Water company claiming DS owes them money for house that doesn't exist???

[WaterRidiculousSituation]

This is a really weird one, and if anyone has any advice it would be welcome!

Ds came home from work (lives with me) this morning to find a letter from a debt collection agency, saying he owes over £650 in water supply arrears. However...

• He's never held an account with a water company, never been responsible for paying a water bill
• It was for an address we left in 2021
• The house belonged to my dad who was the account holder (and meticulous about paying bills!)
• The debt is for water supply to the property for 2022-23
• The house was demolished in late 2021/ early 2022 so didn't exist during the period of supposed arrears
• Ds wasn't even 18 when we left that house and didn't even have a bank account let alone utility accounts

They said it has been passed to a debt agency because he has ignored all previous attempts to get him to pay it. There have been absolutely no attempts whatsoever - and in any case he's never been the water bill payer!

We have called the water co and the debt agency but they are not being helpful. The water co say they can't give him any further details about how this has happened because he didn't pass the security questions for the account...well yeah, because it's not his account. The debt agency say it's up to the water co.

How can this have happened? Has this happened to anyone else?

Does your DS have the same name as your Dad? Or his Dad?

Does your Dad have any records/can speak to the water company to find out if it's the same account? He can also check when his account/connection to that address ended?

Nope, completely different names.

Water co has confirmed that the account for the old address is closed and not owing anything. But also that ds's name is 'on their system' but won't give further details.

Could it be a scam?

Very similar happened to us!
We left a house in 2021 and it was shortly thereafter demolished. The water bill was in my partners name. When we moved a bill from Welsh water was sent to our new address in my name for water supplied after we'd moved out.
I called them and they basically said that they hadn't been informed that the house had been demolished and so although my partner closed his account when we left they were not aware that nobody lived there again so they looked for someone else associated with the property to invoice. I had to send a copy of our current tenancy agreement and they sent me another bill with a zero balance within about a week.

Could it be a scam

Possible. Did you phone the number on the letter or did you Google it to confirm it was the right number

This sounds like a scam to me - someone's concocted a tale through little bits of information - but then why would his name be on the system?
Also doesn't make sense why they are both saying it's up to each other - what exactly did the debt collection agency say, guessing they wouldn't confirm where they have been supposedly sending these previous letters to?

Ooh sorry I missed that it was from a debt collection agency, ours was directly from the water company

It could be a scam, though I don't know of any.
A debt collector may not enter your property or take goods so you can tell them to bugger off.
I guess If you absolutely can't get anywhere, you could wait until they eventually take it to court where you can give all the evidence and prove that it is not your son.

Utility companies are notorious for being so incompetent that they do this sort of thing - just look at the money problem pages in the newspapers for regular stuff about water/electriticy/gas companies messing up.

I would write a clear letter, with bullet points, explaining what you have said here, ie that you left the property on XX date, after which it was unoccupied and then demolished; DS was not and has never been responsible for any bills at that address, and so on. Send it to both the utility company and the debt collection agency.

If they keep chasing you then start posting about it on social media, which sometimes gets their attention, or if that doesn't work, get in touch with one of the newspaper money pages.

Is your father still alive? Has he tried calling the water company? Surely they'd give him more info?

did you tell them it had been demolished irrespective if the house is there or not there will still be a live water feed and drain connection

I suggest that your DS calls the water company directly and ask for the Debt Advice dept. Advise them that the bills were raised incorrectly as your son was a child at that house at that time. Ask for all unpaid copy bills for your records. If they try to tell you that you should speak to the collection agency, advise them that that would not be appropriate as the basis of charge is flawed.

Sounds like a scam

Google the number for X debt collection and rang that number, not the number from the letter

Could be ID fraud?

Yes, ironically when ds gave them the postcode etc they couldn't find it...because it doesn't exist anymore. And in any case, ds wasn't and never has been responsible for the utility bills there.

That's what makes me think it's a scam. It feels as if some one's just got ds's current and previous addresses and tried to concoct a feasible story about unpaid bills at the previous address.

Do the contact details on the letter actually match a real company on google? Companies house?

It sounds like a similar situation to the second one in this Guardian article: teenage son being chased for payments after the family moved and his parents closed a utility account. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/oct/04/a-cry-for-help-energy-providers-play-the-villain-in-dramas-to-chill-the-blood

Unless utility/water companies have the name of a new account holder (or actually register that a property is empty or no longer exists) they will come after any names they can find that are associated with the property.

A clear, firm letter may help, then media or possibly Citizens Advice.

Yeah they are a 'real' company although 99% of the trustpilot reviews say scam.

Presumably if they did proceed to pursue him via the courts for non payment, they'd be laughed back out again? I agree, one letter to the utility company directly stating the facts and utter ridiculousness of the claim then ignore any further communication? Or just keep resending the same letter if they keep contacting?

Thames Water?

They once linked my name to every house on my street they didn't have a named contact for and tried to extract money from me to cover their bills.

I recommend you make all your complaints in writing. The onus is on them to prove he is their customer, not on him to prove he is not.

They will phone to say that the case is closed. It will frequently reopen itself as another letter arrives. Insist on them putting any telephone conversations in writing.

Follow their complaints process and keep escalating.

It sounds very similar to the second example in the Guardian article that Exexpat linked to.

Can he submit a Subject Access Request to the water company? It's very difficult to prove that you haven't done something but if the company itself can't provide evidence that your son had an account with them, that's as strong evidence has you can get.

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/getting-copies-of-your-information-subject-access-request/

Oh that's really interesting - appears to be exactly what's happened here!!

We've now written to the water co, the debt agency and raised a complaint with the fraud reporting website and copied in citizen's advice. Not going to let this lie.

Could the scam be that the letter is fake?

It looks like it's from the water company and there's a suggestion of 'if you pay this bill now into these bank account details we have helpfully provided' they hope you'll pay to prevent any further action and they disappear with your money.

I'd contact the water company using details from their (carefully checked) official website and explain the situation. The fact that you had moved out of the property for the period in question, that the house didn't even exist and your DS is/was under 18 and never had any utility bills, should give them sufficient proof that he/you don't owe the debt. Plus alert their fraud department.

Not Thames but near to it :)

We've laid out all the reasons why ds cannot possibly be liable for this 'debt', and also requested proof from the water co that he was the named account holder for the period of the supposed debt. Which they won't be able to provide, obviously.

Just makes me so angry. Vulnerable people will be intimidated into paying up to make scary stuff like this go away.

And get your son to check his credit score. If it has been impacted by the erroneous 'debt' then the water company needs to correct that.

I read a consumer champion article many years ago that said companies wrongly accusing people of debt via a third party (eg debt collection agency or their credit score) was a form of defamation and the wronged party should ask for compensation.