To ask your advice on dodgy gas disconnection letter

[BrieAndChilli]

Just come home to find a letter from blower business hand posted through the door saying that our property (3 bed semi we have rented for 9 years) should be a commercial gas account in the name of Fairfield Rents ltd and we owe £2725.44 or we will be disconnected in the next couple of weeks!!!
We have never heard of this company and have even at one point been a domestic gas customer of npower and have always paid our bills and submitted meter readings and do not owe any money to any gas company!
Says we will have to pay £1300 to get gas connected plus £449 court order fee plus 6 months gas upfront! If they disconnect and it’s proved that this bill is nothing to do with us will we still have to pay anything??!!

Can’t ring until 9am tomorrow so posting on here for advice in the mean time

Anyone heard of Fairfield rents?

Are you based in Surrey? Maulden

No we are in wales!

Ring your gas company

The only Fairfield rents ltd I can find on companies house is in new maulden Surrey.

I wouldn’t worry - phone them tomorrow say your a domestic property and for them to remove your address from the account. They will need to chase the company elsewhere. In the meantime phone your gas supplier and let them know and confirm that the gas will not be cut off

Get in touch with your current gas company and explain the situation to them, they may be able to reassure you that you don't owe anything.

This company needs to give you proof about this commercial gas account (at a 3 bed semi???) when you are already paying for gas to another company.

All very sensible advice and I will call them in the morning and I’m sure it will all be sorted!
Think it’s unsettled me as obviously a debt colllector came round to the house and posted this trough the door and DH is away in Spain.

We live in a small village with 1 pub and a post office so not like we are surrounded by businesses and they’ve got the number wrong or something! Not sure who love here before us but the landlord still owned it (and his secretary says she’s never heard of this company so nothing to do with him) and before that it was owned by an old man
I work from home but am employed by a company and there’s nothing anywhere to say I work from Home and I’m not connected to the company (which isn’t a rental company or anything close) in anyway other than as an employee. We have various offices (no where near Surrey) and nothing for the company would be at my address so not a mix up there.

Speak to your normal energy supplier and see what they say. The big ones are normally open til 8pm.
Was the letter addressed to you by name?
I think that only your energy supplier can disconnect your gas, not some random company you've never heard of.

There you go.
You cannot be disconnected if you owe money to a previous supplier.

www.ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/household-gas-and-electricity-guide/who-contact-if-its-difficult-paying-energy-bills/energy-supply-disconnection-and-prepayment-meter-rules

But we don’t owe money to anyone!!
We’ve not had any previous letters for this company and our name was not on the letter just our address.
All details were handwritten into a preprinted form with a note to ring npower.

What period does it say you owe money for? If that period was covered by a different supplier and fully paid for I would just send them the proof of that. You can't be charged twice for the same period.

Also if the account should be in the name of Fairfield Rents then fine let them out it in that name because that is not you therefore any warrant they get to cut you off will be refused because the court case will be against Fairfield Rents not you and you are the resident at the property.

It doesn’t say any other details apart from the total amount, it’s a letter from the debt collectors on behalf of npower not an actual bill from npower (we have never received a bill from npower for this)

Have you googled the debt company to make sure it isn't just a scam in the first place?

What is the name of the debt company? Ring Npower to find out what it's all about, it may be the debt company contacting you but they will only know the balance they have been asked to chase. Npower are open until 8 call them and ask what it's all about. It might be for a period you weren't even living there then it's easily sorted.

The business department I need to speak to closed at 5. I’ve already ring the domestic department and they couldn’t help me.

Nothing anyone can do until I speak to them tomorrow but was just wondering if anyone had come across this before.
Letter was hand delivered so a bit of a complicated scam plus our house definitely looks like we have NO money, paint peeling and needs redoing on the porch, weeds are taking over the garden!!

Sounds like a scam to me. The threat to disconnected is to scare you into paying.
And for God's sake don't ring the number on the letter. Google it to find the number. Often the scam itself is to make you ring a premium rate number!

But would they go to the trouble of hand delivering it??

Fairfield Rents was previously Urbandash Ltd. Fairfield Rents is registered in New Malden and is a property company, buying and selling, and also letting of real estate.

Perhaps they previously owned the property and are trying to get some money out of you as you are now there.

Sounds like a scam to me. Why would a private rental need a commercial gas account?

A reputable company wouldn't hand deliver it tbh

Lots of reputable debt collection agencies hand deliver letters it's part of the process, they visit the property to discuss and if no one is in, hand deliver a letter instead.

Rang npower who said both the supply and billing addresses on the account are different to ours so to ignore letter.
Then rang the collections people who said thy have been informed by npower that it’s a different address (must be the fastest I’ve seen any info be passed from one company to another!!!) and not to worry as even if it got as far as disconnection they would have to match the meter numbers and it would obviously be different.