Hi All, Essentially, we moved into a brand new set of apartments (rented accommodation) and lived there for a year and then moved out. We never received any correspondence from Scottish Power, we never signed up with scottish power, we presumed that suppliers would be in place for us and we would hear from them shortly after moving in. We did, British Gas, so we setup an account with them for what we thought was duel fuel (gas and electricity) and paid a direct debit every month, happy days. Over a year after leaving this apartment, we received a letter from a debt collection agency at our new address, on the letter it said to a call a number and didn't provide any other details. I called the number and was told they had found me and i must pay for a years worth of electricity at our previous address, i asked them to provide me a bill, they did, we called up again and paid it after realising they had been supplying us our electricity and british gas were supplying the gas. We didn't pay a settlement figure (a discounted amount) we paid the full amount so it wouldn't affect our credit file. We never signed anything to become a customer of scottish power and they never reported anything on either of our credit files for over 2 years while we were supposedly a customer. Then suddenly 6 months after paying the debt, they posted a default on my girlfriends credit file and the amount still says not settled. They never sent us a notice of default, nor did we ever give them permission to access our credit file, so how can they just do this? and how can i get it removed as it is incorrect and the account was technically never in default. I presume i should do a SAR to see all the details about our account and find out when they actually supposedly sent us a notice of default or a letter to say we hadn't paid a bill etc... with that, i can then prove they are incorrect and have it removed.

I have what I believe to be a faulty or Tampered Electric metre and I really need some advice on how I raise this with Scotiish power. The reason I think it's fault or been tampered with is that since I moved into this new property as it was in Aug 2008, I have only generally used on average 6 units of Electric a day. My Tariff is online is NSC fixed online. I am fairly engery conscious and most of my appliances are A rated and only use energy saving light bulbs. I submitted a reading on Friday 21st Dec 2012 as I wanted a refund on my built up credit, however when I entered the reading which I though was high, it came back to say from 16th Oct to 21st dec 2012 I had used 3837 Units I nearly fell off my chair. Please Please can someone advise me on this ? I have already raised a dispute with Scottish Power but am concerned if I can't prove I didnt use it I will still have to pay the 400 bill

Having retired at 72yrs I checked my credit records which I find show two account debts to Scottish Power from 2008. My diaries show no details of ever dealing with that company in that year. Have contacted Scottish Power giving full details of credit record and at their request meter numbers. It would seem that they too are having problems tracing these accounts as two emails from them say they are unable to give me details requested. Any ideas on how I can get this sorted out would be appreciated and if in fact I do owe these sums I want to come to an arrangement to pay them off.

a few weeks ago i recieved a final bill from scottish power,as id changed my electric and gas from them to edf. they are asking for £139.10.we had prepayment meters fitted on september 5th 2012.£60 of this is from july 12th to 5th september,when using normal meter. they are trying to charge me £74,from september 5th to october 23rd,in this time i was using prepayment meters.pay as you go.i cnat understand why they want this £74 as i only put on what i used when we need it. i havent been able to pay it due to financial difficulties. today i recieved a letter from insight collections,acting on behalf of scottsih power saying to pay this amount £139.10 immediatley or another £20 for "average legal agent expenses will be added. it gives the usual "notice of legal proceedings" i am going to phone scottish power and tell them ill pay them the £60,from before prepayments were installed.but as for the £74 they can go to hell. can you give me any advice please ? thanks

I could really use some help please. My husband is a soldier so we move around rather often. Upon moving into our house in York the utilities were already with Scottishpower. I called them up and gave our details for bills ect and thought that was that. They then proceeded to attempt to add the previous people's 3 months worth of arrears to our account. At this point I refused to pay anything until they resolved it as I didn't know if I was paying our bills, theirs or a joint combination. We kept the money to one side for when they'd eventually sorted it out. 5 months down the line they finally sorted it I was all ready to pay the arrears we had due to not payment while sorting the matter out but it turns out they'd GROSSLY under estimated the bills (ours) in an effort to sort the situation out I asked if we could do a payment plan and they stated we had to pay at least half of the arrears or they wouldn't do a payment plan (even half of the arrears was double what we had put to the side) and they gave us a cracking great monthly payment of £280 which we can't afford. I have offered them £50pm on top of our monthly bill to cover the arrears however they won't accept it. Now it's been 12 months since we moved in I've paid 1 bill in that 12 months as they are still refusing to help (now the bill stands at a little over £2,000) They are telling me that I need to pay a lump sum to set up a payment plan, pay in full or have a meter installed which not only will the army housing not allow but I can't get out to top it up as I have a son with very severe autism and a young baby. I've made efforts to sort this but they won't budge. I have asked how much our standard monthly plan is and they won't tell me because it includes the debt so I can't even make an "offer" to them because I don't know what I am offering on. Could I get some help in reference to sending them an offer through the post? PLEASE HELP

