can bes take over a residential property electric supply as they only do commercial electricity I need to no as been miss sold a contract please help the last few days have been hell bes utilities phoned me saying they were acting on behalf of my hopefully soon to be landlord no lease signed I have ended up in a contract some how I have been bullied and feel forced into this contract really not sure wat to do as I don't have a lease yet or permission to change the electricity supplier still they say I cant get out of it they say they are going to take over the electric suppy on the 25th and there is nothing I can do they also said the supplier at the moment cant reject the take over apparently I have no choice but to go with them all I want to do is get out of this contract. also the address on the contract is a residential house helllllppppppp

Well, we are looking for help and advice regarding United Utilities, our water bill is now £1,121.27 and we have been struggling to pay, i have requested a payment card so we can start paying towards the bill, however today they sent letter demanding the full amount in 30 days if we don`t pay they will start court action. Over the last few months both our wages have been reduced over £400.00 month so in reals terms we cannot pay all our bills. They have attached income form so happy to fill in and return which clearly shows we just don`t have the income or funds to pay in full. I have spoken to the company and they told me the min monthly payment has to be £160.00 which we cannot pay so just not sure were to go now. Any advice would be helful

18 months ago I moved out of my parents house into my first flat (renting) I thought that I'd set up all of my payments (gas, electric, council tax etc), Today I received a letter from united utilities saying they have recently found that my address is occupied and are going to send me a water bill. I've looked over my previous statements, and yes, I didn't inform UU that I'd moved in. I know this was extremely stupid! Obviously I have to ring them and sort this out, I have the money to pay for 18 months worth of bills, but am just afraid of what to expect when I call. Will they threaten me with legal action over failing to disclose my address? Will it affect my credit rating? if I ring them tomorrow to get this sorted, apologise and offer to pay in full, what kind of backlash/penalties can I expect?

Enforcement Undertakings accepted from United Utilities READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/enforcement-undertakings-accepted-from-united-utilities

Hello! I'm new to this forum so please be gentle! my partner and I moved into a flat almost three years ago. For the first few months we had no boiler, gas, radiators etc as the building is very old. Only electric. The landlord finally got gas installed, so we had heating. Great! Only thing is, the men who installed the gas meter seemingly did not hook us up to the supplier I had requested. ..in fact no supplier at all. Having not had a bill for several months, I contacted who I 'believed' was our supplier, to be told that we weren't on their records. And we weren't on anybody's records. She told me that essentially the gas is coming direct from the grid, it's free, and if I keep quiet, I'm not doing anything wrong. Unfortunately at the time I didn't think to record that conversation. here we are, nearly three years without paying gas, and we are planning on moving out in a few months. We're panicking that our letting agent will find out we don't pay gas and will forward us a giant bill, or that if we try and start a gas account that they might back date the bill? Please does anybody have any advice or know how this stuff works? I put my hands up to the fact that we've been aware of this situation for a long time, and usually we're very play-it-safe types, but we threw caution to the wind for once and now I'm wondering if we'll be punished by the utility gods for eternity for this tiny thrill of free gas... HELP! Thanks for reading!

Hello, I hope I have posted this in the right place! I am utterly upset and shocked by this letter. Today I have received a letter from Northampton County Court advising that I owe £534.24 plus costs to UU. Now I do not dispute this bill at all as it is my annual 2017 - 2018 bill however my issues are as follows; - I had a zero balance with UU up until the most recent bill was issued on 1st April - The bill itself stated that I needed to pay £267.12 on 1st April and £267.12 on 1st October - I knew I wasn't able to afford the April payment so called them to arrange a plan to pay this off at £66.78 per month starting from the end of May running until September as my payday is 28th of each month. - As far as I was aware this was agreed however I didn't get anything in writing and more fool me, I didn't think this would be an issue. - I have not had any reminder from UU - I have now been told I have to pay the £534.24 plus £130 court costs which is for my bill up until 31.03.2018! -Can they give me a CCJ for a service I haven't had yet? - I dont have any proof of this payment plan as it was all done on the phone (i feel foolish now but they tell you to call them if you cant pay so I did) - How do I reply to this court letter? - Do I make the £66.78 payment at the end of the month? I do not dispute the bill of course but I cannot believe they have done this to me and I dont know what to do. Please can you help. Thank you

Taken from the BES Utilities website: This is positive news, what do we think?

