09 Hello All, I had to wait for the password for the USB stick but have now had a chance to review what they sent and the USB stick contains 11 folders as follows: 01 Account Data and Abbreviations key: A single sheet of my details and meter number and another sheet with a-z of the abbreviations used in their system. 02 Customer Account Records: A PDF of some 27 pages which is the printout of their Customer care system. 03 Customer Complaint Records: 2 documents, one is my complaint and the other is their interpretation of the complaint and its resolution. 04 Correspondence: shows 17 PDF letters from them and two communications from me to them (email and webchat) 05 Webchat Contacts: one document showing the single webchat I had with them. 06 Bills: 7 PDF bills 07 Account Reassessment & Marketing Consent Data: 6 PDF documents being screenshots of their system. 08 On-Line Customer Account Record: A single PDF being a screenshot of my usage of their On-line account management system.

We moved to Metrobank. good choice except for the lack of branches unless you are in London. If you need cash deposits you can do it via Post Offices using your Metrobank card and account.

Hi fkofilee Thanks for the comment. Had no thought of our legal action giving rise to the notice but it does of course make sense. I am not trying to hijack this post with my own story by the way but wanted to offer my experience to the OP and I am not seeking any advice about this on CAG, but if you think it worthwhile then maybe I should create my own thread. I think my experience does reveal a pattern that is that the account is likely to be restored after the 10 working days, and I think it is none the less a good idea to get another bank account going.

Thanks Bankfodder. I received a SAR pack once before from a bank and did exactly what you are suggesting so will do the same again. Will post back as soon as I have got it all straight