Hi, About a month ago i had an alert which noticed that a credit agency were searching for somebody on my credit report with a similar name to myself (imagine my name is marianne o' connor - the name was mary conner, etc.) my credit report dropped 50 points as somebody was trying to trace me for unpaid debts. i thought at first it was identity fraud then to my horror the penny dropped... In january 2011 i moved into a flat and signed myself up with SSE. I have a welcome letter from them dated 25 january. ( i have this letter as proof) then i received a strange letter from Scottish power about my new account dated the 7th - the day i officially started tenancy - named this strange name. I found it very bizarre and thought, well i havent signed myself up. i imagined the fact that i had transferred to SSE would override it as they of course would take over my energy supply. i could only imagine that somebody had signed me up to scottish power under my name. i did not do this and never authorised anybody to do so. why else would the account be in the wrong name? i can only imagine somebody had got my name (landlord? previous tenant? letting agency?) and signed me up. As i had transferred i was not worried - SSE were contacting the previous supplier. i later received two electricity bills to my horror - the same address but two different companies. i obviously had to pay them ( ironically as i did not want unpaid bills against my name and set about sorting the whole mess out - Scottish power had billed me for electricity from 7 jan - 14 march ( i have this bill and bank statements - i can prove this) SSE told me that scottish power were at fault - they should have disconnected the supply. How can SSE start a supply without taking the meter number from Scottishpower during the switch? This took ages to get sorted out - i had direct debits of different amounts going out from two suppliers. I paid at the end of march a bill to SSE too. i have proof of this. I spnt ages chasing this up - i could not understand how scottish power could allow somebody to be signed up without their consent and then mess up a switch and then bill me in error. i had to send emails to them asking about amended bills as there were errors in billing - i cannot be paying two suppliers for one supply. i moved out at the end of may. I paid my final bill to SSE and was told I was fully up to date and my electric accounts were closed. Fast forward to me finding this credit search - it suddenly hit me it was these guys at scottish power again. i rang them up - of my own volition asking if there was any money that needed paying as i was concerned that somebody had been looking for me - they had my email, my phone number an online account - i received no contact. they said there was an outstanding amount. no mention even then of a default. i gave them my new address and got a final bill and paid it. then i received a letter from pastdue credit solutions (using the new address info) saying ' scottish power may register a default with CRAs' - i had no idea this was going on and had no idea they reported to cras - i did not give my consent for my name and information to be used in such a way. Surely this can't be right - you cannot just sign people up to credit agreements without their knowledge. As far as i was concerned, I'd paid my bills - if i were delinquent why would i ring up of my own volition asking if i needed to pay anything the second i realised? they made no reasonable attempts to contact me other than a bill that clearly arrived after i'd left the property- my ACTUAL supplier was given a forwarding address. I've been turned down for current accounts and then an overdraft with my bank - when i checked my experian credit report I was horrified to find a default from scottish power for a final bill £60 dated last year. I had no idea about this as it was at my old address. I'm gutted as my partner and I want to apply for a mortgage and there is now a default against me that i had no idea about. And for such a paltry amount too. i feel this is very unfair and i wish to complain and get it removed, if not on the basis of scottish power's ineptitude than on the basis that it is not in my name and not with my consent. What should i do, and to where should i complain? Thanks!

To be very quick. I had 2 court fines. I came home from work one day and found a letter for both, one £330 the other £530. I rang the bailiff and paid the £330 and told him I can pay the £530 on the 16th. Last week my car broke down and I had to buy a new one. This obviously ate up my money. Today I received a text from the bailiff confirming that the payment is due today. I said that I don’t have the money to pay it, can you email me the court letter and I have spoken to citizens advice and shall pay it online His reply “Not a problem, I’ll let the removal team know they need to attend to remove goods from the house. Broken payment arrangement. This warrant has a power of entry from the court and I will be enforcing it” Seriously what can I do? Any help greatly appreciated

