Elderly parents moved from Scottish power but..

11MonkeyBusiness

This may be a bit long winded so I apologise.

My parents had to move into a residential care home due to invalididty and therefore left a house to which both gas & electricity were supplied by Scottish Power. They gave final readings but were in credit and were subsequently refunded.

Scottish Power have demanded that my Father set up a direct debit for £10/month until the house is sold on. They will not switch off the utilities to the house even though it is not being used. My Father is in poor health with a weak heart and this is causing him undue strain.

Are they allowed to do this?

Will the unused money be refunded?

Thanks for reading this.

KimYeovil

Why is it causing strain? If your father does not want to pay by direct debit then switch to standard quarterly bills with no standing charge. If no power or fuel is used bills will be low. Either he or you can check bills online if their estimates are wrong.

seafarers_wife

switch to quarterly billing so that he only pays for the gas/electric that is used. your parents may have to go onto the "standard" tarriff if they are currently on a tariff that part of the conditions are to have a DD set up.

if your parents do set up a DD for £10 a month then any unsued credit will be refunded to them.

check to see if its worth going to quarterly billing as they may get a discount for paying by DD. I know with npower that when my friend was selling her property they advised to keep a small DD going so she would still qualify for their dd discount of £100 credit on the bills and she got a refund when she finally sold the property and closed her account down.

11MonkeyBusiness

Thanks for the replies. My Father feels the strain because he just wants to end all contact with Scottish Power as he no longer lives at the property and no longer uses gas or electricity, but they will not allow it.

Is this an industry standard to keep people paying in to them even though there is no longer a use of the utilities?

seafarers_wife

your dad owns the property still so is responsible for ANY gas/electric/water/council tax etc used at the property even though is no longer living there. this is why he cant have his name removed from the bills because he has told them that he is selling the property so that is why they are not letting him fully close his account.

switch to quarterly billing where he will pay for the couple of quid used every quarter whilst the property is empty or set the account up in your name so your dad has nothing to do with the proeprty if its causing him that much stress.

Premier_2

11MonkeyBusiness wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. My Father feels the strain because he just wants to end all contact with Scottish Power as he no longer lives at the property and no longer uses gas or electricity, but they will not allow it.

Is this an industry standard to keep people paying in to them even though there is no longer a use of the utilities?

If he uses no energy, then ensure he is on a no standing charge tariff and payment on receipt of bill.

No usage = no cost.

Simples :cool:


They won't disconect the supply usually, and even if they did he would probably get charged and lose a small fortune on the value of the property as people will be loathe to buy with no electricity supply connected.

If he doesn't like SP, get the supply switched to a different supplier

11MonkeyBusiness

Thanks for the input. Looks like we'll stick with the DD and just claim back the credit.
He doesn't own the property. It is a legacy and needs to be sold to pay out the beneficieries.
I just wanted to be sure that he wasn't paying out for the time it takes to sell the house without getting the money back from the monthly DDs.

trina_m_wiles

I can appreciate this being upsetting for your parents. There's been some good advice already and regardless of how your father decides to pay it will be fine, as long as when the house is sold your father's account is closed to actual readings.

The usage at an empty property will be less than £10.00 a month as long as nothing has been left on. They'll refund any credit left on the account after the final bill.

They've got the readings from when your parents moved out but the final bill will be when it's sold. It's important to provide the final readings even though they don't live there anymore.

Don't assume the new owners will provide the readings, if it's estimated, it will be based on previous usage, this could include when your parents still lived there. An estimated Final Bill could be more than any credit that's built up.

Premier_2

11MonkeyBusiness wrote: »

Thanks for the input. Looks like we'll stick with the DD and just claim back the credit.
He doesn't own the property. It is a legacy and needs to be sold to pay out the beneficieries.
I just wanted to be sure that he wasn't paying out for the time it takes to sell the house without getting the money back from the monthly DDs.

Why did you decide to ignore the common recommendation of each and every person that replied before this post? :huh:

KimYeovil

11MonkeyBusiness wrote: »

Thanks for the input. Looks like we'll stick with the DD and just claim back the credit.

If they are tariffs with standing charges there won't be much to claim back. Ensure you switch to the two-tier version of the tariffs if necessary.