EON admit issuing a Claim and obtaining Judgment using previous address

[laineynic]

If I have posted this to the wrong placeI apologise.

 

I am seeking advice for myself and my daughter. My daughter has moved back home with her husband. Over the last 18 months my daughter has been made redundant then my son in law was made redundant. When they bth found jobs there was a difference of £600 a month in what they used to bring home.

 

They contacted all their debtors and made arrangements to clear their debts. However Eon for some reason didn't want to agree to a payment plan. In October 2017 they moved home telling everone of there new address. Eon sent there final bill to our home address in December. She made payments in January & February. Then on 23rd February a ccj came through the post. She immediately contacted Eon customer services. Who were no help and told her to speak to the legal team.

 

She contacted them by email and the response she got was agressive. They admitted they'd sent the court papers with her previous address as the contact address. So anyhting rgarding the court was going to her previous address. But the house was empty as it has just been sold. When she said to them how could she respond if the cort papers weren't received they said by law they were right and by law they had done nothng wrong sending it to an incrrect address.

 

On the 9th March a letter arrives from High Court Enforcer on behalf of Eon. She now lives in our family home and no matter what we have said they are going to visit.I undertsand it makes no difference to them if its our house and things in it are our.

 

After some advice we have applied to the judgement set aside. I contacted Tim Farron MP and he emailed the executive office. They basically said tough they had done nothing wrong and they weren't prepared to discuss it anymore and she has to deal with HCE.

 

I don't know what to do we have 30 years of our lives together in our home and the thought of HCE just being able to take things from us. Eon have been the only company not to show compassion and understanding at everything they have been through.

[BankFodder]

So I gather that you are posting here on behalf of your daughter – is that correct? It always makes it a little more complicated when we are trying to help a third party who isn't necessarily as committed as is needed in order to deal with the problem.

 

In whose name is the account? Is it your daughter? The husband?

 

The first thing they should do is they should send off an SAR accompanied by cheque. They should do that straightaway because it takes 40 days any data to be disclosed – assuming that the disclosure is made. This is going to be essential if you going to deal with this at all.

 

You say that they have admitted that they sent the court papers to the previous address – presumably did this in writing. However have you got any evidence that they accept that they had a current address on file?

 

Have you told them that you are applying for set-aside? Have they agreed? If they have agreed then they should properly call HCEO of the case until the matter is fully resolved.

 

Can you tell us more about the debt please. How did it come about? Over what period of time? What is the value of the debt?

 

Which HCEO company are you dealing with?

 

Please will you read our customer services guide. Please will you make sure they read the customer services guide and implement all the advice there. If there are having any telephone calls then they should be made only after implementing the advice we give.

 

If they are recording calls then it would be very useful to have telephone calls in which they agree that that they were in possession of the new address but that they didn't use it.

 

More information please

[Bailiff Advice]

 

They contacted all their debtors and made arrangements to clear their debts. However Eon for some reason didn't want to agree to a payment plan.

 

In October 2017 they moved home telling everyone of their new address.

 

Eon sent their final bill to our home address in December.

 

She made payments in January & February. Then on 23rd February a ccj came through the post. She immediately contacted Eon customer services. Who were no help and told her to speak to the legal team.

 

She contacted them by email and the response she got was agressive. They admitted they'd sent the court papers with her previous address as the contact address.

 

So anyhting rgarding the court was going to her previous address. But the house was empty as it has just been sold. When she said to them how could she respond if the cort papers weren't received they said by law they were right and by law they had done nothng wrong sending it to an incrrect address.

 

I must say that the response that you have received from EON confirming that they had issued a claim against an address that they knew was wrong is extremely worrying and in particular so given the recent Ministry of Justice's Consultation on this very subject !!!!!

