Extortionate

chris1973

No - sorry she doesn't pay her landlord £150 - that is what he and the company running the house for him charge via the electricity company

The landlord and the managing / letting agent wont have any say or control over what the Electricity Company charge your friend. The price of electricity and any standing charge for the meter are set by the utility company.

So when she tops up her meter via the card, I assume she goes out to a paypoint (or similar) shop / outlet, and gets it topped up by paying in cash or via a debit / credit card. She tops up with say £10, then puts the card in the meter, and the balance on the meter increases by £10?. Is this correct assumption so far?

She goes somewhere to pay £150 per month and has been told that there is never anything left over

Who is she paying this £150 a month to?, and by what means is it paid?. You need to find out where she goes to pay this.

The Electricity is supplied by the utility company, and metered in real time by the meter. Any credit / debt payments / standing charge would all be controlled by this meter, so there should be no other payments being made beyond it to any other entity.

Sounds highly likely that there is some con running behind this. If there was any debt programmed onto the meter it would be topped up using the same card, taken back to the meter and then deducted by the meter when it was inserted. She would also be able to see any debt amount on the meter by toggling through the options. So even if the LL had run up a debt prior to her moving in, the meter would display it, and deduct it from the actual top ups.

She wouldn't be 'told' there was nothing left over when she topped up the card!.

energysavingexp

tell her to take a meter reading now and another one next week so she can see how much leccy she has used then ask her to find out who is supplying her energy ie. npower / eon etc

and what tariff she is on. this way she can look at their web site and see what she should be paying.

what about gas?

is it an all electric house.
it sounds like she is being ripped off through her LL/ letting agent
is there any paper work telling her that she has to pay £150 per month ie: contract

mattcanary

Does your friend have an electric account registered in her name? If not, I would get her to find out who is supplying the electric here (if she doesn;t know already) and then ring them up to tell them she lives at her address (I believe there is a phone number she can phone to find out who is supplying the address - but I don;t know what this is myself - sorry!).

I suspect the account is open in the name of the landlord still and that he didn;t get it transferred into your friend's name when she moved in. By doing this, your friend can ensure the bills are sent to her in future and then pay the supplier directly. Your friend should not be paying her landlord anything. Like another poster has already stated, I suspect her landlord has run up a seriously large debt when he lived in the house and has come to an arrangement to pay the debt off at £150.00 per month (and the ongoing electric usage has been included within that £150.00).

Your friend should not be paying her landlord anythiung for the electric if there is no submeter in the house (which seems to be the case here).

Her landlord sounds extremely dodgy to me and I would recommend she starts hunting for a new place in which to live!

The CAB may be able to help further, as a previous poster has already stated

littlebatt

chris1973 wrote: »

The landlord and the managing / letting agent wont have any say or control over what the Electricity Company charge your friend. The price of electricity and any standing charge for the meter are set by the utility company.

So when she tops up her meter via the card, I assume she goes out to a paypoint (or similar) shop / outlet, and gets it topped up by paying in cash or via a debit / credit card. She tops up with say £10, then puts the card in the meter, and the balance on the meter increases by £10?. Is this correct assumption so far?

The Electricity is supplied by the utility company, and metered in real time by the meter. Any credit / debt payments / standing charge would all be controlled by this meter, so there should be no other payments being made beyond it to any other entity.

Sounds highly likely that there is some con running behind this. If there was any debt programmed onto the meter it would be topped up using the same card, taken back to the meter and then deducted by the meter when it was inserted. She would also be able to see any debt amount on the meter by toggling through the options. So even if the LL had run up a debt prior to her moving in, the meter would display it, and deduct it from the actual top ups.

She wouldn't be 'told' there was nothing left over when she topped up the card!.

I am not sure how it works but she has to top up her card by £150 per month

I will point her towards this forum so that she can see all the help that people are suggesting as it is difficult for me to remember everything.

Thank you for your help

littlebatt

mattcanary wrote: »

Does your friend have an electric account registered in her name? If not, I would get her to find out who is supplying the electric here (if she doesn;t know already) and then ring them up to tell them she lives at her address (I believe there is a phone number she can phone to find out who is supplying the address - but I don;t know what this is myself - sorry!).

I suspect the account is open in the name of the landlord still and that he didn;t get it transferred into your friend's name when she moved in. By doing this, your friend can ensure the bills are sent to her in future and then pay the supplier directly. Your friend should not be paying her landlord anything. Like another poster has already stated, I suspect her landlord has run up a seriously large debt when he lived in the house and has come to an arrangement to pay the debt off at £150.00 per month (and the ongoing electric usage has been included within that £150.00).

Your friend should not be paying her landlord anythiung for the electric if there is no submeter in the house (which seems to be the case here).

Her landlord sounds extremely dodgy to me and I would recommend she starts hunting for a new place in which to live!

The CAB may be able to help further, as a previous poster has already stated

The company that she is getting her electricity from is one that I have never heard of - and I would suspect that it is 'slightly fraudulent' - certainly I've never heard of the company - but she needs to take the bull by the horns and sort it - they naturally won't talk to me

Thanks :-)

HalloweenJack

whats the name of the company?

littlebatt

Not sure to be honest - but she seemed to think that it was one set up for landlords - which actually says a lot I think

There was nothing in her contract to say that she had to pay this amount per month, she was the first one in the house -was a new build.

Thanks