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Opening and Working Enquiries: Opening an enquiry
You must always open your enquiry by
- sending the notice of enquiry to the customer(s). If the claim has been made by a couple in a joint household, only one opening letter should be sent addressed to both customers even if the query only relates to one of the customers. When sending out joint letters the customers must still be part of a couple and residing at the same address. If they are part of a couple but residing at different addresses or no longer part of a couple, then a separate letter must still be sent to each customer.
- enclosing a copy of the WTC/FS1 on NTC Enquiries.
You should use the standard letter template, TCC1 in every case.
You should always ask informally for the information you need, at every stage of the enquiry, before considering the use of formal information powers. A formal notice should not be issued unless the customer has refused to co-operate with an informal request for information, or has failed to produce some or all of that information within the specified time. You can find guidance on the use of the formal information power at S19(2) at CCM12200-CCM12275.