Sorry if I sound like a disaster movie as I seem to be on here a lot. I have had a court summons through for a credit card debt - Barclaycard £5.5k and now £6k with added charges. I have at least 10 or 11 other creditors the same but for mostly smaller amounts of around £3k. I owe about £24k altogether - it was £69k when my finances first went belly up but I've been paying off etc. I am now unemployed and will be 60 later this month so little chance of getting a job. I also have not been able to pay gas and electric and bills have mounted up to £2k. They said they would fit key meters. But I need to call them. Same with water company and don't know how they deal with debt. Feel like I'm drowning. Shall I call Barclaycard or their agents and see if I can negotiate a payment plan? I haven't even signed on yet as I was on long-term sick and then got sacked so received a month's pay in lieu. I have nothing coming in now. My daughter who I live with is on income support as she has two small toddlers and cannot afford childcare. I will write to my creditors this weekend but I'm worried that most of them will not accept a £1 a week or whatever. But if I have so many of them to pay off I can't really afford much more. In fact, I will probably struggle with that much across all of them. Do the courts allow you to offer small amounts like £1 a week? Any advice will be very much appreciated. Thanks, again! ps: I wanted to add that there is now another debt to add to my £24k and that is approx £350 for the last two unpaid monthly amounts for Pounds to Pocket. I have paid all previous 10 months and the loan would have been finished but can't give them what I haven't got and the bank has barred any payments to them. I also want to reclaim £150+ in late payment charges to NewDay for my House of Fraser scorecard. I only use it once a year for a birthday pressie for around £50 or so but I was unable to make a couple of the payments and their charges are horrendous. So when my last salary went into the bank they took £186 which included £30 in monthly payments and the rest in fees. Any ideas on how I should approach them. Sorry this is so lengthy.

Hello. I am having issues trying to pay an outstanding water bill to United Utilities, it's a final water and wastewater bill. I received this bill a few days ago at a property I gave as a forwarding address when I moved house back in May ( this bill is for the last few months that I lived at the property ). I have contacted the number(s) on this bill and they connect to a company called Orbit which is a debt collection agency. I informed them That I wanted to deal with this bill through United utilities and not Orbit but they weren't having it. I rang United Utilities on a general enquiry number to get some sort of answer but again the operator at United utilities said I had to go through Orbit, I made it clear to them that I would only deal with United Utilities and not Orbit and when pressed said that it has nothing to do with United utilities. The thing is does anyone have any idea how I can get through to the water company and get them to deal with this bill? Thanks.

So, despite all of the bleating, the hype, the threats, the smooth posting on these forums and elsewhere, BES utilities have been found to be in breach of several obligations of required industry standards. This will come to no surprise to a large number of people who had dealings with this shabby company and in particular it will come as no surprise to the victims who have suffered from the unjust bullying that they have received at the hands of BES utilities and which in some cases have even destroyed their businesses and their hopes and ambitions. I see that as usual, not only as a regulator taken his time in sorting this out, but the resulting sanction amounts to a mere slap on the wrist and produces no real motivation that any utilities company to do any better. Part of the reason for the limited sanction is that apparently BES utilities cooperated and also admitted the breaches – even though, there were only denials elsewhere. Of course, it makes business sense that when you've been caught out that it is best to put your hands up as quickly as possible and it seems as if this is what BES utilities have done to the regulator despite being in denial to their customers and elsewhere. It has now been left to BES utilities to approach their own customers with proposals of redress. Will they go about this in an honest and decent way? I'm sure that we will find out eventually on this forum and we invite all victims of BES utilities to come here and tell us whether they have received an approach and whether they are satisfied with the way that it is being handled. For people who are looking around for somebody to manage their energy supply, frankly we suggest that you avoid BES utilities for at least two or three years until they have established a track record of straightforward straight-dealing. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/investigation-bes-and-its-compliance-its-obligations-under-gas-and-electricity-supply-licences-standard-licence-conditions-7a-7b-7-14-and-21b-and-consumer-complaints-handling-standards-regulations-chsr-2008 BES utilities have previously come onto this forum in denial and also to assure us of their best intentions regarding their customers. I wonder if they have the bottle to come onto this forum now and to apologise and to explain to their victims what the next step is.