Hello First of all please tell your family member that they are a worthy human being. Also, it is not against the law, or immoral to have debts, or for money matters to get out of control. It should not be allowed to get in the way of the important task of enjoying life and the few days that we have here. Also (IMPORTANT), they should not let a bunch of crummy debt collection agencies who have no real power damage their well being or mental health. The real immorality is that the original lenders, for the most part, created money out of thin air on the hard disks of their computer systems and encouraged your family member to get more and more into debt. It is part of their business model. Another part of their business model is that they expect a proportion of those debts to fail and their back up plan is to sell those failing debts to a debt buyer/debt collection agency for a few pence in the pound and write off the rest against the tax they would otherwise pay. Having invented the money in the first place they have made a profit from the increasing interest and fees then got the full amount of the "loss" back, leaving your family member in misery. The good news is that even though it seems like a lot of money, for the most part, it will be possible to shed most of it. The most important debt is the CCJ as that potentially allows High Court Enforcement Officers (Bailiffs) to pursue the debt and that can cause problems to sensitive or vulnerable people. Be aware that a Debt Collector Company is not a Bailiff and has no power over your relative or anybody else. For example, if Bob lends some money to Bill who won't pay it back he can ask for Bill to pay it back by phone or letter. If he refuses then Bob can ask Jack to ask Bill to pay it back by phone or letter. If Bill refuses to pay Jack or even speak to him or write to him then there is nothing Jack can do. In this case, Bob is the bank, Jack is the Debt Collection Agency and Bill is your relative. The Debt Collection Companies however official or intimidating they may seem actually have exactly the same power and status as Jack, which is to say none. However, if the Bank (or Bob) goes to Court and gets a County Court Judgement(CCJ) then that can potentially be chased by a Bailiff and could cause a problem. With regard to the suggestion of Bankruptcy, I think you do not need to go near it. Why would you pay out your good money to make yourself bankrupt? If any of the creditors want to take that action let them spend the many hundreds of pounds it will take and then share the pittance of your relative's resources with all the other creditors. They will talk of bankruptcy but never do it, don't do it for them! What you now need is an Action Plan so I suggest the following as a starting point: 1. Make sure your relative does not destroy any more correspondence but instead forwards it to you. If they don't want to read it then no matter, you read it and handle it for them. 2. For each of the bills create a folder (2 x pack of 10 from WH Smith, 12 debts so 8 left over!). 3. As correspondence arrives file it and keep it in date order in each file. 4. For each of the debts create a spreadsheet (actually one spreadsheet with 12 tabs if you know how) and have a column for the Date and then a description of what arrived). E.G. chasing letter, offer letter, Solicitors letter, Solicitors Letter Before Action and so on. Identify what kind of correspondence it is so you can decide if it is important and needs dealing with. 5. An important consideration here is when the Debts were last acknowledged. By this I mean when did your relative last accept that the money was owed either by paying a bill towards the debt or possibly writing to discuss the debt or maybe filling in a form supplied by one of the creditors. This is because the law says that if no legal action has been taken after a period of six years (five in Scotland) then no legal action can be taken at all. This is known as the Statute of Limitations. It is possible some of these debts are over six years old and if you can prove that by reference to when the last bill was paid for example then some of the debts can be discarded straight away. At the time of writing any debt that was not paid or otherwise acknowledged prior to 6th March 2013 (2014 if you are in Scotland) is unenforceable. 6. This next bit may be controversial and may be challenged by other CAGERS but my strategy moving on would be to open each piece of correspondence to identify what kind of letter it is. For the most part, they will either be threat letters or offer letters and can safely be ignored and safely filed just in case. I would never speak to a debt collector and I would never write to a Debt Collector either by mail or email in response to these types of letters. I would not communicate AT ALL. Let them keep sending them, and you keep filing them. As long as they are doing that then they are achieving nothing. I have files of these letters from my own creditors and I have a collection which I sometimes show to people with the same pride as others show their stamp collections!! This worked for me across about 15 accounts of mine and others till they all went Statutory barred. (Only one account went for Legal Action and with the great help of CAG they had to withdraw their case before it got to Court because they had no documentation that could prove to the court that they were entitled to the debt. Even had they produced it then it would be possible to challenge it on technical grounds. 7. If a letter comes that is threatening Court Action commonly called a Letter Before Action or something similar that may have to be treated differently. This letter can only come from either the original lender or the business that bought the debt. In that case come back onto the thread and advise the group what the letter is and you will likely get advice about what to do next. (As a general rule come onto the Thread whenever you receive any letter so it can be identified for what it is, until you get the hang of it). 8. As the Scottish Power debt is for another address there is no danger of a warrant for disconnection being applied for at the current address. However, if your relative has Scottish Power in their current address it may be wise to switch to another provider just in case they try something like attaching the old debt to the new debt. 9. However, the CCJ is a potentially important problem and has to be dealt with. Try and find out what it is for and get a copy of the original judgement. It may not have been enforced (which means the creditor may not have asked the Court or a Bailiff to chase it) but if they do it will become uncomfortable for your relative. Get on top of that quickly. Steps 1-9 are I think a good starting point. You should come back onto this thread with details of any further letters that arrive as soon as you have them so that CAGers can advise you as to how serious they are and what steps may be necessary. In summary remember, it is not a crime or immoral to be in debt, probably 80-90% of the correspondence, and most if not all of the debt can eventually be discarded and should be done without shame or remorse. It is the task of the Creditor to prove they owe it by legal means and their worry, not the worry of your relative. Once you start taking the steps above it will come under control and recede as a threat. Good Luck! Although I am experienced I am not an expert in all things and I invite other CAGers to comment on my post and chip in.

