Affinity Water Bill

Hi,
I have a 2.5k water bill, reason its so high is ive lived at my address for over 15 years and never been issued a bill so i just forget to pay it if there is no reminder. Anyways a few years ago Inter limited contact me on their behalf and ive been paying £10.00 a month ever since.

A couple of days ago i got an email from a company called Zinc who are not the collection team for Affinity. What i want to know is can this new company force me to pay more then i have been as looking back through all my water bills for the last 3 years ( they gave me a login for me to see past bills tonight ) i have been paying £10.00 a month since 2017 and they have been fine accepting it.

I just dont want the threat of court action ect, i called the water company tonight but she told me i had to pay £40.00 a month to even start catching up but i cannot afford this amount, she also told me to deal with Zinc with any future repayment plans but reading on here you guys seem to think carry on paying the water company direct?

Thanks in advance

as you are paying £10/month then you have/are admitting the debt. Carry on paying & I would state to water company this is all I can afford. So long as you are paying I don't think they can have recourse against you - you are paying that's it - what's their problem?

By all means look in the utilities section for any further help:

https://goodf.forumotion.com/f42-utilities

what you must remember these are greedy parasites so will do what ever to get cash. There are times you will have to put your foot down & tell them straight that's all you can afford so carry on paying as is. If they do get arsey with you then - this is me - tell them go to court & tell me i have to pay all now (increase payments) its all I can afford. I don't think the judge would unsympathetic - but you never know.

there was a thread in that section about going on a payment schedule & get it reduced. let me try to find it.

please read:

https://goodf.forumotion.com/t3819-energy-funds-schemes-that-clear-your-arrears-on-your-behalf-where-to-find-them

(1111)

Thank you so much, i will be reading those links now , just didnt want any stress of going to court ect. I did check my bills again just now and my bill in oct 2017 was £2613 and todays bill stands at £2724?.

If i have been paying £10.00 a month since 2017 then how can my bill only be £100 more?

ps do i set up a new payment plan with the new debt people or refuse to talk to them and just pay the £10.00 each month directly to water?

however they work things out the water used has increased so the difference will be that used & that already paid.

what you have missed over the years there will have been an insurance claim I think so actually its paid, they are greedy so look to get paid more than they are entitled - double dipping.

I know going to court is stressful & at the end of the day they are poeple similar (liars) to the rest of us, but do not really have ANY juristiction over anyone.

Thank you LionsShare for the info, feel a bit better about it now

feel free to ask more if you need.

LS

The only other thing i wouldnt mind knowing is when Zinc collectors contact me do i ignore and pay the water direct same time each month like ive been doing for years or set up a new £10.00 a month with them which will be going straight to the water company anyways as im sure she told me that on the phone.

I get the idea zinc are 3rd party interlopers & have NO clout regarding this. Its all sabre rattling. Carry on with water company as that's whom you have the agreement to pay NOT zinc.

Just me:I would write to zinc & state you will not be having any further contact with them as water co are currently being paid & you are also in contact with water so stay with water.

I agree with LS. I would respond with " Any debt I have with Affinity Water will be paid to Affinity Water and under no circumstancies will any payment be made to Zinc"

Yeah the problem is the water company dont want me to pay the £10.00 as she told me its not enough, the £10.00 a month was with the last lot of collectors Inter credit ltd and all those £10.00 payments over the years went straight to water so in theory i have no agreement with the water company at £10.00 a month.

Thanks daveiron / LionsShare i will reply to any letters i get from them with what you guys suggest

Dont forget the debt is with water co. only pay them , If they refuse payment
how can they take any action,

daveiron wrote:Dont forget the debt is with water co. only pay them , If they refuse payment
how can they take any action,

Exactly!

daveiron wrote:Dont forget the debt is with water co. only pay them , If they refuse payment
how can they take any action,

Did not think of it like that lol, thanks so much guys for all the great info

if you want to get rid in 1 go please read utilities section for help.

This may or may not apply to all utilities ,but with electric they can only force payments for one year if they have not billed you.

Example ; My son bought a new house & the developers never registered the electric
meter
he had no bill for about 5 years .When someone finalyt twigged .He was told they can only backdate of one year.

DI interesting. When I moved I got nothing for 3 years & they chased me until I paid for the full 3, if I had known that things would be different

I told the water company i will be making the payment of £10.00 a month like always have done and its all we can afford with a small child.

My mrs just told me she sent them income and exped info via email when she saw the email which i didnt know about this until now, does this make any diff as it still shows we can only pay £10.00 per month?


I got an email from Zinc Group...

"Thank you for your email and offer of repayment, the content of which has been noted.

We’d like to thank you for your offer of repayment for the amount of £10.00 monthly. Unfortunately, your offer of repayment would not clear the outstanding balance within the given timeframe that our client requires. As your water is measured your bill is produced every 6 months and due by July. Therefore, we would be looking to accept payment of £427.42 per month starting from February.

Please can you confirm where the funds will be coming from to make payment of the outstanding balance? For example, wages, savings, benefits.

I can confirm that your account is on hold until we come back to you with a response. If we don’t hear from you once we have contacted you with an update, your account may continue to receive telephone calls, letters and emails."

Do i just reply to the email stating -

I am in receipt of your email dated xxxxxxxx The contents of which I rebut and reject
in their entirety . We have no contract or agreement of any kind.
I do not recognise you or your corporation.
Any money I may lawfully owe xxxxxx will be paid to xxxxxxx and under no circumstances
will any money be paid to you.
This is my only response and no further correspondence will be entered into.
Any further contacts will be recorded and logged and considered as harassment
and I may take action under section 1 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997
I trust this makes my position clear.

ALso can i ask them to remove my phone number?

Thanks again buys you have been great

tell them under GDPR2018 they (zinc) are duty bound to "forget" you & must remove all your data from their system. Your wording looks spot on

LionsShare wrote:tell them under GDPR2018 they (zinc) are duty bound to "forget" you & must remove all your data from their system. Your wording looks spot on

Thanks, where do i enter the GDPR2018 bit in the email reply?, also does it make any difference that the mrs sent them income details ect?

Arkham1 wrote:Thanks, where do i enter the GDPR2018 bit  in the email reply?

Where ever you want it does not really matter - eg

I am in receipt of your email dated xxxxxxxx The contents of which I rebut and reject
in their entirety . We have no contract or agreement of any kind.
I do not recognise you or your corporation.
Any money I may lawfully owe xxxxxx will be paid to xxxxxxx and under no circumstances
will any money be paid to you.
This is my only response and no further correspondence will be entered into.
Any further contacts will be recorded and logged and considered as harassment
and I may take action under section 1 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997
I trust this makes my position clear.

As per GDPR2018 I have the right to be forgotten so REMOVE ALL of my data for your information systems. Please provide evidence of the complete removal.

However they do the last bit will have to be seen.

Arkham1 wrote:also does it make any difference that the mrs sent them income details ect?

Too late, it will only make a difference if they use it against you. But if they remove all data then.....

Great stuff as always mate, thanks so much for this helpful tips as most of it i have never heard of.

I would send the water co. a £10 cheque each month.Its important at this
stage to keep to the existing agreement.

daveiron wrote:I would send the water co. a £10 cheque each month.Its important at this
stage to keep to the existing agreement.

yeah ive paid £10.00 up too 26th of jan this year so ill make the next payment end of this month via the water website.

Thanks Dave