Please does anyone have any advice on this? The facts as they have been reported to me: Mr X leaves the property in 2008. Mrs X remains at the property and there is a verbal agreement that she will transfer the utility bills to her name. Mr X still legally owns the property until it is repossesed by the bank in 2010. In 2015 Mr X obtains a copy of his Equifax credit report and discovers that United Utilities have registered a default dated March 2015. Unitied Utilities will not remove the default as they say Mr X did not notify them he had moved/was no longer responsible for the water charges at the property. The ICO have today sent this response: Dear Mr X, I write further to my email of 19 February. Based on the evidence provided, I consider that it is likely that United Utilities has complied with its obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) in this case. I feel it may be useful to explain that a default on a credit file means that an organisation considers the relationship between itself and the individual to have broken down. United Utilities has explained that whilst the last payment was made in 2007, they had been attempting to chase the debt and a default notice was only issued in February 2015 when collections activity was deemed exhausted and the relationship was deemed broken down. United Utilities has explained that the credit for £268.88 was a false credit and has confirmed that that the default date of 14 March 2015 and default balance of £3093 were accurate and up to date at the time it was shared with Equifax. United Utilities has explained that they acted on the information available to them as you did not inform them that you had ceased being responsible for charges at xxxxxxxxxxxxx until May 2015. I understand that while the default will remain, United Utilities will request amendments to your credit file to reflect the subsequent information received by you. I appreciate you may be disappointed by this, but I hope the information provided above explains the reasons for our decision. Yours sincerely, Adele Roper Lead Case Officer Information Commissioner’s Office 01625 545 774 Is there anything to stop a company registering a default from so long ago, or would there be if an agreement was regulated by the CCA? Is there any point Mr X arguing that he did not take out a credit agreement with United Utilities? I believe that utilities companies have only recently been allowed to 'share' data with credit reference agencies, so it's not something Mr X would have agreed to/been aware of upon opening the account. Thanks for reading.

Good Morning all, My partner received an official 4 page court letter from United Utilities today. We usually pay monthly, and have missed the last 3 payments. We have had trouble accessing the online account to set things up from there - however it displayed an old address. We had intentions of ringing up and setting the DD up but it was forgotten about. We have received no reminder letters, or any 3rd part debt collector letters in the meantime - if we had, we'd have setup and paid up - as it's only a small amount. The Form we have received says Claim Form, and we can respond to it using moneyclaim.gov.uk ? The problem we have is my partner is a student nurse - and it's her name on the paperwork - we are worried about her getting a CCJ as this will show on CRB's and could jeopardize her career. We have rang UU - and they have been arrogant and unhelpful - and have been told we'll end up with a CCJ regardless of us paying it or not now. The claim is seeming for missed payments (which isn't even £100) upto March of next year. Then there are fees of £50 (Legal rep) and £25 (Court fee) Are they playing fair? We can pay the missed payments without a problem in the next week - but they seem hell bent on going to court? How should I reply to this letter - and how likely is my partner to get a CCJ? Thanks in advance all

Hi I was wondering if anyone can help. An OAP became very sick, was hospitalised and is recovering further in a nursing home. This has been over three months. Is she entitled to a water rates discount since she is not on a metre but her property has been empty and I can vouch that no water has been used. She has records that she has been in hospital and living at the nursing home. She lives alone. She was advised that because she can not prove that no water has been used they wont discount her. But it didn't sound right to me. Thanks Clear33

