NPower saying can enter home if no one in?

V_Debt

Ive fallen behind with my gas and electricity payments and have received a letter today saying that a company on behalf of NPower are going to apply for a warrant of entry to fit a prepayment meter or if not safe and practical to disconnect our gas supply.

According to the letter, they say they have the right to enter under the Gas Act 1986 and Electricity Act 1989 even if we arent in and if necessary by force.

This cant be right surely?

The company is called Secus Ltd by the way.

Joyful

This is correct. If you cannot pay then you should request a PP meter yourself to stop it going to Warrant otherwise you may get hundreds of pounds in charges added to your account.

Once a Warrant is given they will turn up on the day to action.

Have you tried speaking to NPower to see if you are able to have a payment plan? It may be that if you have had one and defaulted on it that you need to either pay in full or have the PP meter fitted.

spiro

If agree with Joyful, speak to them BEFORE they go to court for a warrant because the cost of warrant, staff, entry etc will all be added to what you owe them. If you volunteer for a ppm before this happens you will still end up with a ppm but will save £100s in additional debt.

V_Debt

Thing is my house is rented, therefor its not my house to say they can or cant fit a meter.

Other thing is that my name has not been spelled correctly on my bills therefor, technically Im not the one owing money.

Where do I stand on that?

spiro

You supplier does not care if the house is rented or not and they dont need the owners premission to kit a ppm. You may have a problem if your lease says you cant have one as you will have to pay for the LL to have credit meters reinstalled which will be about £60 per meter.

You live there, you have used the fuel, you owe the money. Dont see a judge saying ok Mr Smyth you owe £1000 but becuase the bill says Mr Smith you owe nothing, do you?

mirrorimage0

your the one that has used the gas and electric so they are your bills wether you name is spelt correctly or not, im assuming you have made some sort of payments in the past.

why dont you ask the landlord if the pre payment meter would be ok, im sure they would agree as it wont cost to have them fitted and would stop the property getting a bad credit score with you not paying the bills. they do cost £50 i believe if the landlord wants to ge them changed back though, whichyou would be liable for if you dont get permission in the first place

its better to rig the company and arrange something because as previous poster has stated you will get chatged even more if you dont

V_Debt

The spelling of the name is not just one letter, its a few and not much like my name, not sure how that happened as the estate agents changed them over to my name. Ive never made a payment to Npower before now.

What if I was to call them and say that those people left the property and give them my real name, say that Ive just moved in?

Any chance they would stop the payment meters going in if I called them up and agreed a payment plan with them?

timbo58

jesus.
'Fraud' ring a bell?
i.e. deliberate misrepresentation to gain pecuniary advantage.

macman

V_Debt wrote: »

The spelling of the name is not just one letter, its a few and not much like my name, not sure how that happened as the estate agents changed them over to my name. Ive never made a payment to Npower before now.

What if I was to call them and say that those people left the property and give them my real name, say that Ive just moved in?

Any chance they would stop the payment meters going in if I called them up and agreed a payment plan with them?

So your initial claim that you'd 'fallen behind with your payments' was a bit of a porky, wasn't it? You're now saying that you haven't paid them anything at all since you moved in?
You can change your name to anything you like by deed poll, but you are still liable for the energy you have used.
If you've ignored all the previous demands then it's unlikely that they'll now agree to a payment plan, first of all you'd have to pay off a reasonable chunk off the debt with a lump sum.

nPower

Hi V Debt

Mirrorimage0 is right - just give us a call and we can look at a number of options for you e.g. a longer payment plan and possibly putting you on a more favourable tariff.

If you just give us a call on 0800 551 555 we can help you.

Best Wishes
Sally :-)

undaunted

Whilst Npower may be merely attempting to frighten you & do not necessarily immediately do what these letters say they will the fact is that they can apply for a warrant and, if successful in obtaining one force entry whilst you are out (or even whilst in if necessary) .

Applying does not necessarily mean a warrant would be granted however - you will receive notice of any hearing and do have the opportunity to go to court & contest it if you feel there are genuine grounds for doing so.

Personally, I would be very dubious of the prospect of your wrongly spelled name, tell them I've just moved in type arguments succeeding & if you have nothing better than this and can pay I suggest you do so. If however there are genuine reasons for the debt accruing then you may have other options

If you are unemployed Fuel Direct may be a better option than ppm (pre payment meter) & you should also ask about their Social tarrifs

If you do not (seriously) dispute the debt, are employed but nevertheless in any financial difficulty, you need to make an affordable proposal of payment and stick to it (this does not necessarily have to be via ppm).

Even if none of the above apply but there is a "genuine dispute" with regard to the claimed debt then you can argue in Court that the Electricity Act expressly forbids suppliers from either disconnecting your supply or fitting a pre payment meter in cases of "genuine dispute". (Obviously the Judge would need to be convinced your dispute is legitimate not merely the above which I suspect would be considered "nonsense")

You suggest you've never paid them but don't appear to have said whether you've had any bill(s) so far / how far you've fallen into arrears. When did you actually move into the property?