Avro debt from late 2020, is this a scam or even enforceable?

[I like Skol]

Received a letter yesterday from a company (Credit Style Ltd, yuk) claiming to be acting for the Avro administrators to recover unpaid debts and saying I owe just shy of £30.

I was with Avro but transferred to another supplier at the end of 2020 (a 12 month fixed rate deal with UP who also later went bust just as the fixed term ended) so the dates kind of tally. I went through the usual process of using comparison sites and probably switched via one of the sites. I can't be sure now but guess I allowed it to follow the usual process of ignoring everything and just letting the system switch me in the background and the suppliers take their final/first payments via the direct debits that were in place. I certainly have no recollection of any bills for a final balance being owed and have definitely had no correspondence since. This claimed £30 debt is a complete surprise!

The big catch is I can no longer access old bills and meter readings as the Avro website is dead so I only have their word that I owe this money and this is nearly 18 months since I left the company.

My only hope is to dredge back through old bank statements to see what money was taken at the time. I am nearly always in credit with my energy providers so I would be surprised if there wasn't a smaller final payment or even a credit, but what ever, if the final payment is different to the normal amount I think I can assume that the account was settled at the time of leaving.

So, my question is, do I pay this? Do they have a leg to stand on? Is it a complete scam or even the administrator just trying their luck at raising some extra funds?

Obviously there are the thinly (un)veiled threats of pay NOW or face further costs/harrasment/CCJs etc and suspiciously the amount is just enough to rate as just pay it because, in reality, how much stress/effort/time do I want to put into contesting a bill for £30? On the other hand, I am damned if I want to hand over a penny of my money to some chancer that just rocks up making threats and has very little evidence that the money is actually owed!

What do I do?

 

[DCLane]

Looks like you're not the only one: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.creditstyle.co.uk
AND
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6348178/creditstyle-avro-debt-letter-april-2022

MoneySavingExpert forums may be a better place to ask: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/energy

However, it looks like you don't need to under back billing rules: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/c...eceived-a-gas-or-electricity-bill-in-a-while/
Therefore they can only charge you for energy used from Avro between April 2021 and March 2022.

My guess is they've bought Avro's old debts and are illegally chasing these up, hoping to get an unethical earner from them.

You will need to respond requesting a bill, billing for the past year, and citing back billing rules with any debt beyond 12 months being null and void. Send it Recorded Delivery post and, should this ever go to court, you can present that request. I doubt you'll hear from them again, unless it's more automated 'threatening letters'.

 

[I like Skol]

Sounds more like it. Just checked my banking and can only search back to Jan 2021 so I have no records of the final transactions.

Paperless online accounts are fine in theory, but when something like this happens it all comes undone because now I have no records for the energy account or the bank transactions.....

Will have a read of the links above then act accordingly. Thanks DC.

 

[si_c]

I've had something similar, a company chasing me last month for unpaid utility bills (nPower), and unfortunately I no longer am with them so no longer have access to account details, swapped to Extra Energy in 2015 and then Scottish Power since 2019 so I don't have access to bank statements for that period either. I told them to go whistle as it's over 6 years old.

 

[I like Skol]

This is more recent than that, but still around 18+ months ago and I have heard nothing of this 'debt' until now.

The citizens advice link might not be relevant as this could potentially be classed as a debt rather than incorrect billing???? Who knows, I am certainly no legal expert.

Just reading the comments in the links above from @DCLane and many of them being asked for small sums of £30 or £40 which is suspicious in itself as most energy accounts tend to go hundreds in either debt or credit in my experience, especially if people are trying to avoid paying! Most people will pay £30-40 just to avoid the risk of harassment and a CCJ.

One person admitted paying the request for over £100, but then said after reading the comments were going to chase it up further. Well, good luck with that mate, your £100 is gone! They are exactly the type of decent, but terribly naive person the company are targeting. I'm sure it is an almost official scam!

 

[I like Skol]

Just firing up the old desktop PC to see if there are any details stored on there.....

 

[I like Skol]

This is exactly what I wanted to avoid. Already wasted more than an hour trying to sort this out.

They know many will just pay rather than spend the time trying to correct the situation! If only I could bill them for my time.