Hello Sorry to read of your troubles. We had a problem with Barclays over the Christmas period in our business account and it is a sorry tale and not good news for you. We frequently deposit cash sums into our account and have done since we opened it about 4 years ago. In the week before Christmas we did so and Barclays froze our account and all the others by applying a £500K "overdraft" on all of the accounts so that we could not take money out. I spent a fruitless day in branch and on the phone to no avail. I was in real trouble as we needed to pay our staff for Christmas and had no money with which to do it. Barclays staff had no idea, or at least if they did they were not telling us. We went to court and tried to get an injunction to get our money back or for them to give a reason why our account was frozen. The court expedited the hearing but Barclays did not turn up due to service issues so the court postponed the case. 10 working days after the freeze the account was restored but a few days later we were given 60 days notice and have now moved to Metrobank. They offered no explanation except for push button letters and did not even refund the charges they made for bouncing direct debits even though we had frozen funds. Here is what I think happened and what I think is happening to you. Day one: They suspected or feared that the deposit was due to money laundering. If they have a suspicion (or one of their staff has a suspicion of) money laundering then if they do not report it to the National Crime Agency they can be prosecuted for assisting in money laundering. Therefore, having themselves come to a suspicion they reported the transaction and froze the account. By doing so the law allows them to claim immunity against prosecution for assisting money laundering. In other words, they covered their asses! From this point on, they did not give any meaningful information because if they were to advise us that they suspected us of money laundering and had notified the National Crime Agency then they would be at risk of prosecution for tipping us off! by not speaking to us they once again covered their asses! The NCA will review the report and if they have not communicated to Barclays that they are interested in the report after 10 working days then Barclays will assume that all is well and restore the account and this is what happened to us at Day 10, as far as I can tell, almost to the hour. This is what will likely happen to you. If you look at the date/time of your bank freeze and add ten WORKING days that is the day you will get your account back and until that time you will get nothing from Barclays no explanation before, during or after the event. Total Madness. Likely they will follow up with notice to close your account. why? to cover their asses!! Notice in my explanation that everything was about covering their asses and your ass does not matter! My advice to you is not to wait but to open another account. I can strongly recommend Starling Bank for both personal and business accounts. (We went Metro because both directors in our business need access and Starling currently only allows one person to access an account as they are mobile phone based, but brilliant with Mastercard for payments and full deposit facilities at any Post Office). Get rid of Barclays. Notwithstanding they think you may be a risk to them they are a definite risk to you and all other Barclays Account holders and have demonstrated it already.

Hello All Last Friday I received a letter from NPower to say they were sending my data and including a USB stick with the data. The letter also had a password for the stick. I have had a post office card through the door so presume I need to go and collect the parcel as I am not expecting anything else. Presuming I am soon to get the data what would you like me to look out for and what is the next move?

I have received a reply to my SAR request. they say they are processing it and I was not asked for any futher identification and they did not seem to be offering any obstructions to it.

OK, sorry for the delay in the response but here we go with a summary of the events with backing evidence as best as I can put it together, probably very boring for most readers but........ 1. I occupied the property on 15th September 2017 and notified Npower of who I was. 2. A number of letters arrived or were already in the mailbox referring first of all to a previous named occupant, also seeking payment for another address that was associated with this named occupant and finally just to the "Occ. The Occupier. Account numbers were XXXXXXXX41, and XXXXXXXX35. 3. Following my arrival further letters arrived advising "Occ. The Occupier with new account XXXXXXXX98 that they would help the account switch smoothly. 4. I quickly switched to Iresa for both fuels and had confirmation emails from them dated 28th September to that effect. 5. On 3rd October I was advised by Iresa that Npower had objected to electricity being moved and a further email on 4th saying the objection had been upheld by Npower. I contacted Npower by phone and they advised that they would not object and to tell Iresa to apply again. I did this by email to Iresa on the same day. 6. Beginning of October I received a letter in my own name from Npower with account number XXXXXXXX16, finally my own account number advising me that they would help my switch go smoothly. I had two identical letters dated 3rd and another on 5th. Also on 5th was a letter to the "Occ. The Occupier account number XXXXXXXX98 advising him that they were closing the Gas account. Also on 5th October I was advised officially of my Deemed Contract with account XXXXXXXX16. 5. 12th October I got another letter advising me that my switch would go smoothly. 6. On 16th October my first Direct Debit was taken for the full amount of both fuels as expected. 7. 30th October I got an Npower electricity bill which I presumed to be the final one and paid it 14th November. 8. I heard nothing more from Npower until February 2018 when I got a big batch of correspondence in one envelope including and (undated letter) saying there was a delay in sending the final bill, there was multiple bills in my own account number. A separate letter dated 12th February apologised for a system issue delaying their bills. I received 2 x bills in my own name, one for £79 and the other for £340 and another for “Occ the Occupier” for £48 all dated 27th Feb, this last one saying “Your amended final electricity bill”. 9. 15th march asked to pay an outstanding £16.05 gas bill!! and a reminder to pay an outstanding £324!! 10. I received reminders all of which I ignored until threatened by Court action. 11. I sent a letter of complaint by email 11th April. By mid May Npower had responded and they said they were still billing me because Iresa had not asked for the transfer of the electricity to be done. All this time I was routinely paying Iresa (provable). Therefore according to Npower I was still responsible for the electricity to them and would be required to pay (at top dollar of course). 12. I sent them some meter readings and got some more bills and I also started paying them at about £112 per month. Continued to get threatening letters and Field visit letters. 13. In the mean time I asked Iresa to transfer the electricity over and by email they advised this would be done 23rd May, Npower assuring me there would be no objection. 14. I further checked with Iresa and got a message saying they closed the ticket 30th June. I presumed that meant the switch had gone OK. On 27th July Iresa advised by email that they would stop trading. 15. The Npower bills continued to come in and escalated. I stopped paying. 16. Got Wescot chasing it in December and Field visit letters and visits (I was out in January)

