NPower Letter Received

Mansfield_Blade

I received a letter from NPower's creditors, chasing an outstanding payment of £710. This was apparently outstanding from the last four months of my tenancy in a flat.

The wierd thing is, I have never been a customer of NPower. In the flat in question I was with Scottish Power, which I have proof of as they took £95 a month off me for the duration of my tenancy!

NPower believes they took over the energy supply in September 2009 until I moved out in January 2010. When I told them I was with Scottish Power and I never changed, they informed me that Scottish Power shouldn't have been charging me and that they had taken it over.

They also gave me a womans name on the bill, someone who I don't know.

Now where do I stand on this? Scottish Power never said anything when I closed my account with them, I gave them the meter readings when I left and refunded me anything I was owed.

With this matter being nearly two years ago, I no longer have any bills etc from this. What can I do?

jalexa

Mansfield_Blade wrote: »

With this matter being nearly two years ago, I no longer have any bills etc from this. What can I do?

Without alerting Scottish Power to the reason I would start by obtaining copies of the Scottish Power bills, in particular your closing statement. There *may* be a charge but it needn't be more that £10 because you could do a full Subject Access Request for £10.

You also need to request a copy of the bills which the £710 refers to from the organisation seeking the £710. They should stay the collection activity pending fulfillment of that request.

Personally I'd make a full £10 Subject Access Request of NPower. When you have all the information it will be clear if there is a case.

bengasman

Very simple answer to this one: ask them for a copy of the contract that you signed.

chanz4

They may not have a contract, it could be a deemed one which does stand up in court. Easy way to resolve get them to check ecoes and xoserve it will say who the supplier was and from when. If it was npower you will need to get a refund from scottish power, and its not uncommoun. Your details may of been provided by your landlord if you failed to register.

undaunted

I wouldn't do anything at the moment personally - if they subsequently want to take you to Court it's upto them to prove the debt to the Court not you to disprove it to them!

Based on what you say however at the moment the situation is

They are / were billing someone else who didn't even live there - what's that got to do with you?

You were meanwhile supplied by Scottish Power and bills were raised and paid in full (if you need to in due course bank statements and / or copy bills could be obtained to evidence this)

If you know you lived there, you know for certain Scottish Power was supplying when you moved in and you didn't ask for the supplier to be changed (hence you know who was still supplying when you left) bills for someone else really aren't your concern.

Could it be that someone of the name they mention was living in a neighbouring property?

chanz4

If scottish power were not the supplier, doesnt matter what you paid them. The utility act states that the owner of the property is liable, unless they can prove that it was rented under a contract to a third party to which would be the op. I think they should get rid of deemed contracts and go back to the old days when you move out it is cut off until the person calls up to register.

Mansfield_Blade

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I will be writing to them with proof of me paying Scottish Power and the bills. Then we can play the old letter table tennis till it's resolved.

There''s no way I will be paying 710 to them, for four months worth of energy that's ridiculous, especially as the time they are saying They were supplying me, I spent all of my time at a different address!

undaunted

chanz4 wrote: »

I think they should get rid of deemed contracts and go back to the old days when you move out it is cut off until the person calls up to register.

:T Hallelujah for the vouice of reason / common sense. I couldn't agree with you more!