As a landlord I have just had new tenants move into my property. I informed scottish power that they had moved in, but have just had a phone call to say that as the last tenant has not paid their bill scottish power must now put a pre-payment meter in and if I dont give my consent they will get a warrant to do so. They also said they would stop me using an alternative supplier because of the debt. I still hold the previous tenants deposit, although it is not enough to cover the full debt left behind by the tenant it would cover about half. I have heard of companies accepting a 'settlement figure' - is there a particular department that I could offer this to, or do you have any suggestions as to what I could say that would persuade them to accept the settlement and therefore not put in a meter? I know meters are not always evil, but I also have my property on the market to sell, and I feel a prepayment meter would put off potential buyers. Many thanks for any help in advance - I see there is a scottish power rep on here, I can't PM him as I have only just registered, but if someone else could I'd appreciate it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19952457

This situation has become horrendous but I will try to keep it short. Privately renting a flat in a converted house since 2001, my gas was & still is with British Gas, electricity paid via coin meter that landlord had installed. After a few years of the meter, I asked landlord to remove it which he did. I then had a Dual Fuel tariff with BG. Near the end of 2003, I suddenly start getting 'welcome' letters & bills from Scottish Power!! I rang to say I wasn't with them, as I wouldn't spilt my bills & cost myself more money but they refused to listen as I had apparently signed up with them. I asked for proof of this which they have never had or shown me. I have spent years trying to cancel the account that I never wanted & trying to go back to BG but SP just don't listen. They have been billing me for electricity but the meter serial number they have is for an address in the next street! I also have the problem that it seems that my meter/account is somehow attached to the flat upstairs which means that I am being held responsible for all the tenants who have lived up there too. I have been to the Ombudsman who agrees with me but who says as SP no longer have proof of my signature, the onus is on me to prove I never signed anything with them The bill is approx £6k at the moment. I am disabled & on benefits and have now had a warrant entry letter & I cannot deal with this anymore. Sorry to ramble but this is making me ill & I know it has gone on for too long but the Ombudsman took a year before getting back to me. Any advice & help very gratefully appreciated...

Hello! I have been living in my home for just under a year, after moving out of my parent's. During the summer I got a little behind on my payments (paying only half the monthly payment for two months in a row, I had to pay for a boiler repair) . I am on a monthly cash plan, I pay £103 a month for my little two bedroom house. Now I'm a month behind, so I clear the debt fine, but it means I can't pay my monthly payment so every month I am replacing an old debt with a new one. I'm a single parent on full time access course, so by necessity I'm currently on Income Support and Child Tax Credits which just about covers feeding us and paying my bills. I was completely on top of the bills up until August. I know it's not alot of debt, but I am terrified about what it's going to happen in November when I have my review. Will my monthly payments skyrocket? I'm worried that I won't be able to afford it, along with my water/tv/phone. I am actually £128 in credit on my account and my last bill amount was £243 (actual) . If that's helpful. I would really appreciate some insight here Thanks very much

Hey all, Thought I would bring you all up to date with my ongoing battle with Scottish Power. Basically I was with Scottish Power for Gas in a previous property. I changed supplier, never received a final bill nor any further correspondence and left the property some 2-3 months after leaving Scottish Power. Having gone through my credit file recently, Scottish Power have a default registered against me for the end of 2009. Chronological order of events: 17/09/12 Queried default with complaints department, told unequivocally that regardless of whether I received Default Notices etc, their Default Notices are not bound by Consumer Credit Act and they dont legally have to send them. 17/09/12 Sent recorded letter requesting copy agreements / default notices / statement of account / final bills etc. 21/09/12 Final bills received, all with estimated readings. Default notices received dated 14/07/2009. No agreement. No T&C's. No statement of account. 27/09/12 Submitted Subject Access Request. 05/10/12 Received data as per Subject Access Request. No agreement still. No T&C's of account. No record of any meter readings. No agreement details and their statement of account shows the alleged debt was written off at the end of 2010. 06/10/12 Latest correspondence to Scottish Power, advising that numerous documents were missing from the SAR (Agreement, T&C's, Final readings etc) and that their failure to provide these only raises assumptions that they do not possess such information, or that they are deliberately with-holding personal data and such in breach of DPA. No response as yet to this correspondence. A couple of questions if anyone could be so kind as to help with these. >What format does a Default Notice have to be in, in respect of an energy supplier which is not bound by CCA? >Scottish Power have declared that as I previously made a payment, this automatically counts as full acceptance of their terms and conditions (which they failed to provide). Is this correct? >They failed to give any indication as to how they deduced the final readings for the final bill; and refuse to comment on the matter. Do they need to ensure that accurate readings are used before a final bill can be generated? As per all documentation I have received as part of the SAR, all statements etc. All show this account as having a £0 balance. One of the statements clearly details Written off. Yet, they are adamant that I still owe the amounts in question. If their own documentation shows a balance of £0, are they legally obliged to update my credit file? If they dont, do I have grounds to issue court proceedings? Thanks for any help, greatly appreciated.