I will re-write the story as suggested. As it happens I do record my calls but I do not hang on to all of them and I checked my call log and this call was not kept. Not sure how critical it is but from memory I asked why there was an objection, they said they were not objecting and Iresa should request the transfer again and that was it. At the time I did not think there was anything contentious, they had agreed to what I wanted. I would expect to get a copy of the recording as part of the SAR response.

Thanks Bankfodder. I agree it is difficult: in your #15 you said para 5 - Why did Npower object ? did you record the call at para. 5? In my #17 I said: #15 I never found out why they objected but they quickly withdrew their objection. I surmise that they were unhapy that they had not only failed to get the bill owed to them by the previous tenant but also the money he owed them for another property that they were billing him at my address. The call was not recorded. Also do I understand that you were paying Iresa and you have a record of this (yes emails and bank statements) – but at the same time Npower thought you were still with them and they have been billing you for exactly the same period and you have been paying them £112 a month to reduce that debt? Yes, I paid a couple of installments of £112 towards the debt and then stopped when I went through the bills and paperwork and came to the conclusion that they had not established that I owed them anything. I may have to ask you to present it to us again but with the blanks filled in. For instance, I asked you a question about the objection in paragraph 5 but you seem to link that to paragraph 15. when I write #15 I am referring to Post 15 of this thread, not a paragraph contained within a post. Apologies for any confusion. I am happy to rewrite the situation again over the weekend if you think it will help, no problem.

#14 I will send SAR to Octopus, the inheritor of Iresa and also the administrator of Iresa presuming there is one. #15 I never found out why they objected but they quickly withdrew their objection. I surmise that they were unhapy that they had not only failed to get the bill owed to them by the previous tenant but also the money he owed them for another property that they were billing him at my address. The call was not recorded. #16 I actually have a total of 4 letters letter code SYLOBJ1. Three are dated 3rd October. One was to the "Occ Occupier", the other two (and the one on 5th October) addressed to me. all were "Sorry to see you go" letters. 16th November the direct debit payment that was made was to Iresa and was the first of my monthly payments for a fixed amount for both Gas and Electricity as per their contract. From that point on I was paying them the contracted amount for both fuels. I continued to pay by monthly direct debit until they notified me by email that they were ceasing operations at which point I cancelled the DD.

