Lawyer’s debt letter but it’s not for me, just ignore?

[ThatsNotMyDogItsTooCalm]

Been away for the weekend and just got home. There’s a few bits of Mail including a letter addressed to ‘the occupier/occupiers’ with bold red letters across the front saying it’s not a circular and not to ignore. I opened the letter and it’s from a law firm who say they are specialists in debt recovery. It’s saying that there’s a £120 debt owed by the occupiers of my house for one days electricity. It’s the day before I moved into the house (for example, I moved in on 1st of March and it’s for 28th February to 1st of March).

This is the first letter I’ve received about this ‘debt’ and they claim to have been passed the debt from the same electricity company I’m with, so the company has my contact details etc

the first paragraph of the letter is all about how I might not have lived here during these dates and if that’s true I need to go online and complete a form. I’ve looked on the form and they want a lot of information like my name/phone number/email address and it’s making me feel less like getting in touch with them? Do you think I can call them tomorrow in a withheld number and say i didn’t live here then and I’m not paying? Or should I ignore? Not sure what to do and really worried it might some how effect my credit rating (which definitely won’t be good after a few very hard post covid years!)

Just reply by post saying you didn't live there on that date. Give them the contact details of the solicitors or conveyancers acting for the previous owner, if you bought the property; if you are renting, refer them to the landlords who will confirm when your tenancy began.

We've not long moved and we had this I just rang them and emailed the proof of when we took ownership and they amended the records I also gave them the sellers solicitors details

I wouldn’t ignore it, contact them and explain you didn’t live there at that time. They will probably require proof of when you moved in.

I have dealt with this twice. Once at home (our house had been repossessed before we got it, so we did get a certain amount of debt stuff) and once at work where someone was clearly chancing their arm giving the address at work (didn't know them!).

Both times I phoned up and explained and in both cases they apologised and said they'd make a note that our address was not to be used in association with the debt and we heard no more.

What was more irritating was one of these debt recovery services who got our phone number for the house. We'd taken our phone number from the old house, so it was ours not the previous people's iyswim.
They phoned 2-3 times a day for a week, being told the same thing each time, at which point I told them that if they called again I would contact a solicitor for harassment claims. That seemed to settle and and we didn't hear again.
We did once have a "private investigator" turn up at our address asking for the previous occupant. I offered him a pile of letters I had got (all with "no longer living at this address" written across the envelope) to return to them if they found them. He refused, apologised for disturbing me and we never heard anything more.

Ok thanks. I rent privately so easy to give them the landlords contact details. I just didn’t want to give them mine 😂 I’ll dig out my contracts and see if I can send them a copy that doesn’t show my personal details

Don't ignore it, unless you enjoy dealing with bailiffs. And I speak from experience (though they were surprisingly polite). I can see why it's irritating, but it's probably worth dealing with properly....