Owe my old supplier? But I was PAYG?

Blast… And I thought I had it cracked…

Myself and two other Forum Volunteers are continuing to dig into this one. We’ll keep you informed if we have any other updates.

Sorry for the flood of questions like this. Your two cases are among the most complicated ones we have ever handled on the OVO Forum, so this is new territory for us. We hope you can understand our reasons for this, but it helps us to figure out what’s going on.

Have either of you ever heard about a Heat Network or Heat Meter at all? And what kind of heating/hot water setups do you both have? @NeddyMorai if I could start with yours first, that would be great.

I am going to file a complaint as Jeffus suggested further up the thread. 

I have gas boiler. My gas in not PAYG and there are no issues with that. Its definitely related to my electricity account. 

Thx. That would put more weight behind one of my theories then.

We have escalated this thread to the Forum Moderators. They’ll most likely swing by in the morning.

Ok, here’s the plan of action we’ve discussed backstage. @iseb and @NeddyMorai you are welcome to use this if you wish, but we will understand if you’d rather not.

The consensus of four Forum Volunteers - myself included - is that this is a phantom and/or unproven debt. If it is, then you owe nothing.

We recommend you challenge LCS by asking them for proof of this debt. The evidence they provide needs to show EXACTLY how much is owed down to the penny and EXACTLY who it is owed to - including the Registered Company Name and Company Number as they appear on Companies House. Anything else is not acceptable - I’m happy to dig into whatever company name they give if you need me to.

In other words, ask them to clarify exactly who’s instructed them to collect the debts. They may fabricate evidence, so please scrutinise everything carefully.

We also wish to offer some advice that I’ve adapted to be published here. This comes from us as Forum Volunteers, rather than from OVO or SSE.

Tell them that should LCS fail to provide satisfactory evidence, inform them politely and firmly that without such evidence the debt is invalid and unproven, for which they must cease recovery action until they can provide actual evidence. If such evidence cannot be found, they must close the case completely and withdraw/retract any detriments they have placed against you, such as on your credit records.

Tell them that you’ll report any further collection attempts for that unproven debt will be treated as harassment/fraud and reported to the FCA/Financial Ombudsman as such UNLESS they can provide that solid proof.

Without proper evidence, they cannot go to court and get a debt recovery order - the judge would quite likely reject it and throw the book at them.

Many thanks. I will formulate a response to LCS. I will keep you informed.

Just a quickie. The Forum Moderators have agreed to help dig deeper. They may post here with an update soon if they have anything to share or ask you.

I got this from LCS after going back to them with your suggestions.

“

Thank you for your recent email.

Your account is currently on hold whilst we await an update from our client. Once we have received further information from them we will notify you accordingly.

Kind Regards,

LCS “

Then that suggests they have nothing to back it up. So there’s a chance you might never hear from them again.

I would expect a DCA to just have that stuff ready on-hand immediately.