 

[si_c]

In your case it sounds more to me like the unbilled/improperly billed/forgotten about remainder after you had switched providers.

I have done it once, swapped providers and had a small (under £100, can't remember exactly) amount outstanding that I'd forgotten about. In that case though (British Gas I think) it was the utility company contacting me rather than a third party and when asked they provided a bill. Which I paid.

In your case I'd probably ask them to provide the full breakdown of usage, cost and payments, if they are unable to provide that then I'd tell them to go whistle. They're almost certainly unlikely to proceed past threatening letters if they don't have any proof.

 

[newfhouse]

Just firing up the old desktop PC to see if there are any details stored on there.....

Doesn’t it fall to the collector of the alleged debt to provide details? I would either ignore it or ask them to show their working.

 

[I like Skol]

The plot thickens.....

Just found an email from a month or two after the switch away from Avro completed and it is a final balance notification (not a bill, you are directed to log in to your account to view these, which I no longer can).

It says;

"Your final bill is now available on your account AVRxxxxxx and an outstanding amount of £29.87 is now due for payment in the next 7 days.
If you have already made this payment in the last 7 days or already have a payment arrangement in place then please ignore this email"

I have bolded the important bit. I had a DD set-up to pay my bills so did as directed and ignored the email. And have heard nothing since until now when a debt collection agency has got in touch.

Trouble is, I cannot access the details that would allow me to prove the payment was made or otherwise and I would just have to take their word that they didn't use the DD mandate to collect the amount due.

I don't fancy paying for my energy twice thank you. I think I will fire off an email and see what they say.

 

[PaulSB]

You don't need to do any of this work. Reply concisely, keeping a signed photocopy, requesting the details they hold to support their claim. Mail the letter by recorded delivery, signed for. It will cost them more than £30 to find and provide the evidence, only when you have received the evidence should you take any action.

To do anything else is a complete waste of your time because you don't actually know what it is you're trying to argue against other than a random figure of £30. Just leave it alone and make the debt collector do the work.

 

[DCLane]

I think I will fire off an email and see what they say.

As @PaulSB and myself have put any e-mail sent is irrelevant. Send it via Recorded Delivery.

 

[Milkfloat]

The plot thickens.....

Just found an email from a month or two after the switch away from Avro completed and it is a final balance notification (not a bill, you are directed to log in to your account to view these, which I no longer can).

It says;

"Your final bill is now available on your account AVRxxxxxx and an outstanding amount of £29.87 is now due for payment in the next 7 days.
If you have already made this payment in the last 7 days or already have a payment arrangement in place then please ignore this email"

I have bolded the important bit. I had a DD set-up to pay my bills so did as directed and ignored the email. And have heard nothing since until now when a debt collection agency has got in touch.

Trouble is, I cannot access the details that would allow me to prove the payment was made or otherwise and I would just have to take their word that they didn't use the DD mandate to collect the amount due.

I don't fancy paying for my energy twice thank you. I think I will fire off an email and see what they say.

Surely your bank statement will confirm if you paid or not?

 

[classic33]

The plot thickens.....

Just found an email from a month or two after the switch away from Avro completed and it is a final balance notification (not a bill, you are directed to log in to your account to view these, which I no longer can).

It says;

"Your final bill is now available on your account AVRxxxxxx and an outstanding amount of £29.87 is now due for payment in the next 7 days.
If you have already made this payment in the last 7 days or already have a payment arrangement in place then please ignore this email"

I have bolded the important bit. I had a DD set-up to pay my bills so did as directed and ignored the email. And have heard nothing since until now when a debt collection agency has got in touch.

Trouble is, I cannot access the details that would allow me to prove the payment was made or otherwise and I would just have to take their word that they didn't use the DD mandate to collect the amount due.

I don't fancy paying for my energy twice thank you. I think I will fire off an email and see what they say.

Check with your bank. Their records should go back five years, although you may not have access online to them, for payments taken out of the account.

 

[bikingdad90]

@I like Skol, it sounds like a poorly worded email. To me a payment arrangement is a payment plan to pay off arrears not a direct debit! As you switched supplier they may not have not taken that final direct debit so could be legitimate.
It’s poor form by the supplier as they haven’t been explicit enough.