npower

mizzrai

Unsure if anyone can help me.

Basically I took a property in Sept, towards the end of the month.
Now, its mid November and I have received a bill for £430.
The property has four storage heaters, so two bills totalling the above amount in such a short period. I'm shocked.
I in between changed to British Gas, so now am with them. But the last power .bill dating from 21/09 to 15/10 has shocked me.
Without even letting me now, npower put me on an emergency rate. I didn't accept or authorise them.

Is there anything I can do legally and also take this further. As for 21 days , they are asking me to pay £430 for usage.
It does not seem right.

Please advise?

Premier_2

There's no such thing as an emergency rate. You would be supplied on a standard tariff if you didn't agree anything different.

You agreed to them supplying as soon as you started to use their supply!

Did you provide them with a meter reading when you moved in and is the final meter reading the same as the start meter reading with the new supplier.

If so, you used the energy and now you must pay for it (assuming the meter was not faulty, which if it was, it still would be)

If you didn't supply a start reading, then they would have [STRIKE]guessed [/STRIKE]estimated it. As you don't have any evidence to the contrary, you'll have to accept it.

If next time you move, you contact the supplier and give the actual meter readings to set up an account in your own name on the day you move in, then you could also ask to go on better tariffs so you won't end up getting shafted as you appear to have been done on this occasion.

mizzrai

I gave npower the new meter readings and asked them for a quote and the following week went to British gas and signed up with them.

Npower should have at least sent a letter saying that I'm on emergency rates, so I could have done something there and then.

No correspondence or agreement of any sort was sent or given to me.

t0rt0ise

What do you mean by emergency rates?

macman

There is no 'emergency rate'. If you enter a deemed contract as a new occupier and don't specify, you will always be on the standard tariff-which is the most expensive. It's up to you to take control.
A deemed contract requires no correspondence or agreement-you accepted the contract from day one by using the energy.

davidgmmafan

The usage does sound a lot for the dates you describe as it is a (relatively) warmer period. As already observed if the meter is faulty (which is very rare) it will still be faulty. If you are concerned about this best to monitor the readings closely and speak to your new supplier to get a feel for what the appliances you have should use.

There is no emergency rate, and an online tariff wouldn't have been suitable as the most recent few have cancellation fees if you leave before a set date.

PNPSUKNET

people complain about standard tariffs, energy providers used to cut supplys off when people moved out. This is why deemed contracts came about.