Glossary hub

The words, without the fog

If a letter uses a word you do not know, the word is usually doing the frightening. Here is what each one actually means.

Utility Terms

Back-billing: Charging for energy used in the past that was never billed. Protection generally limits this to 12 months.
Deadlock letter: A supplier's final response confirming the complaint cannot be resolved internally. It unlocks the Ombudsman.
Priority Services Register: A free support register for customers in vulnerable circumstances, offered by energy and water suppliers.
Estimated reading: A supplier's guess at your usage. It can be replaced by an actual meter reading, and should be.

Registered keeper: The person recorded as responsible for a vehicle. Not necessarily the legal owner.
Notice of Intended Prosecution: A notice that must generally be issued within 14 days for certain driving offences.
Representations: Your formal written challenge to a penalty, made within a prescribed window.
Professional standards: The department within a police force that handles conduct complaints.

Record holder: The organisation holding the record an obligation attaches to.
Subject access request: A request for a copy of the personal data an organisation holds about you.
Rectification: The right to have inaccurate personal data corrected.

Settlor: The person who puts property into a trust.
Trustee: The person who holds and manages trust property, owing fiduciary duties.
Beneficiary: The person for whose benefit the trust property is held.
Three certainties: Intention, subject matter and objects — all required for a valid trust.

Balance of probabilities: The civil standard of proof: more likely than not.
Letter before claim: The formal warning letter expected before starting a civil claim.
Limitation period: The deadline after which a claim can no longer be brought.
Pre-action protocol: Rules about what parties should do before issuing proceedings.
Default judgment: A judgment entered because a defendant did not respond in time.