Can they REALLY do this???

Slash79

I arrived home from work today to find a letter from Buchanan, Clark & Wells debt collection agency, in relation to our electricity supply with E-ON at our previous property.

The letter states that we owe an overdue debt of £103.90 for electricity, and threatens legal action. I found this confusing for several reasons. First of all, our electricity was on a pre-pay meter & when the money we had paid onto the meter ran out (which it never did), so did the electricity! Then there is also the fact that the disputed debt was ran up between 30th August 2007 & 8th December 2008, and we vacated the property on 31st July 2008! This averages out over the sixty six week period at approximately £1.57 a week in electricity costs for a 3 bedroom maisonette, which was solely electric with no gas supply!

Eight months have passed since we left our old property, and then today out of the blue, we receive this letter. E-ON claim they have no record of our pre-payments between August 2007 and us vacating the property in July 2008. Nor do they have any records of payments being made after we had moved out, between August 2008 & December 2008 when they closed our account (despite me notifying them that we were moving, approximately one week before we did move!)

We don't accept any liability for this situation. We regularly made pre-payments and as far as we are concerned, have done nothing wrong. If we had not made pre-payments, our electricity would have been cut off. It was physically impossible to run up a bill of £103.90 on the meter because if money wasn’t put on the meter, then the supply was simply cut off. The meter was reset when we moved in & it never once went into emergency credit (which if memory serves me correctly, is limited to £10?)

I have spoken to a solicitor this afternoon & was advised that without receipts proving we had paid for our electricity, we don't have a leg to stand on! However, she also told me that a bill could NOT have been run up on a pre-pay meter (which would go in our favour) and as we werent reimbursed for problems with our meter where we were charged night rate around the clock for 5 months, that would also go in our favour.

If anyone can offer any advice, it would be greatfully received. It's only 2 days since British Gas "grossly overestimated" our electricity bill by £280, and the last thing we need is this. Thank you in advance to anyone that can help :-)

Magentasue

It's possible to run up a debt on a prepay meter if the meter isn't updated and you're not paying full price for what you use. However, it sounds more like you've run up a bill of daily standing charges for the period when no electricity was being used. Do you have evidence of you closing the account?

If you are being charged for a period where you didn't live at the address but hadn't closed the account, it could be dodgy. If you can prove that you closed the account, I would think your case is stronger.

I think you need to clarify these things with eon.

Slash79

What EON are saying is that they have no record whatsoever of ANY payments being made. They've acknowledged we moved out in July '08 and said the problem was from when we had a new meter installed in Dec '07. We needed the new meter as we were having trouble with our storage heaters. They sent an engineer out who told us the meter was illegally wired up in EON's favour. EON then arranged for us to have a brand new meter, and thats when they're saying it started.

The issue has now been narrowed down to between Dec '07 and July '08. They claim that electricity was used, but they have no record of payments being made to the meter.

Vestra

Although you notified them you were moving a week before you moved out, did you provide them with the final meter reading on the final date?

Slash79

Yes, we gave them the final reading.

Gman0365

Let me get this right, they are saying you have a debt of £103.90 for 6 months electricity in an all electric house and they also say they have received no other payments from you? Do they not find it a bit strange that you've only used £103.90 worth of electricity in a house that is all electric? Where is this house....sounds like a great set-up!

Back to the point about Buchanan Clark and Wells, from personal experience I would ignore them. My OH received several letters from them after she had moved in with me. She was previously renting and when she moved out gave all the final readings to the suppliers. About a year later she gets these final demands from BCW with not even a mention of the address it related to. I thought it very strange and she said that she'd never even been supplied by EDF Energy. So I said just ignore it, its addressed to her at my address, the utilities have always been with Scottish Hydro and they are in my name! Then 6 months later she gets a notice that they are going to make a personal visitation and will have a warrant to seize goods to the value. So I said ignore it. She's a housewife/person, doesn't work, doesn't claim benefits and legally owns nothing thats inside my house. That was in August of last year and we've heard nothing since. The outstanding debt is £130 and I think these big companies eventually realise that its more hassel than its worth trying to chase a debt of that size.

They'd be hard pushed to prove its her debt though as she moved out before the period they are billing for my council tax records prove that!

Having said that we're in the position that my OH came to live with me basically only bringing her clothes and in that respect they have difficulty getting a claim on anything she materially owns. You're situation may be different and as such they may decide to claim goods to the value.

Slash79

Yes Gman0365, you're first paragraph summed it up perfectly. What we're wondering is that if they haven't had the money for the electricity, where's it gone?! Not that we believe that!

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Slash79

Sounds like a bit of a mess. A few things spring to mind. :idea:

As Magentasue says, a debt can build up on Prepayment meters if they are not set at the right prices.

This was more of a problem with the old Token meters. The newer Key meters can be re-set remotely by sending an electronic message directly to the meter.

Your meter was changed in December 07. Was the old meter a Token meter? If it was, this is where the debt could have come from.

When the meter was changed it is likely a Key meter was fitted. Were you given a key by the engineer to use to buy electricity?

If you were, was this the only key used or was another sent out? If a second key was used payments may have gone into another pot rather than on to your account. This will show as a debt.

If you previously had a Token meter did you use only one card to buy tokens? If you used other cards the payments again would not show on your account.

Payments may also have been directed to other areas and we need to investigate to find them. This is why keeping receipts is important as they help us locate payments.

If you are able to find even one the information they contain will be a big help.

Did you receive a final bill to the meter reading advised when you left the property? If not, your account may not have been closed as it should have been.

As Magentasue also says, this could have resulted in a build up of daily standing charges.

As you can see, there are a number of possibilities and you really need to talk to us. It is important we have a good look through your account to see what has happened.

Sorry I can't give you any positives at the moment but hope the above helps you move forward a little.

Malc

Slash79

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi Slash79

Sounds like a bit of a mess. A few things spring to mind. :idea:

As Magentasue says, a debt can build up on Prepayment meters if they are not set at the right prices.

This was more of a problem with the old Token meters. The newer Key meters can be re-set remotely by sending an electronic message directly to the meter.

Your meter was changed in December 07. Was the old meter a Token meter? If it was, this is where the debt could have come from.

The old meter was a key meter, as was the new one.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

When the meter was changed it is likely a Key meter was fitted. Were you given a key by the engineer to use to buy electricity?

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

If you were, was this the only key used or was another sent out? If a second key was used payments may have gone into another pot rather than on to your account. This will show as a debt.

No. We continued to use our existing key, but at some point, we were sent a new key in the post.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Payments may also have been directed to other areas and we need to investigate to find them. This is why keeping receipts is important as they help us locate payments.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

If you are able to find even one the information they contain will be a big help.

The receipts were little scraps of paper with bearly readable writing on them. We had one or two old ones lying around, but when we moved we thought we had no further use for them, so threw them away. This problem dates back 16 months. It is highly unlikely we still have any of the receipts. I have looked, but found nothing. This also brings up the question of why it took EON 16 months to realise there was a problem?

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Did you receive a final bill to the meter reading advised when you left the property? If not, your account may not have been closed as it should have been.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

As Magentasue also says, this could have resulted in a build up of daily standing charges.

We received no final bill. When we left the property there was still credit on our meter, and EON have told us they only actually closed the account on December 8th 2008. Also, EON claim no pre-payments were made after the new meter was installed. £104 for 7 months electricity? If EON can do that, we'll be happy to go back!