How to deal with this?

daggy

Hi chaps and chapettes.

I posted a thread in the home energy foruma and was advised to post it here as the company in question are possibly breaching OFT regulations...

This is my situation:#

We moved into our new home on the 14/02/2011

We previously received a letter from LCS on behalf of E.0n advising us that there is an outstanding balance of £85.57, in addition to this they have added an administration charge of £19.68 - these charges were for energy used between the 24/11/2010 - 04/02/2010.

As we didn't live here at that time, we filled out the form they sent and told them that we weren't the tenants during those dates.

We've now just received another (more strongly worded) letter which threatens us with legal action.

Needless to say, we wont be paying them a penny.

Could any of the lovely chaps or chapettes on here be of assistance... I'm lost as to what we do next.

So, Energy gurus... I await your help

Regards,
Anth


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

theoretica

Probably the 2nd letter has been sent out automatically before they read the form you sent back.

As a kindness I would let your landlord know as either the landlord or a previous tenant will be liable.

daggy

I'll give that a try and report back

thank you kindly

musicinme_2

Hi!

I have exactly the same problem - I didn't notice your thread before I wrote mine.

I came to Scotland in September. I rented the apartment, and the meter readings has been entered in the contract. The first bill came in December, however, in the name of the previous tenant lived in the same building. Was paid by me ( I have confirmation of payment.) The next bill I received in March, but it was exposed to the occupier ( anonymously ) with the new account number. The amount of the bill is 520 pounds! It turned out that the bill has been charged from July, two months before moving into my apartment and not take into account a payment made ​​to the address in the billing period. Not waiting a long time I went with this problem to my landlord to explain the matter. My landlord in a conversation with SP, faxed two bills, he gave me as a new tenant and recommended to pay only the difference between the new and the paid bill. SP also had to adjust my balance minus the two months when I have not lived there. A few days ago I received another bill. From previous differed only in that was issued on my name. I was told that I have to pay the entire bill and then pursue my rights, but reading all these threads, I wonder if I have any chance of eventual recovery of my money. SP fixed the Direct Debit payment of 80 pounds a month. This amount is 40 pounds debt and fixed charges for consumption. Should I call the SP once again or send them a letter asking to regulate this matter?

daggy

Hi Musicinme,

The E.on rep posted in the other thread.

foxgloves

When we bought this house 8 years ago, we had exactly the same problem. I stayed with Npower when I moved house but the previous occupant here had been with Powergen. She hadn't told them she'd moved and we soon discovered why.....she owed them £3,000. It didn't seem to matter how many times I wrote to Powergen, phoned them, etc, all at my own expense, they still kept sending demands for settlement here because I didn't have the previous occupant's new address & they just didn't seem to belive that I wasn't her! Then there was a few weeks when we didn't hear anything, so I thought it was sorted out. I then got a card through the post informing me that someone was trying to deliver something to me & could I get in touch to confirm my identity. They had sold her debt to a debt recovery agency & guess what, because they had no idea where previous occupant had moved to, there procedure was to start with the last known address.......so pestering me again!! Finally the letters did stop. It's difficult convincing the power companies you are not liable for the outstanding money, but there was no way we were paying.....we'd got enough debts of our own at the time, without someone else's.

daggy

I totally agree.

It hasn't been too bad in our case (so far), but in some cases it's bordering on harassment.