Grandmother receives bailiff’s letter with outstanding bill… stating she had DIED

After the great-grandmother was wrongly declared dead, she received a letter from a bailiff demanding repayment of her outstanding water bill.

Ginnette Bye, 78, was sent a letter by debt collection agency Phillips and Cohen Associates on behalf of Southern Water earlier this month to meet with the executor of her estate.

The letter requested payment of the £60.87 debt owed on Ms Bye’s account following her ‘death’, despite her being alive and well and paying her monthly bill by direct debit.

Southern Water has since corrected the ‘error’ and is currently reviewing the process to ‘understand what went wrong’.

Ms Bye and her family were told the problem was because her account was previously registered jointly with her late husband Paul Bye, who passed away in August 2020.

But Ms Bye, from Folkestone, said Southern Water was notified of the issue more than five years ago and was deeply upset by the incident and the utility’s lack of communication.

Miss Bye said: ‘They have been taking direct debits from my bank account every month for the last five years and all the letters say Miss Ginnette Bye, so in my name.

‘However, this company (Phillips and Cohen Associates) says they were told I had passed away on April 10th but still received payment five days later.

Ms Bye’s family were deeply concerned by the incident and its impact on her grandmother of six and great-grandmother of three.

‘If Southern Water had spoken to me and said, ‘Oh, Miss Bye, you owe £60’ then no problem, I would have paid it. That’s what bothers me.

‘How sad would it be to receive such a letter if it were someone who had no one and was alone?’

The letter, sent to Ms Bye’s home by the debt collector and addressed to the executor of her estate, said: ‘Southern Water has previously received notification that Ms Ginnette Bye has sadly passed away. On behalf of Southern Water and ourselves, please accept our sincerest condolences.

‘We understand this is a very difficult time for you and it is our intention to support you at this time.

‘We would like to confirm that the amount of £60.87 is outstanding. ‘Our client advises us that there is an ongoing supply which may be the responsibility of the current occupier’s estate.’

Ms Bye’s family were deeply concerned by the incident and its impact on her grandmother of six and great-grandmother of three.

Son Mark Bye, 57, said: ‘If my mother didn’t have family around, how would she cope, because the older generation aren’t really computer literate, are they?

‘At first he thought it was a scam. I mean, he’s almost 80 years old, he could have a heart attack from stress, it could really be that bad.

‘There may be other people they do the same thing to, who don’t have families, and God forbid the stress gets to them and they might be croaking.’

His daughter Paula Macvicar, 55, added: ‘Of course they should write to you first and when they don’t get a response they should send the letter they wrote. It shouldn’t just start with that.

‘I couldn’t get my head around it when we called and they weren’t talking to us, they needed someone to pay the bill. So how can you talk to the person paying the bill when you’re dead?

‘There should have been some correspondence before the debt collection letter. They still took direct debit, so the bank account was still open. Why would they send this directly to this agency?’

The issue with the account has since been resolved with a new account opened under Ms Bye’s name only, and the outstanding balance has been cleared as a gesture of good faith.

But daughter-in-law Cherylin Bye still thinks the family owes an apology for the incident.

‘The new account has been settled on their side, what about my mother-in-law? I told Southern Water that I found the whole incident really sad and quite traumatic,” the 44-year-old actor told Southern Water.

‘There was no real apology for the upset, it was just a situation, we could send a letter of apology if that’s what he wanted.

‘A goodwill gesture doesn’t solve anything for us. Yes, they were doomed, but they weren’t very understanding or apologetic or anything towards us.’

A Southern Water spokesman confirmed an investigation was ongoing to ensure the issue did not occur again.

‘We apologize for this error which caused unnecessary distress to Ms Bye,’ they said.

‘We contacted him to apologize and refunded his final invoice as a gesture of goodwill.

‘We are now reviewing our processes to understand exactly what went wrong and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’