 

The following is from the introductory text outlined in the Consultation:

 

 

 

Service of the claim

 

Where court action is necessary, the general principles governing service (i.e. the process of communicating/providing notice of proceedings to the defendant) of documents in legal proceedings are contained in Part 6 of the Civil Procedure Rules. The claimant provides the court with an address for service of the claim. This will be the defendant’s usual address if known, or last known address where the claimant does not know the current address (even if the defendant has moved) or where the defendant has not provided a current address. The Rules do not require the claimant to ensure or prove that a claim is received by the defendant, the premise being that it is the responsibility of the defendant to update creditors with their new address and/or having their mail redirected.

 

At the same time claimants, in civil proceedings, must sign a statement of truth i.e. that the claimant believes the facts stated in the claim form are true. This includes the names and addresses of the parties. Anyone who deliberately provides false information may be subject to contempt of court proceedings, and if contempt is proved the penalty is imprisonment or a fine.

 

'A claimant must take “reasonable steps” to ascertain the defendant’s current address. Where the claimant is unable to ascertain the defendant’s current address, the claimant must consider whether there is an alternative place or method by which the claim may be served with the permission of the court. If the claimant is unable to ascertain either the defendant’s current address or an alternative method of service, the claim may be served on the defendant’s last known address'.

 

PS: The Consultation ended a month ago (given the importance of the subject, I submitted a response). I notice that EON are not specifically mentioned as one of the Stakeholders consulted (unlike Southern Water) but given that OFGEM and OFWAT are included, EON must be aware. If so, I am very surprised in their response to the complaint raised.

 

https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/default-county-court-judgments-2/supporting_documents/defaultcountycourtjudgmentsconsultation.pdf

[AndyOrch]

Thread title amended and moved to Bailiffs - Help with Dealing with Bailiffs and Enforcement Agents including HCEO Forum.

 

Please continue to post here to your thread.

 

 

Regards

Andy

[brassnecked]

This case is extremely worrying, hopefully given that EON admitted they sent everything to old address regardless of having an updated contact address. Hopefully a set aside might be possible. The other old chestnut of all the goods at the new, owned by a third party lodgings are belong to Us thee HCEO who will cheat and lie to get mum and dad's goods for daughter and son in law's debtby demanding impossible proofs. Perhaps Mum should swear a Statutory declaration as to all goods belong to her/husband/partner, and Daughter/SIL are lodgers just to be safe.

[laineynic]

I am sorry I misspelled the title I am partially sighted I also have a cataract on my right eye. I was also typing it in the early hours. I would usually spellcheck. Any other postings etc will be spell checked. Thank you for the advice on the consultation.

 

Bankfodder

I am dealing with this for her as she works full time and I am at home all day, so it is easier for me. I am every bit committed to this as she is. It is my home that they will try to gain entry to.

I am doing this SRS this afternoon I presume there is a standard letter on this site?

She has a letter from Eon on the 31St December that came to this address. Also, an email in December with the final bill which has her previous address and the new address on it. We have emails in which the legal team state they had done nothing wrong by sending court papers to the previous address. They then say that their records had this address and not the new address. They then go onto say you should have informed us you had moved. Which she did in October, November & January. The letter from the executive’s Office also stated the address as being her old address and said that they had done no wrong issuing it to a previous address even though they were aware she had moved.

 

Yes, we have told them that she has asked for it to be set aside and their response was that they had done nothing wrong and they won’t recall the debt from the HCEO.

 

Things went wrong when her husband was made redundant when the young man who he cared for passed away. It was instant redundancy. He struggled to find job that paid the same after 12 weeks of trying to find something in his infinite wisdom he decided to train to be roofer which meant a deep in pay of £600 per month. 12 months later the young lady I care for passed away and I was made redundant. She was out of work for 12 weeks mostly because she had to wait for her DBS to come through. During that time, she also lost her baby and was devastated she took time out and was signed of by the Doctor. Her husband also has a daughter to someone else who decided to move away with his daughter. To see her they were having to drive 160 miles every 2 weeks to bring her home. The cost in fuel was something they had not thought about. All this escalated and they were getting deeper into debt. When the landlord decided he was selling this house we asked them to move in with us until they got back on their feet again. The debt is in my daughter’s name only.

