Please help! Gas and Electric charges 2 years after moving out?!

pink_hippoes

Hi Im new to the website but am in desperate need of advice.

Me and a few fellow students (4 in total) lived together 1 year and about 8 months in a house in Southampton, one of my housemates was sent a letter this week saying we owe £300 to Npower/British gas for gas and electric for this house.

Now when I have received a letter like this before I rang up and said it wasnt our debt and that was the end of the whole thing. But my housemate has rung them up and has now i think made it worse by fannying about contacting the landlord etc and was about to ring to give them meter readings before I stopped him.

So now its on my hands, I think there is no justification in them charging us this amount as we can not possibly disprove it with meter readings from 2 years ago and it may be other tenants debt. They have offered us a 25% discount if we pay before Friday but i think this is just a bullying tactic to get us to pay?

Please give me your advice if you have been in this situation as Im really stuck!!

Thanks

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi

I’d ask the supplier for copies of all the bills from the disputed period. You’ll then be able to ensure it covers the correct dates you lived there and you can check the meter readings used.

They may have been estimated readings originally, and they have now received actual readings from another source, i.e. letting agents or the following tenants.

If they have received correct readings they are still allowed to amend there records and bill the relevant occupants for the period. This can often happen later down the line when someone else questions the accuracy of their bill, again someone such as the following tenants.

Do you remember paying a final bill for the property?

This would have been around the time you all moved out, maybe you didn’t provide a forwarding address for the final bill to be sent to and they have only now located a member of the household.

pink_hippoes

Yeah i remember us paying loads of bills before we moved out but they are saying the last payment was in Febuary wen we moved out in Juneish I think, the thing is i remember telling them we were moving out so this wouldnt happen!

The previous tenants before us left loads of bills unpaid and we were receiving warningn letters, wen i rang the company they just simply cancelled off the debt and opended a new account which is making me question these bills.

We wont be able to prove actual readings now will we?

E.ON_Company_Representative

it's not easy to tell, if the final bill was produced to actual meter readings they may have been taken by a meter reading agent. If this is the case the readings will be on record and the bill will be accurate.

Of course if the readings are customer readings then they can be disputed but they will either have been provided by you, the following tenants or the landlord/letting agents.

This then becomes a third party dispute as the bills are to actual readings.

First thing to do is see the bills, they will provide them if you are disputing this with them.

Fire_Fox

pink_hippoes wrote: »

Yeah i remember us paying loads of bills before we moved out but they are saying the last payment was in Febuary wen we moved out in Juneish I think, the thing is i remember telling them we were moving out so this wouldnt happen!

The previous tenants before us left loads of bills unpaid and we were receiving warningn letters, wen i rang the company they just simply cancelled off the debt and opended a new account which is making me question these bills.

We wont be able to prove actual readings now will we?

When you moved out you should have taken a meter reading on your last day, then the final bill is calculated accordingly. Therefore you can't pay a final bill before you move out. You normally give the company the last reading by telephone, no proof needed, and either pay by DD or have the final bill forwarded to your new address.

Check your bank statements to see if there was a payment made after February and also ask for copy bills to see what readings they are using, and what payments they have recorded for your household.

pink_hippoes

ok its kind of sounding like we are going to have to probably pay it then?

Fire_Fox

pink_hippoes wrote: »

ok its kind of sounding like we are going to have to probably pay it then?

Why do you say that?? Did you or did you not make a payment on this account after February of the year in question? Did you or did you not provide the supplier with a final reading and forwarding address? You only have to pay what you owe.

pink_hippoes

well i called british gas last nite (it turns out the letter my housemate got was from a debt collections company, and he hadnt actually got in touch with British gas themselves) and I was told that the last payment we made was in May then we moved out in June and we have the tenancy agreement to back that up.

The letting agents took meters readings when we mpved out so we have the meter readings from out last payment till the day we moved out, so basically we only owe about a months worth and the landlord has tried to palm the bill off onto us poor students!

Vestra

pink_hippoes wrote: »

well i called british gas last nite (it turns out the letter my housemate got was from a debt collections company, and he hadnt actually got in touch with British gas themselves) and I was told that the last payment we made was in May then we moved out in June and we have the tenancy agreement to back that up.

The letting agents took meters readings when we mpved out so we have the meter readings from out last payment till the day we moved out, so basically we only owe about a months worth and the landlord has tried to palm the bill off onto us poor students!

So if the last payment was made in may, what about the usage for some of may and june?

Fire_Fox

pink_hippoes wrote: »

The letting agents took meters readings when we mpved out so we have the meter readings from out last payment till the day we moved out, so basically we only owe about a months worth and the landlord has tried to palm the bill off onto us poor students!

Maybe from the landlord's perspective the slippery students tried to palm off the last month's utility bills onto him? It may not even be just one month as your DD may not quite have covered your ongoing usage. One month's bills for a house of multiple occupancy can be quite hefty.

Both you and the letting agents have some responsibility here, they should have taken a forwarding address from you and should have witheld your damage deposit until all bills were settled. Equally you should have provided a final reading and address to the utility company, even if for no other reason than to prevent you being charged long after the date you moved out! You are lucky you are not being billed for the next tenancy - this has been reported many times on this board. :eek: