Recourse if I refuse to pay bill?

Luschka

Hi all

I am desperate for some advice here.

We moved in to our 2 bed flat in October 2008. I assume (because I always do) that I took the meter readings and gave them to EDF who were supplying the property. We received a bill for £67 pounds for the previous tennants outstanding electricity bill, but nothing for the gas bill. (they skipped out without paying)

We started a new account and were paying £60 a month for gas.

In October last yaer (so a year later) they phoned to say that we had to increase our DD to £150 a month to go with our usage. I queried that and they said no, they'd made a mistake, we only had to increase our DD to £81 a month.

In December I changed to NPower. (effective 31 December)

I received a final gas bill from EDF on 8 January, saying that they owed me £24, which I received.

I then decided that npower's quote was not actually going to be as cheap as they'd promised, so I went back to EDF having been with Npower for 1 month. (31 December - 7 February)

Today I received my one and only gas bill from Npower. A bill of £156.48. That seemed WAY too high for me, so I contacted them, and they said I need to contact EDF about my previous closing meter reading. After about 30 mins on the phone to EDF, they suddenly said that although my account has now been set up for £41 a month, my first bill will be higher to cover outstanding payments - my first bill will be £300!!

He said that it went back to outstanding amounts owed by the previous tennants, but that without an exact meter reading for October 2008, which is in a diary I no longer have!, we will be responsible for that outstanding money.

The simple fact of the matter is, I cant pay it. I don't have the money to pay for previous tenants gas bills.

Does anyone know what we can do?

I'm so freaked out by this. We have a 4 month old baby with a cold already, and I seem to feel that I have to choose between a warm house and ... basically... food. (p.s. we're already all wearing socks and jumpers in the house, so its hardly a sauna.)

Sorry this was so long!

DirectDebacle

It is unfortunate that you no longer have the meter readings but EDF should be able to reach a compromise with you on the previous tenants outstanding bill.

EDF will have a reading on the last bill they sent the previous tenant. From this EDF can estimate what the reading would likely be at the time you moved in.

Also try to find out from the landlord the date the previous tenant did a runner. The landlord may even have taken readings whilst the property was unoccupied.

If there is agreement on this between EDF and yourselves then you can have your gas charges recalculated to the time you switched to npower.

EDF cannot charge you for someone elses gas. What it appears they are doing is either using the reading from the previous tenants last bill as the start reading for your account or have added the unpaid amount to your account.