Am i liable for N power's incompetance?

wicksyp

Hi all,
I moved into my house over 2 years ago and both my gas and electricity are token meters and they are both with N power.
After i got my meters read and accounts active i started noticing the electricity statement was saying i was constantly in arrears and it was increasing every quarter the gas was ok.
So after lots of calls and 2 visits to read and inspect my meter over 2 years its still in arrears and it's over £200 now.
so i called last week and they told me i have been paying nearly half price for my electricity as the meter that is installed cannot be updated to the new tariff.
My opinion is that they were aware of this 2 years ago so why did'nt they replace the meter then, but i want to know if i'm legally liable for the arrears as my way of thinking is if they sell me the electricity at this rate and don't change it then it's their fault as the meter was there and installed when i moved in.
Sorry it's an epic but i would appreciate some feedback.
Thank you all

masonic

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Energywatch can help you to get the debt written off. Prepayment customers pay quite a premium to be on these meters and it is the responsibility of the supplier to update these meters when they increase their prices.

elsien

masonic wrote:

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Energywatch can help you to get the debt written off.

I second that - energywatch were brilliant when my mum was having problems with the supplier reading her meter wrong and charging the wrong rate.
It took a long time - over a year- and lots of letters/phone calls, but she got there in the end. I'd contact them re the legal position before you do anything else.

Cardew

Unusually I do not agree with 'masonic' above on the responsibility aspect.

I believe that you are legally entitled for any debt caused by the meter rate being set too low e.g. not updated/changed to keep up with the various tariff increases. Your contract is to pay for Gas/Electricity at the going rate - not the rate set on the meter.

It is obviously not possible to update all of the meters on the same day as an increase takes place; and indeed some customers would prevent any access to the meter(or at least delay it) if it were to their advantage.

However certainly Npower have a moral responsibility in this case and this is where Energywatch should help.

masonic

Cardew wrote:

Unusually I do not agree with 'masonic' above on the responsibility aspect.

I'm not sure there is any conficting substance between our posts. My point is that in cases like this the supplier has arguably failed to maintain the meter in a manner consistent with the service the customer has signed up to. That is why the balance owed is open to challenge.

hopingforahouse

This is quite a common problem I'm afraid, as there is no way to update an electric meters tariff without access to it. I believe that Energywatch's position is that the difference must be paid back, although you may be able to get part of it written off.

masonic

hopingforahouse wrote:

I believe that Energywatch's position is that the difference must be paid back, although you may be able to get part of it written off.

Apparently not, although this case was slightly different...

Edit: This might also be of interest.

Cardew

masonic wrote:

I'm not sure there is any conficting substance between our posts. My point is that in cases like this the supplier has arguably failed to maintain the meter in a manner consistent with the service the customer has signed up to. That is why the balance owed is open to challenge.

Whilst I do not disagree with the point you are making, I believe that the 'legal' position(which was the question the OP posed) is that you contract to have gas/electricity provided at the current pre-payment rate - not at the rate when the meter was installed.

If a precedent was set that the rate on your meter was the rate you paid, the utility companies would, understandably perhaps, have every obstacle possible thrown in their path to prevent access to the meter.

"sorry you cannot enter my property because"(pick your own excuse here) - it would take a court order to gain access.

In the OP's case, and many others, I absolutely agree that the Utility company are at fault for not attempting to ensure that the meter reflected the going rate. However the legal position

---

tripled

Legally you have to pay, you are contracted to pay their variable rate. However they also have a responsibilty to update your meter. Energywatch are trying to get suppliers to write of arrears due to meters not being updated, so if nPower refuse to help then energywatch may be able to push them into giving you something.

wicksyp

thank you to everyone for your replies that's a great help and it's somewhere to start a special thanks to you masonic as that case is very similar and i was the one that first contacted them 8 months into the house about the difference on the statement and they have now had 2 engineers round to check it and not once did they change it or make any effort to change it.
Even last week when i got my last statement and it showed £215.95 of acccummulative debt over 2 years i called them and then the very helpfull customer service rep which was in england believe it or not and not in india they told me they would call back the next day and guess what they never.
i think this will be a long slog but i really appreciate all your help.
Paul

Crystaltipps_2

Hi

All of the energy suppliers are currently under a lot of pressure to write off this debt due to meters not being reset when there have been price rises. Some are happily agreeing to do it, but some (mainly the ones who have the most meters that cause this problem) have told Energywatch and Ofgem that they won't. I think Npower is one of the companies who have refused, so Energywatch may not be able to help much.

That said, you may still be able to negotiate some of it being wiped or a really low repayment rate of something like £1 per week, especially if you have been calling them about it numerous times before they reset the meter. Also, if they have sent the wrong type of man round - a meter reader rather than a meter operator who can actually reset or change a meter, this would have led to the problem going on longer and the debt getting bigger.

Crystaltipps