Issue with Scottish Power/Swalec

XEO25

We moved in to our current rented property in December 2011 and were advised by the estate agents that we were with Scottish Power for gas and electric.

On January 20th our gas and electric account was switched to Swalec without our concent. No telephone calls were made to or from Swalec and no one visited our property to ask us to switch.

I've been away for most of the past 7 months, only returning for a few days at a time. My girlfriend has been at home the hole time, but has not paid either Scottish Power or Swalec as she was confused with who to pay.

I have now returned home perminently and am trying to address this issue.

I've contacted Scottish Power who have confirmed our energy supply was switched to Swalec on the 20th Jan 2011, but they cannot confirm why.

I have contacted Swalec to ask why we were switched but they said they can only discuss the account with my girlfriend (account holder) who won't be home until later tonight.

My questions...

1) Do we legally have to pay Swalec as they switched us without concent? I realise we have been using both gas and electric and have no paid any bills to date. We have also received reminders but my girlfriend thought it would be ok until I return.

2) I estimate that the bill with Swalec will be about £500 for the 7 months we've been with them. We are not in a position to pay that off in full. Can we switch back to Scottish Power and pay Swalec off on a payment plan? I know most energy providors wont allow you to switch if there is an outstanding bill, but as we were swtiched to Swalec without our concent, will this make any difference?

3) I've been going through the letters sent out by Swalec and they say they are about to instruct someone to come fit a pre payment meter. It is against the terms of our tennecy agreement to have this fitted. What would be the next step here?

Thanks to anyone who can advise.

eurmalian

A couple of answers and points that may be pertinent:

You say that the account with Swalec is in your girlfriends name? They must have got that from somewhere. It might be worth checking what other info the have as well, as someone will have had to have given it to them. It's possible that if it's just the name someone else might have set up the account in her name (not sure why, but it's possible). If they have date of birth, telephone number or anything like that then it's likely that she has set it up and either doesn't remember or didn't realise she was doing it due to dodgy door to door selling.

Usually, if you've been switched incorrectly you can apply for an Erroneous Transfer and basically have the change of suppliers annulled so that everything continues like it did not happen. In this case I'm not sure if you'll be able to do that just because it's so long since it happened that it'll be impossible to investigate it properly.

If you can't get Erroneously Transfered back, I dount that Swalec will let you leave. Whether you expected to be with them or not, you still have used that ammount of energy and they will want to keep the supply until it's paid.

If they're threatening to force fit a prepayment meter then you want to speak to them about an erroneous transfer ASAP. If they can't or wont arrange one, then set up an arrangement with them to pay a set ammount each month. That should stop any process of installing a prepayment meter once they have a payment plan in place.

If a Prepayment meter does end up being fitted then I think you just have to cope with the landlords being angry. Your supplier own the meter (actually, they don't but it's close enough to it for this situation) and have the right to fit a prepayed one instead if bills aren't being paid. I don't think your landlords can stop them. I doubt they'll be happy with you if it gets to that situation though.

Mugget

Swalec would not be able to take over your supply unless an account had been set up by someone, prob your landlord. The landlord has every right to put tenants names on the supply so you will be liable for the swalec bill

eurmalian

The landlord has a right to add the names, but whether he/she has the right to switch the supply in their name after they have moved in is a lot more questionable. I'd think it's more likely to be that a dodgy door to door guy getting them to fill in a 'survey' or something like that...

macman

Both SP and Swalec would have written to confirm the transfer was going through so, if the account was in your g/f's name, then why didn't she query it then before the switch occurred?
They must have sent numerous bills and reminders before getting to the stage of threatening to forcibly fitting a PPM, how did she think it was OK to ignore them and pay nothing?
Possibly if you pay off a large part of the debt (say 50% now) and agree a repayment plan for the rest, then they might relent.
Surely you must have something saved against the bills, as you knew that you were paying nothing?
The switch may have been erroneous, but you still owe Swalec for the energy used.