Hi, I wonder if anyone can give me a bit of advice. Might seem like a strange issue but let me explain. I'm trying to improve my credit score. Currently I don't have much on my credit report as I have recently finished university and moved into a rented property. I don't have any negative factors apart from one. When I moved into my current rented flat, Scottish Power (my previous supplier) offered to beat British Gas (existing supplier at the new flat), so I agreed to switch. Eventually the switch was complete and SP have been supplying me since. The negative thing currently against my name is that BG only supplied me for around 2 months (while the switch was in progress), and short accounts are a bad thing. SP doesn't show up at all, at my current or previous address. I've called and emailed SP about this - they don't seem able or willing to do anything about it. I can understand that they don't really care as it doesn't really affect them but is there anything else I can do about this? Despite numerous communications, my address is still showing up as incorrect on my online account. I don't know if this is related, but I don't think I've ever recieved any correspondence through the post to this address from SP. I'm just not sure they've got a clue what they're doing. As long as I pay every month, they just don't care. All this has come about after I was recently refused a new phone contract with Orange after a credit check. I'm now trying to tie up everything on my credit report which should be there as I'm convinced I should have a good score. Any advice much appreciated. Am I wasting my time with this? Thanks, Tom

Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong place... I have two defaults with Scottish Power (one for a gas account, one for an electric). Scottish Power have confirmed this with me including dates and I am responsible for it. When trying to negotiate a F&F settlement, they tell me it is being dealt with (but would not confirm or deny if it has been sold on to) Past Due Credit and to deal with them instead. You go around and around in circles with SP - they won't let you speak to any form of customer compliance/credit. Even their 'complaints' side of things refuses to give you contact details for that dept. SP are really beginning to p me off, and I am considering complaining over and above their heads. Past Due are really dragging their heels as well. I have found an email address for a human () with a bit of google detective work. I read constantly that this DCA are a bunch of cowboys which doesn't fill me with much hope that my CRA is actually going to be amended when I do pay up. Not only that, but no-one has actually responded to my email besides asking me to confirm I lived at the property and what dates. I get the feeling that by being so lax there is probably a problem with the debt but in all honesty, I just want to pay it off now, have the CRA and fight over a bad debt later (if that is the case). I have a tight deadline to get rid of these defaults before I have to wait a year for another promotion (I get credit vetted) and I do not want to wait that long, nor do I really have the timescale to SAR, wait til the 39th day and then try and sort out a F&F. I just don't know who I am meant to deal with, SP or PDCS? Either way I'm complaining about one shop - it is ridiculous, its like they don't even want to take my money but continously write me letters demanding it!!

Hello, my direct debit for n power failed for the third time. I owed them £275 for this direct debit. I rang, and offered to pay £100 that week, and the remainder over the next two weeks. The man requested that I call back the next week, and took my electricity meter reading. when I called back the next week, n power arranged for my gas meter to be read (I have both electricity and gas from n power). I was to contact them after this. A week later I received a demand for over £1000 from a collections agency acting on behalf of n power!. When I called them and explained the situation, the lady was surprised that n power had not taken the £100 payment when I offered it. Despite my making another £100 payment to her then, n power are demanding that I make a payment of 75% (£around £700) immediately. I feel totally bullied by them and cannot afford this. Please help. I would be so grateful. Thank you.