Hi All, I need some help. I have received a claim form in my name from UU. I have acknowledged via MCOL but I have been away and not been able to get some traction on this. PoC is laid out below but here is a brief summary of the situation. Water Bill and some others in my home were transferred into my wife's name whilst I handled others. It appear this was not effected at UU despite them confirming this at the time. Wife tells me no bills have been sent to her and I just assumed it was being paid. Now out of the blue a claim in my name. Rang UU to discuss and possibly come to an agreement without wasting the court's time or anyone else's but didn't receive a positive response. 2 things concern me; 1. They didn't ring or write (as far as I know or can remember) 2. They confirm my call in 2011, added wife to the account but left me as primary account holder. Now if this is the case, shouldn't the 2 names be on the claim form? As you can imagine - I'm confused and do not know how to lay out my defence. Urgent assistance is required Name of the Claimant? United Utilities Water Ltd Date of issue 11th May 2015. Date of issue XX + 19 days ( 5 day for service + 14 days to acknowledge) = XX + 14 days to submit defence = XX (33 days in total) - 13 June 2015 What is the claim for – the reason they have issued the claim? Please type out their particulars of claim (verbatim) less any identifiable data and round the amounts up/down. 2045.13 is due from the defendant to the claimant for water service charges and any other charges incurred relating to such at XXXXXX for a period to 24/11/2014 full particulars of which have been supplied to the defendant What is the value of the claim? £2230.13 Is the claim for a current account (Overdraft) or credit/loan account or mobile phone account? water supply When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? Account opened in 2011 Has the claim been issued by the original creditor or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim. Original Creditor Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? N/A Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? No Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? No Why did you cease payments? Account was transferred into wife’s name. Assumed this was being paid as no bills were received in my name. What was the date of your last payment? Nov 2011 Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? No Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor and make any attempt to enter into a debt managementicon plan? No What you need to do now. Want to avoid a CCJ but come to an amicable and affordable payment arrangement as this is for water used by my family.

Hi, On the 13th May I received a payment reminder from United Utilities. The bill was dated on the 24/04/15 and strangely arrived on the 13/05/15. I double checked to see if I misplaced the first bill and it appears I have not received no bills from United Utilities since my last payment in January. I did not think much so I paid the full amount online. Today I receive another letter from United Utilities legal department demanding that I pay £157 which is double the amount what they were initially asking. I never have issues paying on time, I am very angered by the late arrivals of their letters and threats. Is there anything I can do to challenge United Utilities. As far as I am concerned the bill is up to date and I am being punished for their errors and delays. Kind Regards

Hello friends, First post so please excuse my very minor knowledge in the matter I need help/advice with. Lat week a bailiff from Crewe county court knocked on my door stating he had a warrant from the court regarding a ccj issued on behalf of United utilities water plc, I said I had no knowledge of the issue and he left, he left a mesage on my answer machine the following day asking me to call him. After reading information from various sites I decided not to call (unsure how I should have proceeded or what I would say) I came home last night and a letter had been hand posted through my door that is essentially a photocopied template with details filled in by hand. It contains yesterdays date (hand written) a claim number (hand written) a warrant number (hand written) the claimant (hand written) the amount of £1,192.08 (hand written) and a stamp that says the bailiffs name, bailiff, Crewe county court and below that a telephone number and a second stamp saying 'URGENT' The writing states that the warrant has been issued for the payment...... ....or removal of your goods to the saleroom unless within 24 hours the above amount is paid into the court office, you will leave me no alternative but to carry out the warrant by re-attending your premises with the auctioneers van and porters to remove your goods to the saleroom to satisy the warrant. You will have to pay additional removal fees and auctioneers costs. The bailiff has never been into the property to levy goods, can he simply turn up to collect goods, especially if I am not there? I feel i must say that this situation is not come about because I simply refuse to pay, it is the net effect of family seperation, and 2 redundancies within the same year that have compounded financial issues. I am a single father of two kids that live with me, I work full time but earnings only cover basic living costs....there is certainaly no lifestyle to talk of. I have a number of other debt issues but this is an immediate problem I am worried about. My car is an old banger and probably has a value of £200 tops but it is essential that i keep it for work commuting and hospital appointments (my youngest has a heart condition and requires regular visits to liverpool chest and heart hospital and alder hey) Could someone please tell me how to proceed, I have almost no assets, live in rented accomadation, and wages dont cover the cost of living ...i have nothing left to pay off debts and they are compounding badly. Last year I let a bailiff in and he levied goods against a council tax bill which I am paying £112.50 a month for to stop him taking items away which means I cannot afford to pay the current tax.. ...as an example of the situation getting worse. I hope this makes sense. Thank you for reading. Mark

