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?

I can completely believe that a utility company can be so incompetent, I suddenly started receiving gas bills in the name of the previous owner,/tennant of my home, not only had I owned the place a few years when this started, the property doesn't have a gas supply!

This or if he has been the victim of identity theft. There may be other outstanding bills or credit cards in his name or linked to him.

If it's Southern Water I can well believe. They took over a year to resolve a not dissimilar issue I had and couldn't have given a crap.

I would let them waste their money by taking me to court.

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!

Hi OP, this is a standard debt collector claim and it's designed to panic you into paying up straightaway so they don't go to court over it and potentially land you with a CCJ. I worked in payables for years and every debt collector I dealt with claimed this.

Hi Op, i work in this sector.

It may have either been the case that the company wasn’t notified of the demolition at the time (it does happen), or the company didn’t record it properly.

The reason your son has ended up on the bill is that the debt collection agency will have done any kind of digging to see who has been registered at that address. They have access to all kinds of databases. It’s therefore also quite common for wrong people to be chased. They are usually just passed a debt amount and the property address though, they aren’t usually given details about how the debt occurred etc.

There should be a complaints procedure on the water company’s website (i’m thinking you might be with affinity?), definitely go as high as you can.

You’re also welcome to pm me a copy of the letter and i can take a look to see whether it’s a scam, although the water co should be able to confirm this

Yes sorry the PPs advice to get your son’s credit score checked is vital.

I have to say i was once chased by a debt collector in error and their automated phone messages did make me think it was a scam at first.

I would guess that they did a credit record check and somehow your son has been associated with the house. Just because the house wasn’t there doesn’t mean the meter was removed so there could be a legitimate debt, even if not one that your son is responsible for.

There must be a complaints email or number your son can use to ensure his credit rating is updated and the debt collection activity is cancelled.

I had this with my Thames Water bill. I left the address over 5 years ago and this year I’ve received a letter from debt collectors saying that I owe them about £300. I had to submit my council tax letters as evidence to show that I’m not even living in that borough. I also sent them my most recent tenenxy agreement and they have not sent the “debt” back to the water company.

Find out the debt collector company as the water company will most likely tell you that it is out of their hands because it’s sitting with debt collectors.

I know these company are fishing for money everywhere but your case is insane if the house doesn’t even exist!

You should complain to the Consumer Council for Water.

I was just going to say this!

He needs to check his credit score and see if defaults are registered against it. He will want to get them removed as they’re inaccurate.

What a bizarre situation though!!

Something fairly similar happened to us. Our water bill is in my name e.g. Mrs A Smith and paid by direct debit. A debt recovery letter arrived for Mr A Smith for water bill arrears. I assumed it was a scam and binned it. A second one arrived and my husband rang them to ask about it.

Turned out the debt was at his parents' house. They still live there, but he moved out 15+ years ago. They'd tracked him by going back through the electoral roll. He moved out when he went to uni as a teenager and never went back home. He was obviously never the bill payer there, or linked to their account. They wouldn't tell us how they tracked down our current address.

It was all very embarrassing as we had no idea his parents had debts and they were mortified we knew. They wouldn't talk about it, but we believe they set up a payment plan. We never received any more letters anyway.

I’d be tempted to ask a solicitor to write a letter asking that they stop their harassment of your son.

Citizen's Advice?

There is also Ofwat - have a look on their website for useful information.

Help your son to Submit a subject access request to the water company , that will get you a record of any information they have on your son .

If they have a legitimate account open in his name :
Then provide evidence that the property has been demolished and that your dad was in fact the account holder when the property was occupied if the billing dates overlap .

You can get a CCJ cancelled if it has been issued in error so that it doesn't affect your son's credit file .

Contact Citizen's Advice.

It sounds like either identity fraud or a scam.

Not with water but with other services. Don't bother phoning around but write and keep copies of all the letters, send to both parties explaining all the reasons why this is not a valid bill.
Keep doing it . Lodge complaint with ombudsman. Keep invoicing them for your time. Eventually when pressed to provide evidence they will give up.

Speak to citizens advice. They are really helpful when it comes to things like this. We had similar with an energy company. Who refuse to speak to us as we didn’t have an account but sent bailiffs to our home to settle a debt owed?!?

Not exactly the same but Northumbrian water (who I worked for at the time) changed my parents water account into my name (I didn’t live there at the time and it wasn’t my registered hr address so not like a staff discount or anything.

questioned them about it and they couldn’t give an answer but it was very strange

It sounds like the company is just “fishing”

https://debtcamel.co.uk/prove-it/

Presumably if they did proceed to pursue him via the courts for non payment, they'd be laughed back out again?

You need to be careful just ignoring things. Courts are very sniffy about people who let things get as far as court when they could have stopped it with a letter or phone call. It can affect any costs awarded.

Personally I don't think there should be any onus on somebody wronged chased for a debt. But I don't make the rules.

It was all very embarrassing as we had no idea his parents had debts and they were mortified we knew.

Shouldn't something like gdpr legislation prevent these debt collection agencies for revealing details of another persons debts to someone else?