 

The debt is for £1176 it is for dual fuel up until they got into debt they had paid all their bills. The HCEO – High Court Enforcement Group Ltd based in Colwyn Bay,

[ploddertom]

When they applied for Set Aside did they also apply for a Stay of Execution against the High Court Writ? In some respects this is more important than the Set Aside as if granted it prevents any further Enforcement action.

 

If you do receive a visit then regardless of anything they may tell you there is no automatic right of entry to the home and it would be a bad idea to let them in voluntarily. Anything lying outside could be fair game particularly if you have a car, motorbike, motorhome, caravan etc. Only goods belonging to the debtor may be seized and/or taken but often they will use the excuse that they had reason to believe that xxxxxx was that of the debtor and if not then they want proof of who it does belong to.

 

Temporarily you need to ensure you keep the doors locked - they are allowed to visit 7 days per week between 6am-9pm - and may call at differing times to try and catch you off guard.

[brassnecked]

So this is in Wales, have you contacted the HCEO to tell them you are doing a Stay of Execution application, and Set Aside application, and are sorting out a Stat Dec regarding your goods? It might give them second thoughts on visiting. but they can still call anytime until a Stay is granted.

[AndyOrch]

Have you actually made application to set a side / stay of execution ?

 

 

Andy

[brassnecked]

Stay is critical, do it asap if not already, as ploddertom has indicated what the HCEO is likely to do, hide any cars away from the premises for now also.

[Bailiff Advice]

Is your daughter able to get fee exemption for the 'set aside'? She needs to look at court form EX160.

[Bailiff Advice]

 

I contacted Tim Farron MP and he emailed the executive office. They basically said tough they had done nothing wrong and they weren't prepared to discuss it anymore and she has to deal with HCE.

 

I would suggest that you contact Tim Farron MP once again to make him aware of the very recent Consultation and the introductory text that I have highlighted in my post number 3.

 

Secondly, although the Consultation has ended, that is not to say that the Ministry of Justice would not welcome details of your experience. I would suggest that you (or better still; your MP) write to them asap.

 

PS: The link that I posted earlier to the Consultation does not appear to be working. Hopefully the following one works. (The Consultation paper can be found towards to end of the page).

 

https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/default-county-court-judgments-2/

[BankFodder]

.

 

Bankfodder

I am dealing with this for her as she works full time and I am at home all day, so it is easier for me. I am every bit committed to this as she is. It is my home that they will try to gain entry to.

I am doing this SRS this afternoon I presume there is a standard letter on this site?

She has a letter from Eon on the 31St December that came to this address. Also, an email in December with the final bill which has her previous address and the new address on it. We have emails in which the legal team state they had done nothing wrong by sending court papers to the previous address. They then say that their records had this address and not the new address. They then go onto say you should have informed us you had moved. Which she did in October, November & January. The letter from the executive’s Office also stated the address as being her old address and said that they had done no wrong issuing it to a previous address even though they were aware she had moved.

 

Yes, we have told them that she has asked for it to be set aside and their response was that they had done nothing wrong and they won’t recall the debt from the HCEO.

 

 

 

The debt is for £1176 it is for dual fuel up until they got into debt they had paid all their bills. The HCEO – High Court Enforcement Group Ltd based in Colwyn Bay,

 

 

I think we need to see this correspondence first hand please. It always helps. If the correspondence is as you say then I'm sure we can help you get a set aside in the face of their objection, without any problem and also with an order for costs against them.

 

Please will you assemble the correspondence and post up here in PDF format. – It must be in PDF format – a multipage single file PDF document. Please could you make a priority of doing this.

[BankFodder]

I hope it goes without saying that the PDF document you post up should contain all the correspondence assembled in chronological order – in a form which you would be pleased to receive if it were given to you.

[brassnecked]

Make sure you obscure name, address and account numbers and references on the uploaded PDF.