Will try and keep this short, I owed United utilities £500 for water which they sent to scottcall. I worked with them (regret that now) and set up a £50 a month plan. I made the first payment via standing order so I didn't give them my details, it never arrived on my account. I loaded with UU who said they had resolved it and I had paid it wrong so scottcall kept it in a holding account. I have proof I sent it where they told me. I've kicked up a fuss been verbally abused by scottcall threatening to call at my house, so I informed UU i will pay them direct online but they are refusing to accept that and will only deal with me via scottcall. I've paid online anyway this month but UU are adamant that they won't be accepting any further online payments to my account. I've offered to set a direct debit up for £88 a month, 50 for debt and 33 for new year

We have recently taken over a commercial property who were supplied electricity through BES. After lots of hard work we've finally managed to change the electric supplier to EDF. Much better contract and much less money. BES want to charge us for the period between taking over the tenancy and today. The rates they have stipulated are a £1.50 standing charge per day, and a rate of 22p per KWA usage. Are the above rates fixed? Is there any way we can object and get a lower tariff? Seems harsh that we never entered a contract with BES, yet they are able to charge us these ridiculous rates, because the previous tenants dealt with them. Any help much appreciated.

Because I know that BES utilities is very keep to show how customer-facing and transparent they are, it would be very helpful if they would explain what is meant by a "deemed" contract and what the source if this phenomenon is. Thank you.

Hi My father in law died in FEb this year, he was in a care home with his wife who has alzeimers from September 2013, They have a house that no one lives in, however nothing can be done with this as we are waiting to find out if the house has to be sold to pay for his wifes care home fees. I check the mail regulary and we kept getting letters from a dect collection agency over the water rates, I phoned them and informed them that he had died (the letters were always addressed to him), they told me they would update sytem, Today I have received a county court claim in his name for unpaid water rates, claiming up until 2015, to be honest it had really upset me and I dont really know what to do, can anyone offer any advice please

Hi All, Hopefully I am in the right forum, apologies if not. Can anyone give me advice? I am about to buy a repossession, offer accepted, legal team on the case etc. I want to check the utilities BEFORE I complete. The Estate Agent has no information about the utilities, but they are taped off and the system drained. Can I get it all working to get a Gas/Electricity/Water person to check the systems are all OK BEFORE I move in? I am have a damp specialist visit to see how much the damp/condensation will cost to remedy (Top floor flat), but how do I get water gas electricity looked at? Will the relevant companies switch it on so I can test OR can they confirm the systems were all OK prior to repossession? If there are issues can I get the Vendor ( Bank ) to remedy before I move in? And remedy and damp before I move or not? Can I reduce the offer if anything needs fixing? Apologies if this is the wrong sub forum. Regards DG.