OK here we go with a summary of the events with backing evidence as best as I can put it together, probably very boring for most readers but........ 1. I occupied the property on 15th September 2017 and notified Npower of who I was. 2. A number of letters arrived or were already in the mailbox referring first of all to a previous named occupant, also seeking payment for another address that was associated with this named occupant and finally just to the "Occ. The Occupier. Account numbers were XXXXXXXX41, and XXXXXXXX35. 3. Following my arrival further letters arrived advising "Occ. The Occupier with new account XXXXXXXX98 that they would help the account switch smoothly. 4. I quickly switched to Iresa for both fuels and had confirmation emails from them dated 28th September to that effect. 5. On 3rd October I was advised by Iresa that Npower had objected to electricity being moved and a further email on 4th saying the objection had been upheld by Npower. I contacted Npower by phone and they advised that they would not object and to tell Iresa to apply again. I did this by email to Iresa on the same day. 6. Beginning of October I received a letter in my own name from Npower with account number XXXXXXXX16, finally my own account number advising me that they would help my switch go smoothly. I had two identical letters dated 3rd and another on 5th. Also on 5th was a letter to the "Occ. The Occupier account number XXXXXXXX98 advising him that they were closing the Gas account. Also on 5th October I was advised officially of my Deemed Contract with account XXXXXXXX16. 5. 12th October I got another letter advising me that my switch would go smoothly. 6. On 16th October my first Direct Debit was taken for the full amount of both fuels as expected. 7. 30th October I got an Npower electricity bill which I presumed to be the final one and paid it 14th November. 8. I heard nothing more from Npower until February 2018 when I got a big batch of correspondence in one envelope including and (undated letter) saying there was a delay in sending the final bill, there was multiple bills in my own account number. A separate letter dated 12th February apologised for a system issue delaying their bills. I received 2 x bills in my own name, one for £79 and the other for £340 and another for “Occ the Occupier” for £48 all dated 27th Feb, this last one saying “Your amended final electricity bill”. 9. 15th march asked to pay an outstanding £16.05 gas bill!! and a reminder to pay an outstanding £324!! 10. I received reminders all of which I ignored until threatened by Court action. 11. I sent a letter of complaint by email 11th April. By mid May Npower had responded and they said they were still billing me because Iresa had not asked for the transfer of the electricity to be done. All this time I was routinely paying Iresa (provable). Therefore according to Npower I was still responsible for the electricity to them and would be required to pay (at top dollar of course). 12. I sent them some meter readings and got some more bills and I also started paying them at about £112 per month. Continued to get threatening letters and Field visit letters. 13. In the mean time I asked Iresa to transfer the electricity over and by email they advised this would be done 23rd May, Npower assuring me there would be no objection. 14. I further checked with Iresa and got a message saying they closed the ticket 30th June. I presumed that meant the switch had gone OK. On 27th July Iresa advised by email that they would stop trading. 15. The Npower bills continued to come in and escalated. I stopped paying. 16. Got Wescot chasing it in December and Field visit letters and visits (I was out in January) So that is the sorry tale. The latest participant is Octopus energy who has taken over the account. I have disputed their billing as I don't know if I have been charged by Iresa for electricity or not. So far Octopus has not acted as they have bitten off far more than they can chew with Iresa’s cock-ups. I take the view that I have switched to Iresa, that Npower has no clue who they are billing at my address or how much and I have two letters almost to that effect.

Hello All A quick update to say I got the SAR request off on 1st February as per #7. Now going through my correspondence and emails and will update this thread ASAP.

Hello All OP here. Thanks for your comments. My sister in law is very honest and would never willingly participate in a fraud of this type and I would never seek advice on this or any other forum if I thought she did. However, I don't doubt she made a couple of basic errors and learned the hard way. I see no harm in reporting it to action fraud. My own experience of them is that they will not do anything except record it on their database, so pretty useless really apart from having the crime number of course.

I have drafted my SAR by adapting the sample above with my personal details and Npower. Will get it printed and sent by guaranteed Royal Mail tracked and signed tomorrow. They should have it by 1300hrs Monday 4th February. I will now get on with marshalling my existing documentation so I can answer Post #2.

Hello, Thanks for the reply. I will double check my correspondence and reply accurately. As long as I have a good defence I am up for giving them a fight.

Hello all In the Autumn of 2017 I moved into a new property. Both Gas and Electricity were provided by Npower on a PostPay meter. I immediately contacted them to advise them who I was and they set up new accounts for the property in my name. I then went to a comparison website and ended up switching both fuels to Iresa. Npower did not object to the Gas being switched but did initially object to the Electricity being switched. I contacted Npower who said that they no longer objected and Iresa should apply for the transfer. I subsequently received final bills from Npower which I promptly paid and closure of the accounts and commenced paying Iresa by monthly Direct Debit. I continued to receive bills for Electricity from Npower, some were issued and cancelled and they appeared to have some confusion, then re-issued with different amounts. I ignored the lot. However, it got to the point where Npower were threatening action including adverse credit reports. I wrote a letter of complaint and this was duly investigated, if that is the right word. Npower claimed that Iresa had not requested that the electricity be switched over the second time and that I was still liable for it. To complicate matters Iresa has gone bust and the new supplier is busy absorbing the accounts into their own operation. I believe having contracted with Iresa, paid my final bill with Npower and been notified of account closure by Npower that I owe them nothing. This is currently out with Face2Face, their field agents which is likely the last debt collection action before an application for Disconnection (or a prepay meter) is made. Anybody got any advice? Thanks in advance for reading and contributing.

