Urgent help please. I owe Scottish Power £700+ and they won't accept my offer

[caguser]

Hello, I find myself in the situation of owing Scottish Power £766.22; as I've broken a previous payment agreement (because of an unforeseen family illness) they now won't accept my repayment offer (initially of £100 per month for the next three months and an increase after that.)

They've just told me that the only thing they are willing to offer is the installation of a card meter but I can't do that as we are renting, and the tenancy agreement prohibits any such installation; I've made them aware of this.

 

They've just told me that the account is being referred to a collections agency and "I might have more luck getting them to take my reapyment offer."

I'm so very very worried that I will get cut off if I don't/can't pay their demands as my child is unwell; Scottish Power supply both my gas and electric.

I do want to pay this and get this worry off my mind once and for all, and am hoping that somebody may be able to offer some advice on how I can proceed.

 

 

When they refer the account does that mean that someone is coming to cut me off?

 

Many thanks

[bennyowen]

caguser,

Do not despair, you will not be cut off. However, when they pass your details to the collection agent, the agent will contact you to make full payment immediately with a treat of court action if you don't.

 

When the agent contact you, do not fail to reply with what you can afford. Make sure you put your offer in writing and send by recorded delivery to the agent. Do not offer any amount you cannot pay because the agent will want you to either fail to respond to their request or offer nothing towards paying the debt. While the matter is being disputed, make sure you continue to pay the amount you can afford. Do not stop paying. If you can afford to pay £100 per month, continue to make that payment continuously and consistently. Keep evidence of your payments.

 

You must offer a reasonable amount (£100 is reasonable) because if it is unreasonable, if the agent decide to take the matter to court, the judge will not support an unreasonable offer to pay. Also, the judge will not support refusal of a reasonable offer.

 

Good luck

[Glenn UK]

I had something similar with BG.

 

i owed around the same amount as you and made an offer of payment to them directly. they told me that ihad to either settle in one go or they could allow me to make three motnhly payments.

 

i laughed at them and told them i would send them my offer and the first cheque, it was for £30 pcm, and they could do what they liked.

 

Anyway sent them the letter saying that this weas my offer and that cashing the cheque signficed their acceptance of this offer. if they rejected the offer then they shuld return the cheque.

 

anyway a month or so later i got a letter from their debt collecting agency. They were quite sruprised when i had an agreed payment plan in place, lol.

 

i sent them a copy of my letter and confirm,ed that i would pay the amount every month by SO and thats what imn doing now.

 

So i would send them your offer inw riting along with a cheque, making it clear that if they cash the cheque they have accepted your offer of payment.

 

They will cash the cheque because thats the nature of the beast, you probalby wont get an acknowledgement either, but send them the cheques every month and when the debt collecting agencty call sup tell him you have already agreed the payment plan.

 

JMHO

 

Glenn

[emmaf01]

Also, if you receive income support, you can opt for Fuel Direct, where they take an amount from your benefit each week, thereby stopping any further action from utility companies.

 

According to the dss, utility companies are desperate to fit prepayment meters, as fuel direct takes any control away from the company completely and for the forseeable future!

[anonadams]

If your children are under 5 years of age they can not cut your utilities off.

[foxyflugel]

Hi

 

We had the same thing with them. We had accrued arrears cos one of their marvellous agents had drastically underestimated our usage when we switched to them (how convenient!!) When we changed we owed then approx £500/600. I took leagl advice and was told to send them a letter stating that I would pay £30 pm and that if it was to go to court they would not get as much as this and the judge would take a very dim view of their refusal when I had offered to pay. Don't let it go to a collections agent as you will then incurr the charges for their services. Write them a letter setting all the above out and wait for their reply. We had a very nice reply accepting our offer of £30 pm and apologising. Initially they said that 3 months was all the could allow for the repayment of the arrears - this is obviously not the case. Good Luck

[caguser]

Dear all, thank you very much for your advice. It's moved on slightly and I'd be grateful if you could let me know if I can still do as originally advised? i.e. write to them and offer a payment.

