can Npower send me a bill backdated 2 years

clairih

hmm thats what I thought Premier, that N Power will say its not their fault there had been no correspondence as they didn't know I was at the address.
I wonder whose responsibility it is for updating the database records that they all share though, because if that was N Powers job to say they had taken over supply then they failed to do it so maybe are at fault?
I'm guessing I will just need to wait and see what they bill me for in the end and then hopefully some negotiation can be done!

davidgmmafan

Were you on an online tariff with Scottish Power? 'cos if not it may be a difficult argument to make to say I insist on being billed on the online tariff with NPower. However they won't have that info so you could certainly try complaining about the bill as they really can't say what you would or would not have done.

If you speak to thier compaints team they'll probably agree to bill it on the online rates just to resolve it.

BTW re

"The supply numbers etc all match up to my meter number etc - a really helpful girl at SP checked all that on the phone last night"

Just to confirm you have actually looked at the MSN on your meter and confirmed this is the one that is being billed on? Its unlikely but the meter numbers could be mixed up, which explain the lack of contact.

Scottish_Power

Hi clairih

I know this can happen if supply details are not registered correctly originally, however I am a little confused if both SP and NPower were billing on the exact same supply details which are correct for your property.

If this situation was turned round, and SP were the company that were now responsible for billing you, then we would have to look at the action we took to bill you for the electricity you are using. If we did not send any correspondence to the property and we made no effort to contact you, then we would have a difficult time justifying sending you a bill for 2-years worth of consumption.

It will not have helped your situation if you were paying ScottishPower for estimated statements. It does help if customers check the accuracy of the meter readings we are using and if there is a large difference, we can be contacted and an accurate statement can be produced.

Hopefully you will get this matter resolved to your satisfaction. Let me know if you need any further assistance or if you have any further questions. I will be more than happy to help.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

Terrylw1

ECOES that you have mentioned will only allow one registration to the MPAN at one time. So, Npower would always know they were the Supplier and SP would know they are not.

In terms of the Ofgem directive and the ERA agreement (Npower are part of the ERA agreement) then it all comes down to liability.

If you shout enough, they will bill you accordingly. Suppliers have a habit of not writing off what they can in an attempt to make more at the cost of those customers who easily back down. If you keep escalating, then it's likely you will get what you want.

Ask them to prove what correspondence they have sent any and any site visits to the property by their appointed meter reader. If they have had proof of consumption and not billed it to anyone, it's their liability and they will have to write it off. If you really have had no bills, this is what you should be pushing for. As long as the MPAN is registered to Npower, they should have an appointed meter reader and they have to read that meter as part of their licence conditions every 2 years. so, if they haven't, they have also breached that (but then it's badly regulated!). You have a good chance via the complaint process to reach an agreement because they will have policies for chasing long term vacant sites and obligations on capturing & handling all data from site visits.

motoko

clairih wrote: »

My letting agency told me the electricity was supplied by Scottish Power and I rang them and set the account up in my name which was all fine.

If you rang up Scottish Power and set up an account with them in your name, and they confirmed at that time that they would supply you with electricity, then they are your electricity supplier. You are only liable to pay for the electricity you have used according to the tariff agreed with Scottish Power, which I believe you have already done (although it has now been refunded). If npower believed themselves to be your electricity supplier, then they should have been billing you throughout the two year period. Although they did not know your name, they could have sent any bills 'to the occupier'.

This reminds me of a similar situation I had several years ago...

I was getting gas from Southern Electric and electricity from British Gas when I moved into a rented property. After about 6 months a British Gas man in the street conned me into switching the gas to them, and although I canceled it the next day they put the transfer through anyway. I called Southern Electric, who said this was fairly common and that as it was an erroneous transfer they could have it reversed. However they reversed the transfer on the electricity as well, which I had not requested. I received a refund from British Gas for the previous few months with no reason given and they stopped sending me bills, being a bit skint at the time I spent the money and said nothing. Southern Electric must have started sending bills to the last person who had an account for electricity with them at the address, and I of course did not open them but send them back along with the rest of the pile of mail I was receiving for previous tenants. About 6 months later I got a hand delivered letter to this previous tenant (with no envelope luckily so I read it) from Southern Electric saying that they would be cut off if they didn't pay up within 2 weeks. I rang them to say that British Gas was my supplier not them and this person no longer lived at the address, and eventually it became apparent what had happened.

I wonder if something similar has happened in your case, and a transfer (possibly from before you moved in) has been accidentally reversed? I can't think of any other reason why npower would suddenly claim to have been your supplier for the past two years when you haven't received any correspondence from them before, companies like this don't wait two years before demanding payment. If this is the case, I believe that you should be able to inform Scottish Power that you didn't request the transfer to be reversed, and they should be able to reverse it back again. Then you can pay back to Scottish Power the money they refunded you, npower can sod off, and everything will be square.

davidgmmafan

The only thing is perhpas Scottish Power thought they had taken over but for some reason it didn't go through, or perhaps the details were wrong on the national database and it only came to light recently. If this is the case then neither NPower nor Scottish Power is at fault because the info could've been incorrect on there since de-regulation.

clairih

Hi all,
Just wanted to say thanks for the advice I was given.
Today I have finally received a revised bill from N Power for £390. My initial phone calls to them were not getting me anywhere and so I wrote to the complaints dept and then it was all resolved very quickly and efficiently.
all is well that ends well :-)

Poosmate

Yay! Well done Clairih, that's much better than the £750 you were originally quoted!

Poo

PNPSUKNET

If the meter was inside, its the consumers fault a read was not given.