united-kingdom debt claims
United Utilities claim for outstanding balance with no move out date
<p>Earlier after signing in to check my credit report, I noticed it had been dropping and discovered that there appeared to be United Utilities (UU) payments in arrears.</p>
<p>I contacted them and have discovered that this is because they have no record of me or my flatmate moving out of our flat in November 2018. They say they have been sending the bills to that address (no contact through any other medium - not sure if they have other contact details as it was a year ago) but since it was not paid they have filed a claim with Northampton court.</p>
<p>I really do seem to remember filling out an online moving out form back in December last year, but I have no record of this, and my flatmate has no records or anything and UU say they have no record of us saying we were moving out obviously. The new tenants don't seem to have notified that they have moved in either as our account is still open for that address. We currently owe just over £500, but I think they said adjusted to our move out date that would be about £300.</p>
<p>The 2 options that seem to have been presented to us are to:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Send UU proof of us moving out on the date we say, they will then adjust the bill to the correct amount and we can pay that + their £130 court fees.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Register a defence with Northampton Court (although I'm not sure what we would say here other than we thought we did notify you of moving out but we don't have a way of proving it)</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>I'm assuming that option 1 would be the better route but I was looking for any more advice over what route to go with this that could result in the best outcome for us.</p>
<p>I don't really understand what would happen if we chose option 2, presumably someone just makes a judgement on our case but I presume it seems we would not do any better here than if we just paid UU directly and they close the matter?</p>
<p>The main thing I am concerned about is the black marks on our credit report history and I am wondering if there is any route that may have these removed?</p>
<p>I moved out of the country temporarily when we moved out, but have since moved into a new property and notified UU in May 2019 of this move in but they say this doesn't affect my old account and both can be open - I was wondering if they should of notified me of the old account still being open when this new one opened?</p>
<p>Just frustrating that this will affect my credit so much simply for not knowing we were receiving this correspondence.</p>

<p>Technically if the account was never switched over, you are still responsible.</p>
<p>However, if they are going to adjust it for you, there is no sense in going to court.  You would likely lose in court, since the account was in your name and you are responsible.</p>