OK, I was being chased by Grosvenor Legal Services (on behalf of scottsh power) and I watched as a bailiff got out of her car and simply put a letter through my door and drove away without knocking-the letter told me that they were charging me for this visit and that I owed them the money, all of which I knew!

I agreed to pay £192 to the bailiffs company-though I am a few days late on this payment it will be paid by Friday (13th)

I have emailed Grosvenor Legal to tell them this and they have mailed back just now as follows:

 

Dear XX

 

Re: Grosvenor Ref XXXXX

 

I have made a note on our records that you are to pay £192 by the end of the week.

 

However, after checking our records, I note that Scottish Power have now asked us to apply to the courts for a 'warrant of entry' to your property.

 

This means that as soon as we have a date booked with the courts, no payment arrangements can be made. The full outstanding balance would need to be paid before the warrant date or you would need to allow us access to install pre payment payment meters. (this would incur extra charges).

 

I am sorry I cannot prevent any further action. An alternative would be to arrange an appointment to have pre payment meters installed before any court dates are obtained. This would enable you to repay the arrears through the meter at an agreed weekly rate (there would be no extra costs incurred for this at this stage).

 

I hope this clarifies the position of your account but if you have any further questions or would like to discuss these options further, please ring me on 0845 602 2090.

 

Yours sincerely

 

I am in a bit of a cold sweat about the wording to be honest. The £192 will be paid without fail but I cannot allow a meter to be fitted as it breaks our tenancy agreement etc etc (a fact I have informed both SP and GL of).

I would be very very grateful for any advice from someone out there!

 

Thanks

[ozzywizard]

It is much better to phone and arrange a prepayment meter to be fitted then to have one fitted on warrant as the costs are like 220 pounds if they install through warrant. This might be best option as you can just pay back at 3 a week. Only other option is to phone them and speak to a manager and try to negotiate a repayment plan over say a 12 month period. Good luck with it.

[emmaf01]

Apart from the payment of £192, have you made a written offer of regular payment to clear the debt?

 

If you have, and keep to it, I would ask them to make sure the matter is at a local court to you, so you can attend. Any judge, seeing that you have made a reasonable offer, have been paying regularly and on time, and that changing the meter would contravene your tenancy agreement, would refuse the warrant.

 

Energy suppliers actively WANT to install pre-payment meters.

 

If you are on benefits, eg income support, ask the Benefits Agency/jobcentre plus, about Fuel Direct. We stopped our energy supplier from fitting a pre-payment meter by getting this set up. It was a fight though, because they don't want people to feel they have any alternative to the meters, from which they profit considerably.

 

Keep strong- they are bullies!

[MARTIN3030]

Agree completely Well answered Emma

[surprise]

I would just like to come in here regarding Fuel Direct from benefits. My daughter who receives DLA and Income support asked her Benefits Agency to do this for her and they rang Scottish Power then wrote to my daughter saying quote "Deductions from benefit are normally only considered as a last resort, when no other options are available to a customer. I have spoken to Scottish Power, who advise me that the options of both a payment plan and a prepayment are available to you. As a result we are unable to set up deductions for you.". She spoke to Scottish Power today and said they only way she can have a prepayment plan is to pay £150.00 now and two weeks another lump sum. She doesn't have this amount of money so she has had to agree to having a prepayment metre fitted with £11.00 a week from the debt. The total of debt being £441.00.

[emmaf01]

Due to her disability, I would imagine a pre-payment meter may not be the right option.

 

At least that was the reason we gave to the DSS, to say we had to get fuel direct instead of a pre-payment meter.

 

As your daughter is disabled, would she be able to get up, in the middle of the night, and travel around the local area looking for an open shop to get a gas or electricity "top up"?

 

I don't know how your daughter's disability effects her day to day life, but I'm sure the added stress of constantly having to check whether she will run out of fuel cannot be anything BUT detrimental.

 

Keep trying with the Benefits Agency. Tell them that a pre-payment meter IS NOT an option in your daughter's situation. And if they try to say no again, tell them to refer this to a manager. Fight, because this is important.