Bullying SSE

Mrs_Gilly

My daughter moved into a council house 2 years ago. The previous tenant was in huge arears on all utilities. My daughter sorted out the electricity and pays it by direct debit. SSE threatened to take her to court even though the arreas were not hers, her tenancy agreement proves this, and have forced her to have a pre payment meter which gobbles up the ££££'s. They have also said she cannot leave them as there is debt on the house. Surely this cannot be correct. My daughter is in full time employment and also has a little girl. The house is freezing quite a lot of the time as she is afraid to use the gas. Can anyone advise please.

anotherbaldrick

What have the Council said ?

cing0

If she has a nice friend who is prepared to 'move in' for a short amount of time, the energy bills can be put in the friends name. This can be done while switching
on a comparison website.

PNPSUKNET

cing0 wrote: »

If she has a nice friend who is prepared to 'move in' for a short amount of time, the energy bills can be put in the friends name. This can be done while switching
on a comparison website.

Companys do checks these days, you used to be able todo this. The main thing here why is she paying someone elses debt

cing0

PNPSUKNET wrote: »

Companys do checks these days, you used to be able todo this.

Must have been after 2009 as I've done this in the past.

PNPSUKNET wrote: »

The main thing here why is she paying someone elses debt

Your right. She should tell any visiting debt collectors it's not her debt and after that, wait for the court summons. Submit her evidence about tenancy to the court in writing and or turn up on the day.

PNPSUKNET

utility companys only go for a warrant of entry, not the same as say small claims. Companys check with landlords, credit checks etc these days due to people who try and con the system. Also if she sends the company her tennancy they will do a decom recon which wipes the previous occupiers debt. Now what she doesnt say is has she ever provided it to them.

christabell

I think this is one for the CAB and quickly as you have no heating at the moment.

dogshome

Hi Mrs Gilly - I presume your daughter reported her occupancy and meter readingsd to SSE when she moved in - She did after all get the electric sorted.
The problem now is that your daughter with a pre-pay meter, is barred from the cheapest tariffs and is paying off someone elses debt every time she tops it up

Disputes with a supplier where there is existing meter debt when a new tenant moves in are not uncommon - These are usully resolved by the suppler asking the new tenant for copies of their lease agreement which show the date the new tenant took over. Once this is done the supplier then logs it as a new account and chases the Old Tenant for the debt - Did SE ask for copies of tenancy documents at any time whilst talking/writing to your daughter?

OK. She must write to SE eclosing copies of her tenancy documents, which should at least have the debt repayment mode removed from her meter, and if SE did not ask for these in their previous discussions, the letter should be headed Complaint and go on to demand that the PP meter be changed for a Credit meter as it denies her the right to change to tariffs

davidgmmafan

This is pretty straight forward. If the tenancy agreement has already been sent and not acted upon I would add to the complaint suggested above something to compensate for thier incompetance and the difficulty it has caused. Ensure it is sent recorded, also if this has already been raised with them as a complaint, if eight weeks have elapsed, you can go to the Ombudsmen.

Mrs_Gilly

Thanks to everyone for their advice. This utility company is inept to say the least. My daughters tennancy agreement was faxed to them 3 times and posted twice. She has a mobile phone so to call costs a fortune. They refused to give her an account number so each time she rings she has to go throught a long process of identification. The debt belongs to the previous tennant who did a runner 9 months before my daughter moved in so it's obvious to me they can see no gas was used. We are now talking to Citizens Advice who are helping us sort it out. Big boys bullying small people.:)

dogshome

Hi Mrs Gilly - From your post #10 it seems that your daughter has done all the right things, BUT, she has done it all via the the staff on the Customer Service phone line.
All too often these people give advice or say they will take action on matters that are way outside thier knowledge or areas of responsibility.

Writing a letter headed Complaint moves the problem to a team way above the Customer Service Desk staff.
It puts on a time track whereby you must be given a positive answer within 6 weeks and opens the path to Consumer Focus, which is the Govt Agency for customers with problems on Gas & Elec