Electricity bill out of the blue!!! HELP!

Cardew

SwanJon wrote: »

I agree that this sounds like the 12 month rule will apply - if they havn't raised any bill for the last 4.5 years, they can only bill you for the last 12 months, regardless of who's names is on this bill.

As you work for a utility company I would not normally question you Swanjon.

However as soon the OP moved in he has entered a legally binding deemed contract.

All EON need to do is prove that they wrote to the occupier. (they don't even have to prove it was delivered)

It is perfectly possible that the OP initially threw away a letter addressed to the Occupier, or forwarded it to the previous owner/tenant; especially if he thought that gas and electricity was being taken over by NPower. There is a mass of 'junk mail' that accumulates between occupants moving out and the new ones arriving.

If, as the OP admits, he never contacted EON to tell them he was the occupant, they are entitled to assume the house is empty.

I think it would be extraordinary for EON to be billing the previous occupants and then not attempting to contact the current occupants.

The 12 month backbilling rule in the 'billing code' is not designed to protect occupants who fail to inform their supplier that they are the occupant and then don't notice that they are not paying for electricity for over 4 years.(even if this was done innocently as in the case of the OP). If people could 'get away' with this practice they would never inform their supplier they had moved in.

breakskid

I was talking to the wife about it earlier, she thinks she may of read the meter after the initial reading when we moved in. She thinks a card might of been put through the door, but it was a few years ago.

The 1yr back dated billing rule does not apply if the resident has failed to advise the provider they are living at the address. Im going to write to Eon and suggest we did inadvertantly correspond with them to provide a meter reading in April 05, not realising it was not requested by Npower. As the bill states we provided a meter reading in April 05, we did inadvertantly advise we live at this address.... and they failed to bill.... and see what they say. And then sort my gas supply, the cost of which I thought was paying for gas and electricity!

SwanJon

Cardew, thanks for your faith.
I'm not disputing that the OP had a contract with Eon, but part of that contract is that EOn will advise them of the cahrges within a reasonable time from consumption (since then spelt out as 12 months).
If Eon had sent a bill they would be able to provide a copy of it, and you can then beg the question why they didn't send a reminder or the rest of the debt follow up procedure.
I've seen plenty of cases where bills sent to 'The Occupier' stop the 12 month rule coming into play, so if they can prove that they have made reasonable attempts to bill the OP the full bill will probably be payable (but try and spread it out as long as possible - up to the same time it took to build up).
If bills are sent every 3 months we are looking at 13 bills going missing before the one that triggered the OP to contact Eon. What changed to make the 14th arrive?

The way I see the 12 month rule is that if any bills are sent (in your name, previous tenant's name, landlords name, 'The Occuppier' etc) it doesn't apply, only if no bills at all were sent. It still seems a bit unclear if that is the case here.

Antispam

So your life is so busy you couldn't allocate 30 minutes or so in over 4 years. Did it never occur to you that energy is not free? You never seen the news over last year regarding energy bills or read the paper, and then thought, how come I never get a electric bill? Still you have enough spare time to post on here and respond to this thread, so you life can't be that busy

You astound me, well now you are paying for your ignorance I hope you learn from it

breakskid wrote: »

Glad to see this forum isn't short of clever !!!!!!...

I wish I had enough spare time to troll round posts asking for advise, making sarcastic comments.

If I did, I'd have enough time to read my Npower bill beyond the page which tells me how much I owe them.... and then I would realise that despite the fact we gave them the electricity meter reading, they didn't bother to take our business... and the bill is just for gas.

Cardew

SwanJon wrote: »

The way I see the 12 month rule is that if any bills are sent (in your name, previous tenant's name, landlords name, 'The Occuppier' etc) it doesn't apply, only if no bills at all were sent. It still seems a bit unclear if that is the case here.

That is exactly my understanding.

A bill could have been sent in the previous occupant or landlord's name and forwarded by Post Office(or sent direct).

EON have no knowledge that there is anyone in the property so have it down as empty.

breakskid

Antispam wrote: »

So your life is so busy you couldn't allocate 30 minutes or so in over 4 years.

It is true, no persons life is so busy they could not allocate 30 minutes to something which needs addressing, but if I am not aware something needs addressing - then I cannot address it. Ive just had a bill drop through the door for £1300, a debt I was completely unaware I was accumilating. It now has my attention, I am fully aware something has gone wrong somewhere.

Antispam wrote: »

Did it never occur to you that energy is not free? You never seen the news over last year regarding energy bills or read the paper, and then thought, how come I never get a electric bill?

We moved into the house, got Npower set up as our gas supplier - gave them the electricity meter reading and asked them to supply our electricity. We have then since seen £60 odd a month disappearing out of our joint account every month without fail. If I have committed any crime, that crime would be not reading the Npower bill beyond the page that says "you owe us £xx.xx, but you do not need to do anything as you pay by DD"

Antispam wrote: »

Still you have enough spare time to post on here and respond to this thread, so you life can't be that busy

You astound me, well now you are paying for your ignorance I hope you learn from it

And you astound me, judging from your post count; you post on this forum on an average of 3.7 times a day in the past 8 months - I wonder what your motivation for this is. Can I draw your attention to the faux stamp graphic to the right of your screen... CONSUMER REVENGE... does this not mean revenge for folks who have been "wronged"????

We took what we believed to be the necessary steps to advise Npower we were here and consuming electricity. We saw the money goiing out, thought the charges were correct for gas and electricity for two people, in a 2 bed house, people who are out of the house (on average) 12hrs each a day. On the one occassion a meter reading request came through the door, it was completed as requested.

Eon however, received a meter reading in April 2005 from a house they beleived was uninhabited. Confirmation someone was residing at that address. They failed to act on the reading, and did not raise a single bill or correspondance for a further 3yrs9months.... before writing to "the occupier".

Its quite disgusting you feel the need to judge me, measuring me by your own standards. The fact is I have done nothing to willingly defraud anybody, and if Eon had done their job properly - there would be no debt. How about if I were an OAP, or suffering from some form of mental or physical illness, short sighted, unable to read.... then you would be seeing the situation for what it really is, Eon's mistake. Instead, you take my situation - yeah, I work hard, work long hours, and have been living comfortably... and thus, saving a tenner a month has never really seemed something I could be bothered with when I get home at 7pm and just want to put my feet up and relax... you use this honesty against me, claiming I am ignorant.

As mentioned earlier, my wife has a serious eye condition and our household income is down £1800 a month - now finances are very important to me... and Eon could not have chosen a worse time to rear its head. Hence my coming on here and asking for help.

To all the folks who have offered helpful information in this thread, many thanks - it is greatly appreciated.

Vestra

Where's the Eon guys in this thread then??

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi breakskid,

I can see that you have been provided some useful information on this thread, but a lot of this does depend on the circumstances of the account.

If you would like me to look further in to your account, I will be happy to do this for you.

Please do not put any of your personal information on the thread, just private message me, with your account number or postal address.