Disconnection

Thevera

I am a Landlord of a property that I have found out has a large debt with gas and electric. Before finding this information the tenant who had been very good and owes me nothing gave me notice to leave. They left the property on Sunday 7th August on the same day I notified Npower that they had left and gave them the names of the new tenants who are due to move in tomorrow 13th. It was during this phone call that i found out about the debt and was asked to e mail a tenancy agreement for the new people.
When I entered the property today I found an agency had entered the property and disconnected the electric and taken the gas meter. They left a copy of the warrant which allowed entry on or after 19th July.
I rang and complained to Npower that they had done this knowing the old tenancy had ceased and the house was obviously empty. I admit I hadn't e mailed the new tenancy until this morning 12th but they had given me the wrong e mail address anyway. Can anyone tell me if the warrant still stood even though the previous tenants had gone.

nPower

Hi Thevera

Can I look into this for you? You can send your account details to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL]

Best Wishes

Sally

Thevera

Hi Sally
You are more than welcome to look into this for me, however I am a little suspicious that you are looking into it in order to show Npower in a good light to other forum users. Will the progress of your investigation be published on the forum?
Meanwhile i will e mail account details to you.
Thank You

OlyL

if an account has gone to warrant with npower the only way to stop the warrant being executed is to prove the tenants have left, eg with a tenancy agreement. npower wont have been able to tell you the account was at this stage because of data protection also.

granted the email address may have been wrong but it you emailed it straight away you may have found this out and been able to get the new one earlier.

ihateyes

Thevera wrote: »

They left the property on Sunday 7th August on the same day I notified Npower that they had left and gave them the names of the new tenants who are due to move in tomorrow 13th. They left a copy of the warrant which allowed entry on or after 19th July.
I rang and complained to Npower that they had done this knowing the old tenancy had ceased and the house was obviously empty. I admit I hadn't e mailed the new tenancy until this morning 12th but they had given me the wrong e mail address anyway. Can anyone tell me if the warrant still stood even though the previous tenants had gone.

From what i read your tenants bolted as they never intended paying the bill.

You post that you notified Npower 7th August.....
Then when you went to the property Npower had executed a warrant on the 19th July....
The you rang and complained that the old tenancy had ceased and they done it anyway....

Youy dont say if you visited the property on the 7th or after, so
NPOWER may have already executed this warrant, and entered the property before you even called to notify change of tenancy.

If they had visitde the property prior to tenants moving, you have just learnt a lesson..... do an inspection before they leave.... what about deposit, do you still have that??? or have you paid that back to them as well... perhaps you could use their deposit to pay the gas/elec?

molerat

OP cannot use the deposit to pay the utility bill, that is between the old tenant and the energy company. Any deposit could be used for costs in re-instating the meter and making good any damage from the possible forced entry though.

Premier_2

Thevera wrote: »

Hi Sally
You are more than welcome to look into this for me, however I am a little suspicious that you are looking into it in order to show Npower in a good light to other forum users. Will the progress of your investigation be published on the forum?
Meanwhile i will e mail account details to you.
Thank You

Your suspicions actually make me suspicious you haven't actually given us the full story.
I'm sure the nPower rep won't publish anything that is confidential or otherwise sensitive in nature, but surely you have no issues on the truth being outed?

Or do you think this board is here just to allow users to rant about the suppliers. I, for one, am often interested in hearing both sides of the story, and I'm sure you will post back with counter evidence in the unlikley event that the supplier rep posts anything incorrect.

This board is to help real people with real problems, so what is the worry about posting the real facts?
If you wanted to keep things out of the public, perhaps you should have just contacted the supplier directly, rather than posting in public on the internet?
(But then you wouldn't have had the opportunity to post, as you put it, about nPower in a bad light :cool:)

Premier_2

ihateyes wrote: »

From what i read your tenants bolted as they never intended paying the bill.

You post that you notified Npower 7th August.....
Then when you went to the property Npower had executed a warrant on the 19th July....
The you rang and complained that the old tenancy had ceased and they done it anyway....

Youy dont say if you visited the property on the 7th or after, so
NPOWER may have already executed this warrant, and entered the property before you even called to notify change of tenancy.

If they had visitde the property prior to tenants moving, you have just learnt a lesson..... do an inspection before they leave....?

I think you are possibly right. A supplier would not usually give details of another persons debt (even a tenant's to a landlord), but maybe it came out as the supplier had already disconnected the property under the warrant they were granted. The tenancy agreement would be needed to restore the supply (in the absence of payment)

I'd be interested as to why the property was not deemed suitable for PPM installation; that's the usual course of action where utility debts are not paid. Perhaps the nPower rep could elaborate on this?

Perhaps the OP could confirm the most recent prior date they went to the property before 12-Aug? When did the OP show the new tenants around before they agreed to take the property?

And more importantly, what has the OP done today when the new tenants were supposed to be moving in, only to find no energy supplies in place?

bengasman

Thevera wrote: »

I am a Landlord of a property that I have found out has a large debt with gas and electric.

It is not the house that has a debt, it is the person who had the contract with the supplier.

Thevera wrote: »

They left the property on Sunday 7th August on the same day I notified Npower that they had left and gave them the names of the new tenants who are due to move in tomorrow 13th.

If you can prove that you notified the supplier on the 7th that the person responsible for the bill had left, and you had taken possession of the property at that day, the supplier would be guilty of breaking and entering, and probably criminal damage afaik.

You do have a bit of a problem though, as you are obliged as a landlord to assure the availability of heating, hot water and electricity for the new tenants. This means the supplier has you to some degree by the short and curlies if they ask for a heavy deposit for new meters.
A deposit however, is to be paid back to you at some point in time. Just make sure you don't accept liability for the debt of the previous tenants, because that meant that you would have to go to court to claim it back from them.

The crucial point here will probably be: can you prove the supplier was aware that you had taken possession of the property.
They will probably be hardnosed and heavy handed in pursuing the debt. As a counter measure, you can make it clear from the beginning that if you can prove you were right, that you will take legal action against the company, as well as against people responsible personally in civil AND criminal court.

I had something similar with a supplier (although just before they would break in ) and as soon as I had notified them in writing I would press charges against the responsible manager, they backed right off. It is one thing to play big boy with the company behind you, it's another to be sued personally.

lemontart

if the gas meter has been removed it would have been at the behest of the gas supplier as they own it, and before you can get a new meter in you will require a live or dead check on the gas pipe to be done and a reference number for the job by the gas network in your area,.

In the interests of safety can you advise if the pipe where the meter was is capped and check with the supplier that they have had the meter removed, - if your letting agents have removed it then that is another matter as they cannot do that with out the suppliers permission.

macman

I don't quite follow why you only inspected the property the day before the new tenants were due? This surely doesn't give enough time to do the inventory and carry out any necessary cleaning/repairs before the new tenants arrive.
Do you not do an inventory and condition check immediately upon the property becoming vacant?