Advice Required - Relentless Debt Collector

£100 is an awful amount.
Awful.
Do not accept.
Frankly, given how long this has continued, and the fact you simply wanted rid of them (4 years ago), just let the ombudsman play out.
This is a utility company, let them be spanked, when banks go to the ombudsman it costs a minimum of £850 in fees alone.
I'd be amazed if this is any lower, so just hold out, and say you want this to be processed by the ombudsman, as this utility company has at no stage provided you with any evidence they have put into place any new protocols or working practice to ensure this trauma you have suffered doesn't happen to other customers in the future.
 
Destination said:
£100 is an awful amount.
Awful.
Do not accept.
Frankly, given how long this has continued, and the fact you simply wanted rid of them (4 years ago), just let the ombudsman play out.
This is a utility company, let them be spanked, when banks go to the ombudsman it costs a minimum of £850 in fees alone.
I'd be amazed if this is any lower, so just hold out, and say you want this to be processed by the ombudsman, as this utility company has at no stage provided you with any evidence they have put into place any new protocols or working practice to ensure this trauma you have suffered doesn't happen to other customers in the future.
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Or to the OP again.

A person whose job is to stop complaints at the lowest cost to SSE has told the OP that the matter has been resolved...but how much weight does the OP put on any statement from SSE, let alone one that has been made for the purpose of having the OP withdraw their complaint to the ombudsman?
 
I got more than that written off my balance by NPower and it didn't even get to the point of reaching an external debt collector...

IIRC it was about £250 and that was after only 6 months or so of harassment
 
But there also stands the chance that the Ombudsman will consider their £100 offer fair and not go any further. If he wants done with it all, just accept the £100 and then forget it all.
 
The £30 offer was time limited (13th Feb) but the £100 isn't. For that reason, I'm just going to ignore the £100 offer until they tell me they're going to withdraw it.

I won't be broken hearted if they withdraw the £100 offer, regardless of the Ombudsman outcome.
 
I'm not sure how this Ombudsman works, but for FOS or PO, if they found the company was at fault even if you rejected or they withdrew their offer, they would normally revert to the offer as a minimum. If you're not bothered about a quick resolution to end it, just let the Ombudsman do their thing.
 
Small update; I've refused all the offers from SSE as I'd rather see them held to account. The Ombudsman has decided that there is a case to answer.

We are pleased to let you know that your case has been assigned to an Investigation Officer.
We would request that you do not contact us further until the Investigation Officer has been in touch. This is to allow time for us to review all the information that has been provided by both parties. Once we have had the opportunity to do this we will contact you directly to discuss any issues that require further clarification or to propose a suitable remedy for your complaint.
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I'll let you all know how it pans out. :)
 
I think I may just have won my day in court. :)

The reply is lengthy, and I have included his summary in yellow at the bottom for the tldr.

The Ombudsman said:
I have considered the information provided by both parties. This includes the e-mail of complaint that you have provided, along with the e-mail correspondence you have received from and sent to debt collection agencies. You have also included e-mail correspondence you received from Southern Electric, specifically dated 29 January 2018 in which it advises it received confirmation of the sale of the property in December 2014. Southern Electric has provided a case file, which includes its own analysis of your complaint, along with a copy of its bill to you dated 26 January 2018, some system notes that it holds of your account, and information on the electric and gas meter reads it holds for the property in question.

In summary you state that you have an ongoing issue with Southern Electric over a property that you have not lived at since 2010 and have not owned since 2013. You state that since the sale of the property, you have received numerous contacts from the company and different debt collection agencies trying to recover an outstanding balance. You state that in 2014 Southern Electric agreed to clear all standing charges between the date the last tenancy in the property under your ownership ended and the sale date. You state that despite this you have now received further communication chasing you for a balance that the company agreed it would clear. Through my investigation I have determined that the balance the company is now requesting payment for is in relation to gas charges. It has confirmed that there is no balance to pay on the electric account.

The company has stated in its case file that you only confirmed the sale date of the property to it and the tenancy information on January 2018. I have not found this to be correct, as within both the evidence you have provided, and elsewhere within its own case file, it is evident that you provided this information to it in December 2014. I find the error Southern Electric has made in this regard to be a shortfall in its service, which I will consider when proposing any remedies.

