Change of gas / electric provider without permission

smartpicture

On my daughter' student flat, they are expressly forbidden from changing the gas/elec supplier in the contract - even though the landlady said she didn't know who the current supplier was! And it took them several hours of ringing round to find out, so I guess unless you know the right questions to ask, it's not always that simple.

DVardysShadow

Jane_Woodvine wrote: »

Having put it to Eon that the letting agent may have struck a deal with their company on a commission basis in bringing in new customers, Eon said that their company did do this but would not comment on whether this was the case in this instance. Can they do this without my permission?

The Agent only has authority to deal with EoN as your agent. What EoN are saying here sounds totally wrong to me [unless the Agent are taking reponsibility for supplies on their own account hahah].

Agent must also account to you for all benefit from EoN - they are not entitled to cream off a backhander from EoN

Ignite wrote: »

I would raise this as an erroneous transfer. At what point did the LA have a contract with an energy supplier? At the start of the last tenancy, it went from you to the tenants. At the end of the tenancy, it went back to you, not the LA. If the LA wants to transfer the energy supplier, then they will have to be a customer. Let them pay the bill for the next 2 weeks!

Excellent post. In terms of putting the LA in their place, it s spot on. Also, with a moments reflection, it shows where it lies for EoN. EoN can only deal with the LA as agent of the LL. So LL is entitled to know all details of the deal between LA and EoN. If EoN are not prepared to deal with LL, then they are totally out of order to deal with the LA - and there is no authority for the deal, so it is an erroneous transfer. IMO.

westv

Jane_Woodvine wrote: »

There is a two week delay before new tenants move into the property and it IS my responsibility to pay the bill for those two weeks.

What bill? If the property wasn't occupied how can there have been any gas/electric used for those 2 weeks?

Ignite

On further reflection, I'm troubled by a couple of things that Eon are saying with this post.

1) It normally takes at least 4 to 6 weeks for an energy supply to be transferred. If the transfer was made by the agents when the tenants left and there was only a 2 week gap, then why are Eon involved in being paid at all? Surely it would still be British Gas? Be careful, BG may come looking for money that is rightly owed to them.

2) Eon are refusing to cancel a contract that was never between you and them in the first place. Yes, a transfer of supplier will be in the process of happening however, the only contact that exists is a deemed contract between you and the supplier at the time. I have never heard of a "special deal" contract passing from one customer to another. Normally if you leave a fixed term contract early you have to pay a penalty to the supplier on payment of the final bill. In other words, in the 2 week turn around, there will be 1 contract with old tenants, 2nd contract with yourselves and 3rd contract with new tenants. Each would have to sort out their own deal with the supplier.

BTW, if you haven't used any or very little energy over the 2 weeks and there is a no standing charge tariff in place, then it will cost the energy company more in paperwork than they will make off you