Hello all, My sister in law received what she thought was a message from her friend asking her to accept some money from her Paypal account and transfer it down into her bank then transfer it to her friend’s bank. She received two payments from two different sources, downloaded £500 and duly transferred it to her “friend’s” bank account. Turned out that the message she received was from a fraudster and the money she received was from two hacked PayPal accounts and the bank account she sent the money to was not her friend’s account. I know she should have questioned why her friend did not download the money herself, she should also have questioned why the money came from two unknown paypal accounts and maybe also double checked where she was sending it. All good things to have done but she is a busy working mum and acted in good faith and was victim to a fairly smart fraud. Paypal is now wanting the money back and has set Debt Collectors onto her. Has she got any defence against Paypal?

Thanks BA , no offence taken. To be clear we had no intention of peacefully removing him but rather of peacefully obstructing his ability to move items by for example blocking the doors. I reiterate my point again but I am not sure but by doing so we would have been breaking the law as we would have been stopping the removal of items that did not belong to the person named on the warrant.

Hi Sgt Well I do not know the law which is why I am looking for comments on this forum. The bailiff was taking goods that were most unlikely to be the property of the granddaughter. He had walked all over the house including all the bedrooms and was not able to find a room given over to the granddaughter. They were just spare bedrooms. The guy then tried to take personal effects that he well knew were the property of the grandmother. When challenged on this point he said it was the responsibility of the grandmother to prove that the items were hers. This may be correct in law or it may not and it is that which I am seeking to get help with. To restate my View, I do not believe it is right to seize the goods of somebody else when you know full well that those goods are not those of the person named on the warrant or writ.

Hi DX Whilst I am slightly aware of the Freeman of the Land subculture I have not joined any groups and neither have I read any of their materials or looked at websites so I don't really know what they are all about. However,. I simply think that if a bailiff shows up at a property he ought to be able to explain to the householder why he is there and proffer some sort of document, and if it becomes obvious that the target of his recovery is not there then he should not be able to try his luck on another householder or in this case the occupant of the house that lives there even though the original target does not. I know that the law is not always just but I do feel that a wrong has been done against the grandmother.

Hello bazooka and erics Thank you both for your contributions and apologies for my late response but I did not receive the usual email notification from the platform so was not aware anybody had answered my thread. I will not take any action right now as I have about a year to run before it becomes statutory barred but I can take it up after that point Without Fear of any effective Court action being started.

Hello bailiff advice. Thank you for your response and I think you are very close in your appraisal. I do not condone the actions of the granddaughter not that I know everything that is going on. The point of my post however is to explain what happened to the naive and innocent grandmother, how an HCE took advantage of her and manipulated the situation by attempting to take goods that plainly could not belong to the person named on his warrant, and further not having any hard copies of any of the documents to present to the householder who had no idea what had gone on previously. I am seeking help with regard to the actions of the bailiff company and the court/Council that instructed them and highlighting how an Innocent person can be victimised by a court and bailiff system and by the actions of an individual who knew full well that the items he was trying to take could not be the property of the person named on his warrant of which no copy could be left with the householder. Whatever lead to the events of the day the actions of the HCE were very wrong.

Hello all and thanks for your responses so far, Hi DX ... And I would agree that the root cause of this visit is the actions of the granddaughter who uses her grandmother as a convenient postal address. My point however is that notwithstanding the actions of the granddaughter that we were faced with a bailiffs visit that did not provide any paperwork to support entry, who did not check on the vulnerability of the sole occupant of the house who clearly was not the person they were after, and who tried to seize goods which clearly did not belong to the original offender and in so doing caused distress and disruption to a pensioner. It is that behaviour I am looking for support in fighting as I believe this woman was violated by the bailiff and by the system.