I have further noted in its submission that Southern Electric states that the balance of £48.06 that it billed you on 26 January 2018 was for electricity charges from 1 February 2013 to 2 April 2013. I have found this information to be incorrect also, at it is clear from the bill that the balance of £48.06 is in respect of gas usage charges, based on estimated reads for the period of 1 February 2013 to 2 April 2013.

In respect of these gas charges, and the balance of £48.06 it is now requesting from you, I do not find this to be legitimate. It is clear from its own e-mail to you dated 29 January 2018, that it received confirmation of the sale date of the property in December 2014. As an energy supplier there is a requirement on the company for it to produce and issue bills to you within a reasonable timeframe. Given I deem it had sufficient information in December 2014 to produce any outstanding final bills, I do not find it fair and reasonable that it has not done so until January 2018.

Southern Electric is a signatory to Energy UK’s Code of Practice for Accurate Bills (the Code). The purpose of the Code is to ensure that energy suppliers cannot charge a consumer for previously unbilled energy charges over 12 months older than the date of its bill, where this is due to an error on its part. I have found in this case that there was an error in Southern Electric not providing what it deemed to be a final bill for the account within 12 months of it being in possession of the necessary sale and ownership information.

Given this I will propose it applies the principle of the Code to remove the balance of £48.06 that it charged on its bill dated 29 January 2018 for gas charges. Further to this, I will also propose that it confirms in writing that both gas and electric accounts have been closed to a nil balance. I have seen no evidence that suggests that any payment for electric charges is either due or warranted.

I will also propose that Southern Electric provide you with a written apology for its shortfalls in service. Given the evidence shows that the company had the necessary information to finalise its billing as far back as December 2014, I do consider there has been a significant amount of time and trouble the matter has brought you. As such I will propose Southern Electric also provide you with a gesture of goodwill payment of £200 by cheque in recognition of its shortfalls in service.

As I have not found there to be a legitimate balance owing on your account with the company on the balance of the evidence available, I will also propose it ensures it has requested removal of any negative data it may have recorded on your credit file due to this matter, and confirms in writing it has taken this action.

In summary and following investigation I uphold your complaint and my decision requires Southern Electric to:
• applies the principle of the Code to remove the balance of £48.06 that it charged on its bill dated 29 January 2018 for gas charges;
• confirm in writing that both gas and electric accounts have been closed to a nil balance;
• provide you with a written apology for its shortfalls in service;
• provide you with a gesture of goodwill payment of £200 by cheque in recognition of its shortfalls in service; and
• request removal of any negative data it may have recorded on your credit file due to this matter, and confirm in writing it has taken this action.
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Good work.
Shame about the amount in the end.
I has suspected it might have been higher, all that stress and they barely get a slap.
The difference now, however, is as you have ombudsman this incident, if you ever get the remotest sniff of a letter again, you go straight back to the ombudsman with a bigger slap, and another, and another.

Step 4. Profittttsssss.
 
Haha nice,

I also didn’t know about the accurate bill code, where they have to request a corrected amount within 12 months of the bill being issued, or write it off.
 
Screeeech said:
Haha nice,

I also didn’t know about the accurate bill code, where they have to request a corrected amount within 12 months of the bill being issued, or write it off.
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String said:
Yea, I took note of that one
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Before people go quoting this to energy companies don't forget the bit that says
where this is due to an error on its part
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I would infer from that if an energy supplier is unaware there should be a charge they have longer than 12 months to raise a charge.
 
Screeeech said:
Haha nice,

I also didn’t know about the accurate bill code, where they have to request a corrected amount within 12 months of the bill being issued, or write it off.
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Billing code has to go through and assessment internally before any action is take.

An example. A customer moves to a supplier in 2014, due to a system issue the suppliers systems foul up and the account never shows as a live and running account but sits in limbo until its discovered in 2017. The customer never contact or chases for a bill and the energy supplier never supplies a bill or interacts with the customer. The account is finally fixed in March 2018 and customer has been aware of the issue since communications tarted late 2017 and a bill is 4 years worth of usage.

The supplier has to estimate a cut off reading 1 year before the current bill date and then invoice. This then gets referred for billing standards. The outcome of the above would be everything from March 2017 onwards is a valid balance as its within the last 12 months and everything from March 2014 - march 2017 will be written off.

Customer can be liable for the whole lot though if they have been purposefully obstructive and unhelpful and even going out there way to hinder a bill being produced by denying access to the meter or the ability to obtain readings.
 
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