E.on Dispute - Advice Please!

tonythetrekkie

Hi,

First time posting here, I hope I have the correct thread.

We are with a Housing Association, and we moved into a new-build in January 2009. It took a while to find out who supplied electricity to the block, and after a while our housing officer informed us that the block was supplied by e.on.
We rang e.on and set up an account, and informed them that we wanted to have a key meter. They said they were unable at the time because they couldn't determine which meter belonged to which flat, as it was a new-build.
We rang our housing officer, who said that our housing association and the company that had build the block, Barretts Homes, were in dispute regarding the matter.
We asked him what we should do, and he said to "put money aside for when you finally get a bill." He assured us that the housing association would resolve the matter.
I would like to note that there were roughly 40 flats in the block, and we were all in the same boat. No-one had a bill, or even a meter reading.
We did a mutual exchange in August 2010, 18 months after moving in to the new build. We never recieved a single bill, despite ringing e.on a few times to chase up on their progress.
In October, e.on sent a letter to our new address telling us that we owed them £700 and that it was an estimated amount.
We rang e.on and told them that we had looked into the matter and had come across a clause stating that if your energy supplier fails to give you a bill within 15 months you are under no obligation to pay that bill.
They said they would investigate and get back to us.
In January this year we recieved a letter from LCS credit collection agency, who told us that our bill had escalated to £900, and that if we did not pay they could come and collect goods to the value of.
We rang LCS and told them of our dispute with e.on, and that we had not had any further correspondence from e.on so how could e.on pass it on to them?
We then rang e.on themselves, went through the whole story all over again, and they said they would ring us back. They didn't.
We wrote a letter to e.on a few days later, stating our complaint in writing, and threatening to take this to the Ombudsman.
We recieved a letter today, from LCS, another threatening letter.

On e.on's site they clearly state that if they are at fault for not giving us a bill within 15 months, then we dont have to pay the bill.

Should I write a letter to LCS asking them to hold off on us until we get a response form e.on?
Should I go to the Ombudsman?
I put in the letter that I believe they should go to the Housing Association, and Barretts Homes for the money since they were responsible for so much confusion. Speaking to the other residents of the block, all are now facing huge bills and threatening letters.

Has anyone here been in the same boat? I understand its not normal for an energy company to 'not send you a bill' but that is what has happened here. We lived there 18 months and didn't get a bill, and we finally recieved one 20 months after moving into there.

Any help/advice/input would be gratefully recieved.

Tony.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi Tony,

It sounds like you need to speak to a member of our Director's office to have your account reviewed, billing code can be quite complicated and is decided on an individual account basis.

Whilst this is happening your account needs to have a complaint raised, this then stops further debt follow up.

Have you contacted the Director's office?

If you need me to provide any more info, just let me know.

Hope I can help you.

Helena