HELP!! Flat nightmare!

savingskat

I am going to post another problem im having in a diff section but Im having such a nightmare with my newly rented flat!!

Im a student in Edinburgh and just rented a flat. The letting agency got my flatmate and I to fill out a direct debit mandate when we signed the lease to set up something with Scottish Hydro for our gas and electric! We didn't know any the better so did it as the people seemed lovely and helpful (naive I know!:rolleyes:)

Anyway, 2 weeks later I pop round to the flat to see 2 letters from nPower, one welcoming us to them and the other threatening to cut off our supply in 2 weeks as we haven't contacted them to set something up! I called them and they said that it was a mistake and I was to ignore the letter and they were going to send me out a welcome pack so I could set up a dd with them!

Confused I spoke to the letting agents who said to ignore nPower and that it would take a while to transfer to Scottish Hydro. However, after a couple of other things they said turned out to be a load of nonsense I decided to phone SH myself and they knew nothing about any dd and said that before they had tried to take over supplying my flat but nPower had blocked them! They also said that the mandate done at the time of doing the lease couldn't have been used to set up an account with them anyway.

The letting agents said again it was just a misunderstanding but now I have recieved another letter from nPower threatening to cut us off (and then when I phoned up they offered to send us another welcome pack!)

Im really worried we end up with no power and I am so stressed about the whole situation, I started crying to the nPower woman yesterday!! Can nPower block SH and what do I do??!? I have no experience with this kind of thing and my parents can't help me at all.

Sorry for the essay

LeeSouthEast

If you're happy with nPower, just set up the DD with them and forget about all this chaos.

If you actually wish to go to Scottish Hydro, then things get slightly more complicated.

savingskat

This is the first time ive had to deal with anything like this- i was in halls last yr! :rolleyes:

Im happy with whoever but my letting agents seem adament that I should be using SH! Can I go against them and set up with nPower for the sake of simplicity?

kippen_noedel

1st thing, chill, it only sounds like a big problem because you have no experience of this, it really isn't. Easy for me to say I know, but I have some experience with this, I know it will get sorted and no need to get worried.

call this number to find out the registered gas supplier
0870 608 1524

call this number to find out the registered electricity supplier
0845 272 7999

don't call from a mobile unless you are willing to pay a lot for the call

once you know the supplier, contact them, sounds like NPower, but check those numbers first, it its NPower, ignore the agents, if it's someone else ignore NPower and contact the registered supplier.

once you get it set up, swap to an online tariff, just go to the company website, doesn't matter which company your with, it'll save you money and update your meter readings online very month so you get accurate bills.

Premier_2

savingskat wrote: »

This is the first time ive had to deal with anything like this- i was in halls last yr! :rolleyes:

Im happy with whoever but my letting agents seem adament that I should be using SH! Can I go against them and set up with nPower for the sake of simplicity?

As you are responsible for paying the bills, you have the option of choosing whichever supplier you like

At the moment you are with nPower. If you are happy with that then there shouldn't be any issue.

The letting agent is probably trying to get you to change to Scottish Hydro so that they can trouser the commission.

If you want to move to Scottish Hydro or any other supplier other than nPower, you'll need to pay off the amount owed to nPower first (and remember there'll be a final bill to pay as well as it'll take 4-6 weeks to switch). If you decide to switch, surely you'd prefer to have the commission yourself rather than give it to your letting agent? If so, use the comparison sites above, or cashback sites such as quidco to keep the money for yourself