Good Afternoon, I have received a County Court Summons from United Utilities Water for claim for unpaid bills for water used etc. I live in a rented apartment and water is supplied through a meter. I first became concerned in 2012 when I received a bill for water use that seemed particularly high (for one person living alone). After some investigation and telephone call with United Utilities, I discovered that the water meters at this building are connected incorrectly and the meter registered to my apartment is NOT connected to my apartment. I have established this by turning the mains water tap off (that is connected to this meter) and the water maintains full pressure in my apartment. Furthermore, I have taken a reading of the numbers (showing water consumption) on the meter registered to my apartment and then released a considerable amount of water from the taps in my apartment. I then re-checked the numbers showing consumption on the meter and they had not changed. From this, I concluded that the meter that is registered to my apartment is not the actual one connected it. I first became aware of this problem and reported it to United Utilities on 1st November 2012 where I was informed that someone would come and visit my apartment and look at the problem. I have since made several telephone calls (for which I have contemporaneous notes and a record of the date and time the calls were made) to report this and continue to make United Utilities aware of the problem. In addition, I have sent letters and have recorded delivery receipts. I have not received any response to my letters and during some of the telephone conversations I have been asked to prove (in writing) that the meter is incorrectly connected. It is impossible for me to prove in a letter how a plumbing system is connected and it would be necessary for a plumber to visit my apartment to establish this. When I mentioned this during a telephone conversation, I was threatened with a visit from a debt collector and was assured that they would not be interested in looking at the water connection but would be guaranteed to leave with payment of the money United Utilities allege that I owe. It is my intention to defend their entire claim but I wish to make a counterclaim. I suffer from depression and have (in 2013) attempted suicide due to the pressure from various debt collectors and United Utilities unwillingness to address the problem. Since this problem was first brought to the attention of United Utilities in November 2012, I have been in a position where I felt unable to use water in my apartment due to the knowledge that my water system was connected to another meter and someone else would be getting charged for my water consumption. I subsequently suffered increasingly poor standards of hygiene, have been unable to wash or flush the toilet correctly and in extremis have boiled rain water in order to make a cup of tea. I have had to make regular visits to my mother’s home in order to properly use the toilet and take showers etc which has involved considerable travelling expenses. My general health has suffered considerably and my mental health deteriorated significantly due to the threats issued by United Utilities and debt collectors pursuing me for alleged debt despite being informed of the problem. What would be the accepted or usual amount of compensation for my distress etc that I should enter in my counterclaim. The other main difficulty I have is that the court charge a fee for a counterclaim. My career sadly ended due to ill health and I do not have the funds to pay the court fees. It would distress me greatly to think that United Utilities were able to get away without even an apology for what they have done to me. In relation to this, the wider issue remains that United Utilities have continued to receive payments fraudulently from at least one other tenant in this building who is actually connected to the meter that is wrongly registered to apartment 5. I do not know and have no way of knowing who this person is or which apartment is actually connected to this meter. I do know that there have been a number of changes in tenants in several apartments and this issue could potentially affect a large number of people going back to the time when the water meters were first installed. It is my concern that due to the seriousness of this matter, United Utilities will try to rectify the problem in order to avoid admitting liability. Any general advice or comments would be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks.

I have just recently checked my Equifax report to check that all is well and United Utilities is now showing the last five months status. I am up to date with my water bill but this account was opened in July 2000 and I have never signed a credit agreement with them or given them my date of birth

Hi, I've recently obtained a full credit report and discovered that Bournemouth & West Hants Water managed to get a CCJ against me for my tenants bill without my knowledge by serving a summons to an address that I no longer live at. I have disputed the debt with them and they say that if I had informed them that the tenant had moved in within x days, then they would not hold me liable however they appear to have lost the letter. Is this indemnity a legal right? or is this just something in the water company's Ts&Cs? As the water company had 2 letters (I have copies, but the letting agency didn't use recorded delivery) with my current address stating when the tenant started the tenancy and when it ended, and they have acknowledged the 2nd letter, can I accuse them on the N244 of vexatious litigation because they deliberately sent the letter to an old address? or should I merely state that they are grossly negligent? (The reason I ask, is that the clerk of the court said that the judge will consider an application for costs of setting aside to be claimed from the plaintiff). Can I also ask the judge for compensation for the false record on the credit report? or does this have to be a seperate case? Also I have been told there is also an outstanding bailiff warrant, do I need to ask for this to be stayed on the N244? BTW, the tenant did a moonlight flit owing me over £1200, and so I have no forwarding address, and Gas, Electric & Phone utilities have written off their debts. Do I need include details of the tenants and their lack of forwarding address on the N244 too? Any help and advice filing the N244 is very much appreciated, Banjo

Hi I normally post on the site with my own problems but I'm emailing for my sister. she got into arrears with united utilities for water rates to the sum of 2k. She buried her head and in Dec also ignored a court summons. All this is in her husbands name who until this week had no idea about any of it. Last Fri a high court bailiff turned up at her house from Marsden demanding full payment or to sieze goods. After discussions he said if she could make a payment of 1k he was sure they could come to an arrangement for the balance. She borrowed the money off our parents and paid over the phone on Monday and arranged a payment plan of £50 per month for the balance. Today they have rung and said he needs to call back tomorrow to complete some paperwork and make an inventory of goods. This has alarmed her and she has asked me to check if this is normal procedure. My debts are credit cards so never been in the situation to advise her and she's 21 weeks pregnant too so want to help her all I can. Could anyone please advise and help thx