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EON took money for Landlord Insurance without my permission.

rai78
rai78 Posts: 25 Forumite
Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
edited 16 January 2012 at 12:01PM in Insurance & life assurance
We have landlord gas and boiler insurance for a property we rent out. After receiving a call to say they wouldn’t pay for our boiler to be repaired I had the account put on hold. We had a new boiler installed as the cost to repair it was too much. I then noticed £70 and the monthly direct debit for the insurance go out of my account. I was especially surprised as not only was the account supposed to be on hold but it ran out the month before.

After calling and speaking to a customer service adviser I was told it was the renewal. I said it couldn’t possibly because I hadn’t received any documentation. This was because it had all been sent to the tenets house as that was ‘the only address they had on the system’. I had most defiantly given our home address not only when we took out the insurance but on other numerous occasions as we’d had problems before. This means documentation with private and financial information had been sent to our tenants. After three further telephone conversations, two of which I was told someone would call back and no one did, I was told they would not ‘refund’ the money. I disputed this being a refund and, without actually using the word theft, said the money was taken without my authorization and it is therefore returning money which is mine.

This is the last in a long line of issues we’ve had with EON which I don’t want to go into here but have written in a letter to their complaints department. My question is; who else should I be looking at writing to? I have little faith in EON and writing to THEIR complaints department feels like I’m banging my head against a brick wall. However, there may be procedures which I don’t know about like do I have to give them a chance to reply then write somewhere else? Any help and useful addresses or phone numbers where I can get some advice would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • lisyloo
    lisyloo Posts: 29,879 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    You are protected under the direct debit guaranteed.
    So you should just get in contact with your bank, tell them it's unauthorised and they will get it back.

    Note however that if you did indeed sign up for automatic renewal and did indeed authorise it then they may well carry on pursuing you.
    You need to be careful with this because action they take could ultimately afffect your credit rating, so you still need to carry on disputing the debt even if you get the money returned short term.
    You should be able to prove the address issue by looking at your existing documentation.

    So I would get the money back, but you will still have to prove this is unauthorised.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 117,962 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I had the account put on hold.

    Can you explain that as "hold" is not something that is generally available. Do you mean you cancelled it or you kept it running. It is very much a choice of one or the other.
    I said it couldn’t possibly because I hadn’t received any documentation. This was because it had all been sent to the tenets house as that was ‘the only address they had on the system’.

    And where was last years documentation sent? - key question as if they used your home address last year, then it is strange they wouldnt this year. However, if they used the same address as last year, then it is reasonable.
    said the money was taken without my authorization and it is therefore returning money which is mine.

    If you didnt actually cancel it, then it will continue until you do.

    lisyloo has given some good instructions but you need to be aware that some of this could easily be down to you and its probably better to find out first before you go off on one at them in areas that are your fault. You can then focus on areas that they are at fault
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • rai78
    rai78 Posts: 25 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 16 January 2012 at 2:41PM
    Hi dunstonh,

    The account was put on hold at the suggestion of the customer service adviser. This was because they phoned me to say an engineer wouldn't fix the boiler. That was the first I'd heard about the boiler being broken and I was very cross that an engineer had gone out at the request of the tenant and we, as the bill payers, had not been informed about it. I had to contact the tenants to find out what was going on and if indeed the boiler had stopped working. After explaining all this to the customer service adviser he said he'd put the account on hold until the issue was resolved. As I understood it that meant there would be no more movement on my account. At the next phone call I was told that there wasn’t even a record of that conversation on the system.

    I also couldn't have cancelled the policy or direct debit because I didn't know there was a policy until the first payment went out. The account was put on 'hold' after the last payment of one year’s insurance. Then the documents must have been sent out and because they went to the wrong address I couldn’t stop the new policy from starting.

    This was the first year we’d had insurance with EON so it was a new policy. When I took out the policy I had to give the tenants address and our address so they should have had it. Not only that but I’d given the address numerous times on the phone as we’d had problems receiving stuff all year. I know I gave it to them and in fact have documents from them sent to us at our home address.

    As for agreeing to an automatic renewal lisyloo I will have to look into that but I never thought about contacting the bank. Problem is we bank with Santander who are quite possibly the world’s worst bank when it comes to customer service.

    You’ve both given me something to think about but I still want to fight this as it is just one issue in a long line of complaints including not receiving the (up to) £250 towards a new boiler should EON fail to fix the old one.

    I’d still like to know what procedures I should follow and where I go next if I’m not satisfied with the outcome from EON.
  • lisyloo
    lisyloo Posts: 29,879 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    You should firstly raise a formal compalint with EON.
    If you don't think their customer service is very good then I would spend 75p and send it recorded delivery so they cannot say it was lost in the post.
    If you come to a deadlock situation or they take too long you can go to the independent financial ombudsman service for free.
  • rai78
    rai78 Posts: 25 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    lisyloo wrote: »
    You should firstly raise a formal compalint with EON.
    If you don't think their customer service is very good then I would spend 75p and send it recorded delivery so they cannot say it was lost in the post.
    If you come to a deadlock situation or they take too long you can go to the independent financial ombudsman service for free.

    Thank you that's great.
  • rs65
    rs65 Posts: 5,682 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I'm not sure that this is actually an insurance product.

    It seems like a contract for services.

    Have a look at your contract under Customer Care - it details how to complain (clause 7.16 maybe).

    Also, auto renewal is detailed in 7.8.
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