Advice needed please

skyeandeviesmummy

Hi I hope that this has been posted in the right place. I really need some advice a couple of years ago we moved into privately rented accommodation. We had been moved in several months and had been paying Southern Electricity for both our gas and elec. I came home one day to find a note on our mat from Powergen saying that due to unpaid bills they had fitted a card meter. So i rang Powergen and told them that they were not our supplier they argued that they were. So I rang Southern Electric who suggested I rang OffGem or something like that which I did who confirmed it was Southern Electric and the next day Powergen removed the meter and supposedly fitted ours again this is where the trouble began we didnt get any bills we rang Southern Electric gave them readings several times they wrote asking for a reading we rang again and gave that to them still no bills months went past of this until we moved out a couple of months ago and rang for the final bills of gas and to try and sort out elec. Gas bill arrived and was paid but this morning a bill for over £800 landed on my mat for electric saying payment needed now. We cant afford to pay it we have had to move back in with our parents to try and save some money up!! I dont know what to do. Do I have to pay this all in one go? Sorry this is such a long post. Hope that someone can give me some advice.

Thanks

Gal

Call them and ask them to set you up an arrangement and also ask why its taken so long to send out a bill.

magyar

It doesn't help to state the obvious - but in future always remember that just because a company doesn't send you a bill doesn't make the bill go away... always just put the money aside (and earn interest on it!) and then at least you don't get such a huge shock.

I'm assuming that £800 is a reasonable figure for where you were living? If you agree that the amount is right then ask for
(a) a repayment plan that covers the length of time you didn't get a bill (completely reasonable) - e.g. if you didn't get a bill for a year then you should ask for 12 monthly repayments of £66. If even this is too much then tell them what you can afford; be realistic and they will most likely agree.
(b) a small token by way of an apology (about £20-30 off the total).