NPower - About to apply for a Warrant;

Cardew

mattcanary wrote: »

The l/lord does not have to do anything to make things easier for the supplier.

As things stand, a prepayment meter is unsuitable for the OP and so other posters saying he should just agree to what the supplier is demanding, are giving bad advice. What happens if the OP's neighbour's flat becomes empty after a prepayment meter has been fitted, or if his neighbour refuses him access in future? Plus it is very hard to get a prepayment meter taken out when the debt has been repaid through it.

So what is your suggestion?

It is inevitable that he will finish up with a pre-pay meter(or be disconnected)

All the OP is suggesting is a tactic that delays it being fitted - at the expence of court proceedings.

mattcanary

It sounds like direct payments out of his benefits is more appropriate than a prepayment meter in this instance.

The OP is actually stating he is looking to pay off the debt - this does not have to involve a prepayment meter being fitted.

Cardew

mattcanary wrote: »

It sounds like direct payments out of his benefits is more appropriate than a prepayment meter in this instance.

The OP is actually stating he is looking to pay off the debt - this does not have to involve a prepayment meter being fitted.

However he has been given that opportunity before but has defaulted on his payment plan(s)

I suspect few people actually want a pre-payment meter!

mattcanary

No he hasn't. He has made a payment arrangement before that he has not maintained. That is not the same as having payments taken directly out of your benefits towards the arrears.

PNPSUKNET

When I moved into my house, I asked for the pre-pay to be removed and the supplier refused. I took it to energywatch in those days, their response was its a commericail decision and they can suggest but cant force a supplier on payment methods offered.

I believe also that a warrant is for access to their metering equipment, which is theirs not the landlords or the occupiers.

A quote from their t&c's
Asking for a deposit

We may ask you to pay a reasonable amount upfront – a deposit – as security against payment for your gas or electricity (or both). We may do this to protect us against likely loss if we think you may break the terms of your agreement. We will not ask for a deposit if you choose to pay for your gas or electricity (or both) through a prepayment meter and we are reasonably able to supply one. If we ask you for a deposit and you do not pay it, we may:

• refuse to supply gas or electricity (or both) to you; or
• cut off your gas or electricity (or both) until you pay the deposit (plus any reasonable costs we have as a result of cutting off and reconnecting your supply).

Instalment plan and payment scheme

If you cannot pay your bill, we may offer you an instalment plan instead of fitting a prepayment meter. This plan will spread the money you owe us over a period of time and at a rate that should be affordable for you. It is a condition of the instalment plan that you also agree a payment scheme to pay for your energy use. You can pay off the full amount you owe at any time before the instalment plan ends.
While you still owe us money under your instalment plan, you may not be able to change supplier. If you move home, you will have to pay us the full amount you still owe under the instalment plan, unless you ask us to transfer the amount over to your new address and you continue to take your supply from us. We will set up a new payment scheme and instalment plan for your new address.
If you fail to make any payment due under the instalment plan, the plan will automatically end and we may install a prepayment meter instead to help you pay for the energy you use and recover any money you still owe us.

So you agree to these just by been supplied.

spinningsheep

Just a thought, but if they are coming to fit a meter, and the current meter is in the neighbouring flat ( I am guessing this is a conversion property that was previously all one unit but is now split into flats) can they not move the meter to allow access to it? Surely they cannot enforce a meter that you need access to, which is currently in situ in a place that may be locked?

spiro

spinningsheep wrote: »

Just a thought, but if they are coming to fit a meter, and the current meter is in the neighbouring flat ( I am guessing this is a conversion property that was previously all one unit but is now split into flats) can they not move the meter to allow access to it?

No the LL should have paid to have this done when the property was subdivided.

PNPSUKNET

they could just cut it off, as now they class it as warmer months.

undaunted

SwanJon wrote: »

If the OP has made a previous agreement to pay off the balance (weekly card, DD etc) and then for what ever reason failed to keep up to date with it the follow up process tends to restart from the most recent default. Or are you recommending that npower should have gone to court 6 months ago?

I'm certainly suggesting that Npower should have done something sooner but this may not necessarily relate to Court Action (we don't know what the posters circumstances were earlier in the process).

If it is the case, as stated above, that a previous pre payment meter was removed with the customer in financial difficulty and nothing done to identify / address surrounding issues then personally I would consider the supplier complicit in helping to creating this problem, especially if the poster was drinking at that time

Ofgem have of course suggested that suppliers should be pro active in identifying vulnerable customers, addressing problems etc. They have also said (admittedly about 2 / 3 years ago now) that Npower have more improvement to make than other suppliers in terms of best practice.

Cardew wrote: »

So what is your suggestion?

It is inevitable that he will finish up with a pre-pay meter(or be disconnected)

All the OP is suggesting is a tactic that delays it being fitted - at the expence of court proceedings.

Surely that's not true. If Consumer Focus pick up the case imminently and Fuel Direct is arranged there will be neither Court proceedings, pre payment meter nor disconnection.

Cardew

undaunted wrote: »

All the OP is suggesting is a tactic that delays it being fitted - at the expence of court proceedings.

Surely that's not true. If Consumer Focus pick up the case imminently and Fuel Direct is arranged there will be neither Court proceedings, pre payment meter nor disconnection.

This appears to be the OP's intention:

If the guy can't get in tomorrow, they told me that NPower will do one of two things; Either they'll rearrange for the engineer to come out at a later date or they'll be going for a 'Warrant of Entry'.

Apparently, it's more likely at this stage that they'll go for the Warrant, which she said will take about 4 - 6 weeks by which time they'll fit the prepay meter and add a further £205 in costs. Really don't know what to do about this NPower debt, but it looks like the 'best' (for want of a better word) thing I can do is to not let the engineer in tomorrow (I can't even afford to top the meter up), let the 'Warrant' go through in 4 - 6 weeks, and hopefully by then go for the DRO.