Hello all, this is my first post but need to ask you for my advice. Over a year ago I rented out my house to a tennant at short notice. I had previosuly just changed energy suppliers to scottish power but i had confirmed with them before the tenant moved in that I was not a customer yet and my previous supplier EDF was still supplying me. I rented it out via my letting agent have had not contact with the tennant. Last week a letter appeared on my doorstep a FORMAL DEMAND from PDCS acting on behalf of scottish power demanding over £70 in my name for energy used. I rang scottish power and they told me not to worry as the dates for the usage of energy related to the intial period after the tenant moved in. The tennant never actually paid or responded to the bills, however she decided to change suppliers 6 weeks later but never changed the Bills into her name despite me giving her details to scottish power when I called them up to let them know the house was to be rented out last year. SP tild me to copy the tennancy aggreement and sent it RD and also inform PDCS, of which I did explaining the situation above to both parties. I also sent the special "Prove it" letter on this site letting them know my rights and stop harrassing me to PDCS. Now I have received another letter from PDCS thanking me for my letter and that they acknowledge my dispute however they are asking me now to "confirm to them my connection to the property" as they have been told by scottish power to chase me for the debt. I already told them this in my "prove it" letter and that it was being let out by myself and that i am dealing with scottish power. They have also said that I have 28 days to contact them by telephone. I just want to know if I am legally obliged to ring or write to PDCS. They have not provided me any details of the debt I am supposed to owe despite me sending the prove it letter. Why are they asking me something that I already told them? Are they allowed to chase me when I am dispuiting the debt with scottish power or is this a phishing letter wanting information from me. What is the next move I should make?

My car a few months ago failed its MOT. Until I could decide what to do with it (initially I was looking to rent a garage or lock-up so that I could take it apart and then learn how to do the necessary repairs myself) I parked the car on a private car park, owned by a private individual and leased to the local council in connection with a small council office building, 50 yards away from my home. I let the insurance expire and made a SORN notification to DVLA. There are more spaces in this car park than are ever used, and there is no doubt that it is not a public car park, but a private one. The only notice up is "Private Car Park", with no tow-away or clamping warning signs. As I am in dispute with the owner of the land over a planning application he is making which will impact on my property, I rather cheekily did not seek anyone's permission to park there. Now the council have asked the police to intervene, and they came calling. I have explained to the police what the score was, and that eventually I would get it moved, but the police officers stated that if I did not, then they would tow it away and charge me. I expressed my certainty that they did not have the power to tow the car away as this was strictly a civil matter, and with all due respect, nothing to do with them. They confirmed that data protection issues meant that they had not passed my details onto the council, but that if they did not have the power themselves, they would do so on behalf of the council. I again expressed my scepticism as to this claim, but left it that I would speak to the council, and eventually get the car moved. Does anyone have any idea if the police do indeed have the power to tow away and charge me? The police accepted that the vehicle was not abandoned, and it was not in any way a danger to the public, even if it does look somewhat scruffy in the bodywork department. I am in Scotland.

Hi I have recently accessed my credit file and have a debit registered as default from scottish power, can any one tell me who to contact to get this sorted, i tried to pm the scottish power guy on this board but as im new i couldn't. I have no account no or any other details. Regards Stu

Scottish Power (September 2010) Investigation into compliance with obligations under the gas and electricity supply licences (Standard Licence Condition 25) Ofgem is investigating whether Scottish Power is complying with obligations under standard licence condition 25 with respect to telephone and face-to-face sales activities. By way of background, following the Energy Supply Probe – link opens in a new browser window, Ofgem put in place a new version of standard licence condition 25 with a view to helping domestic customers make well-informed decisions in response to telephone and face-to-face sales activities. In particular, there are new requirements for domestic suppliers to provide estimates and comparisons during face-to-face sales activities (with effect from 18 January 2010) and to secure the achievement of an objective in respect of both face-to-face and telesales activities (with effect from 21 October 2009). In summary, the objective requires domestic suppliers to take all reasonable steps to ensure information provided is complete and accurate, understandable, appropriate and not misleading, and that sales activities are conducted in a fair, transparent, appropriate and professional manner.

Scottish Power (March 2011) Investigation into compliance with obligations under the gas and electricity supply licences (Standard Licence Condition 27.2A) Ofgem is investigating whether Scottish Power are complying with the requirements of condition 27.2A of their gas and electricity supply licence. Condition 27.2A requires that any difference in the terms and conditions between different payment methods must be reflective of the costs to the supplier of those different methods. The investigation has been launched in relation to the significant difference between Scottish Power’s standard and direct debit tariffs.

It is about time there was a concerted and organised way to deal with energy companies fleecing us. I think that we need to organise a mass exodus from one company, Npower for instance. If we left one company en-masse, surely it would force that one company to bring down its rates to encourage customers to re-sign as without customers it's business would fold. Obviously, it would need to be a well organised exodus, but I am sure that once word got around and this forum has the power to that then a date could be set for people to act. What do you all think ?