debt on an electric metre

princess73

Had to have a card token metre put in about 2 years ago due to my partner been made redundant. 18 months ago had a letter from southern electric to say the debt had never been put on the metre so we still owed £300 and had only been paying for the electric we'd been using. I wrote a stroppy letter,but they said the debt needed to be paid and someone would call and apply the debt onto the metre. No-one turned up,now they've changed it to a key metre,and according to the man who fitted it the debt is still not on there. After 2 years do we still need to pay it,don't want to mention it to southern electric just in case they've forgot. Especially now as we've only got one wage coming in and high fuel bills !!!!

Pink_fluff

princess73 wrote: »

Had to have a card token metre put in about 2 years ago due to my partner been made redundant. 18 months ago had a letter from southern electric to say the debt had never been put on the metre so we still owed £300 and had only been paying for the electric we'd been using. I wrote a stroppy letter,but they said the debt needed to be paid and someone would call and apply the debt onto the metre. No-one turned up,now they've changed it to a key metre,and according to the man who fitted it the debt is still not on there. After 2 years do we still need to pay it,don't want to mention it to southern electric just in case they've forgot. Especially now as we've only got one wage coming in and high fuel bills !!!!

Perhaps it's been an oversight on Southern electric. The best thing you can do, is to call them up and clarify the situation. I wouldn't advise leaving it, as it will catch up with you.

spiro

Do you still have copies of (a) the letter they sent you 18 months ago, (b) the letter you sent them, (c) their letter back saying a man would be coming to apply the debt and (d) the meter exchange card left by the engineer who changed the meter (may be attached to the meter)? If you have I would write a letter to their head of complaints detailing the sequence of events and their repeated failure to apply the debt to the meter. You may also want to make the point that if they had put it on 2 years ago you would have paid it off by now even at a rate of less than £3 per week. Therefore given this you expect them to right it off. You should also be aware that any debt repayment they do through a prepayment meter has to be at a level you agree you can afford, they cannot force you to pay more.

princess73

I haven't got any of the letters (due to buying a shredder and getting slightly carried away!). The man who fitted the metre,who wasn't from southern electric,said that after a certain length of time they couldn't apply the debt, especially if it was their mistake. I just want to get rid of the metre,because they are so expensive, also have a gas metre (which was already here when we moved in), but southern electric said we'd have to pay £40 to Transco to remove it! Seem to be paying almost double to my non metre neighbour!

SwanJon

They can apply the balance to the key meter electronically - they don't need to send someone round to do it - check screen S.
In my experience, they can still chase this debt 6 years after it was built up, so it's a bit of a risk not asking for it to be put on (but there's not interest, and with inflation you could think of it getting smaller in real terms...).

As to the guy putting the meter in, they very rarely have any idea how the suppliers actually manage these meters (tbh, why should they, it's not their job?) - as above, the debt is sent later, not when the key meter is installed.

princess73

Thanks for all your replies, just wishful thinking that they would wipe the debt out. It's just annoying,i'll give them a ring i think and get it sorted xx