had not sent in the transfer document as he promised he would. The weirdest thing is that they claim that I made a payment for the arears owed but failed to pay the actual fine and that is what the CCJ was for. Now I never made any sort of payment relating to that vehicle as i didn't even own it and did not know anything about the offence. I moved house at the same time as selling the vehicle so I guess the documents were being sent to my old address but then again I had been registered at my current address with the DVLA long before this went to court so don't understand why they would not have sent documents relating to me to the correct address. The lady at the DVLA said that even if I re-open the case I am likely to still be found at fault as I had not informed the DVLA of the change of ownership so I end up stuck with a CCJ because a mate of a mate failed to send in the original documents. Please help! Is this an SAR situation? If I can prove that I did not know anything about this and that the arears payment was not made by me do you think I have a case for getting it removed? Any advice would be really appreciated. Maybe I should re-post this in a more relevant area.

Hi Karen, I had exactly the same problem with Powergen a few years ago and in the end I went to the CAB and had them do a budget sheet with me. They contacted powergen on my behalf and arranged for a realistic weekly repayment (in my case they fitted a payment meter and added the agreed amount on each week, but try and avoid this if you can as it is a real pain). If you have not done so already do a budget sheet and have it with you when you call them. They have already agreed to the £111 so unless your circumstances have changed considerably there is no reason for them to not carry on with it. There have been some change in guidelines recently regarding how long they can go without taking a proper meter reading. PM if you want me to dig out the link, it might be relevant.

Too late I am afraid, I have already had a couple of nasty shocks come back to haunt me from my student days, but thanks for the warning anyway. It is the weird amount that is bothering me more than anything. £100 exactly sounds like a set fine or fee rather than just an unpaid bill. Is there anyway of contacting the Northampton court directly to pay the bill? I preume that it has to go through the solictor's who put the claim in which obviously I don't know. Can't decide wether to do the RTL search and see what it comes up with or just leave it and see if whoever put the claim in the first place cares enough to search for me, which would not be difficult. Either way I am stuck with it on my record for the next five years or so. Is there no law that says the person you are claiming against has to be aware of the claim in the first place? Grrr.

Hi, I have just done a credit check with Equifax and found a CCJ on there through Northampton CCBC dated March 2005. The CCJ is for exactly £100 which is a really odd amount and I have no idea who\what it is from. It is also registered at an address that I have not lived at for some years. Does anyone know if there is a way of finding out what the CCJ is for? There is a ref number on Equifax which starts with 5QVxxxxx. Any help would be appreciated as always!

Thanks very much. Just wanted some sort of confirmation before I sent it off and made a fool of myself!!

Hi, I have been trawling through the forums for ages and can't find the answer so was hoping somebody may be able to give me a quick response. Most of the refs to SAR in the forum are for banks. I need to get hold of all the transaction info between me and a utility company (Powergen). Do I just use the standard SAR template and alter it to fit or is there a different procedure? Help would be really appreciated.

Hi All, Had some really good help with a Powergen issue so thought I would try another one... I have been paying a company called Legal & Trade £150 per month for over a year now to pay off a debt to the student loans company. The £150 was not to pay off the full amount, just about a years worth of repayments when I did not defer. I recently rang them to make a payment to finish off the debt as I am consolidating and was told by the lady at Legal & Trade that I still owed over a thousand pounds when I presumed the debt to be just a couple of hundred. It would seem that the student loan company has been adding £100 per month extra onto the debt to pay off the rest of the loan amount. I must admit that I had thought a couple of time recently that I have not had a deferment form through for a long time and kept meaning to ring them but never got around to it. What I want to know is are Student Loans company allowed to just add on these amounts without making me aware of it? I have never seen any information from either them or legal and trade regarding these additional amounts and always just presumed I was paying off the months that I did not orignally defer. Any help would be appreciated.

Yep, I would certainly second that advice! I think the problem at that property was that the only hot water was from an electic storage heater that had to be turned on manually and because the bills did not seem over expensive we just kept it switched on too much. It wasn't until we got the meter fitted that we realised just how much money it was costing. Also student priorities tend to lay elsewhere when it comes to spending money! Ho-hum. If anybody has any advice on how to request the information from Powergen it would be appreciated. Is the SAR relevant in this case? (I must admit I don't really understand what the SAR actually is!) Cheers

Thanks getting back, this forum is great. I have just had a better look at the last demand from LCS and it actually says: "Regarding Electricity Consumption at 149 xxxxxxx between 06/11/2002 and 09/03/2004" which is only about 16 months. I think I moved in there late 2000\2001 so it may be that some of the underestimation is from before 06/11/2002 but for some reason they are using that as the start date for the money they are chasing. Clearly the problem here is I am dreadfully unorganised and have a really poor memory! I could do with getting Powergen to send me a really clear breakdown of how they come to that amount, what dates are involved and details of the other payments I made for the earlier bills. Is this something they are obliged to send me?

Hi, I was hoping someone would be able to offer some advice on the following matter... I lived in a student house between 2001 and 2004 and had all the bills in my name. I had a few different house mates over the period but always just kept control of the bills. In 2004 we had our meter read (for the first time since I had moved in) and got a massive bill from Powergen going back to 2002. We had been paying estimated charges for almost 3 years and they suddenly wanted to add over £2000 to our bill. I went to CAB at the time and they helped me out with a payment plan (we had a meter fitted which took £10 per week extra). At the time they said it was worth taking it further as there may be grounds to reduce the bill because they had failed to come and read the meter and grossly under estimated their earlier bills. For various reasons I didn't take it any further. I left the property in 2003 and I guess just thought I would walk away from the debt as it was all on meter and not my problem. Also I was somewhat annoyed that I ended up footing the bill myself when there had been various other housemates who were jointly liable. Before Christmas I recieved a couple of letters from LCS Civil Enforcement requesting payment of £1200 which I presume is what was left of the debt when I left the property 3 years ago. The last letter I recieved said if payment is not made soon it will be passed over to either Solicitors or a local rep who may call at your home to secure payment. I realise that because the bills were in my name I am probably liable for the debt but really can't afford that much at the moment as we have just had a baby and are already ending up £100 short each month. I was thinking it might be worth offering them a set amount, maybe half the debt, to settle it in one lump sum. Is this wise and would I be better off offering it to Powergen direclty or to LCS? I rang LCS to ask if they could send me a breakdown of the debt and they just gave me a number for Powergen. Any help would be appreciated.