Remember. On December 7, the Flemish energy supplier De Vlaamse Energieleverancier filed for bankruptcy and left some 70,000 households and businesses in the north of the country without an energy supplier. It was CEO Stijn Lenaerts who made the decision to file for bankruptcy. “The evolution of prices left no other choice,” he explained in a video published at the time.
Today, four months later, several former customers are surprised to still receive an invoice from De Vlaamse Energieleverancier. This is the case of Lut Daniels, a resident of Heusden-Zolder. “I received a letter containing an invoice. When they went bankrupt, on the advice of what I read in the newspapers, I immediately stopped my domiciliation and demanded reimbursement of my advance from the previous month, “he explains to our colleagues from Belang. Van Limburg.
Problem, the supplier claims today this sum with Lut. “Can this be done Anyway, I find this an odd email. We hear a lot of phishing stories lately, ”adds the man who is not the only one to ask himself this question. The Energy Ombudsman, Eric Houtman, confirms this to the Flemish newspaper. “In recent weeks, we have received several complaints about these letters from Vlaamse Energieleverancier BV. Most people indeed think that it is a phishing mail. I understand this concern because the administrators of the Brussels law firm Modo Law do not mention a telephone number in the communication. Their fear is probably of being overwhelmed by the bankrupt energy supplier’s 70,000 customers. The telephone number can of course be found on the law firm’s website. As a mediator, I can reassure everyone: the invoice sent by Modo Law is not phishing. The task of the trustee is to collect as much money as possible to pay the creditors and close the bankruptcy,” he explains.
For people who have received an invoice to pay, the advice is therefore simple: pay! “There is a good chance that a bailiff will visit you or that legal proceedings will ensue if you do not pay…”