nPower nightmare... please help!

maffp

Hi!

My wife just started a business... in the first couple of weeks she got bombarded with phonecalls of people trying to get her to sign up to electricity contracts. I was in the process of finding a good deal when it turns out npower signed her up to a 3 year electricity contract over the phone. She was stressed and can't remember agreeing though they say she did. Is there anything we can do about it? She's not even going to be at that property for 3 years!

The other thing is that we don;t even know if ythey've signed onm the right meter. There is a seperately rented flat above and there are three meters in the whole property. No-one even knows which is which!

vuvuzela

There's no cooling-off period for business contracts unfortunately. You could maybe ask for a recording of the phone call to prove she assented to the 3 year period ?

undaunted

Is it definitely a business contract she's entered into or is this a small business run from home where it may have been set up as a domestic contract?

Terrylw1

The meter is not as important as the MPAN to the property address. That will give them the meter number so as long as the meter is set up correctly between the property and meter operators records, it will be correct.

Is it a business premise or domestic? You have to bare in mind that you automatically enter into a Deemed contract with the properties current supplier. Deemed rates for businesses are known to be very poor so you may be losing out. Or is it a business run from home, in which case you need to seek advice from your accountant who would be responsibility for a tax declaration for you as it matters what % of your use is which in terms of the contract the supplier has to offer you, business or domestic?

green1960

I inadvertently signed up for a 3 year business contract with npower when we only run a sole trader plastering firm from home. When I received my winter gas bill I nearly cried, I rang npower and asked if I could switch but they said i had to wait until my 3 years were up, I then said well can't you switch me on to a home tariff rather than a business one and they did it straight away, if I had not asked the question, I would not have been able to move. I rang u switch business for advice and he said to try npower and if they would not budge to ring him back and he would give me a number to ring or try and help me but in the end I did not need his help.

I think this might be worth a try.

Hope it will be of assistance.

Terrylw1

green1960 wrote: »

I inadvertently signed up for a 3 year business contract with npower when we only run a sole trader plastering firm from home. When I received my winter gas bill I nearly cried, I rang npower and asked if I could switch but they said i had to wait until my 3 years were up, I then said well can't you switch me on to a home tariff rather than a business one and they did it straight away, if I had not asked the question, I would not have been able to move. I rang u switch business for advice and he said to try npower and if they would not budge to ring him back and he would give me a number to ring or try and help me but in the end I did not need his help.

I think this might be worth a try.

Hope it will be of assistance.

Did you provide a VAT declaration from your accountant stating you are not using the required minimum % for your business from him? If not, they may find out about the business and change it back again. Given its a plastering firm, its unlikely your utility use if more for the business but other home businesses do get classed as using enough to classify as over tolerance.

green1960

I think that Npower provided me with some sort of VAT declaration form, but we are a sole trader with no business use, I took the contract out around August/September 2008 and was able to change to a home tariff in July 2009, I stayed with Npower until January 2011 and then moved to EDF I signed up stupidly for 3 years but left after only 9 months. I thought this might help the original poster with her problem.

Terrylw1

green1960 wrote: »

I think that Npower provided me with some sort of VAT declaration form, but we are a sole trader with no business use, I took the contract out around August/September 2008 and was able to change to a home tariff in July 2009, I stayed with Npower until January 2011 and then moved to EDF I signed up stupidly for 3 years but left after only 9 months. I thought this might help the original poster with her problem.

If you work from home, whether sole trader, there is profit based usage hence it becomes a consideration but if its low the VAT declaration is so your supplier can charge your tax correctly or they are as liable in court to HMRC as the customer.

Sounds like you didn't have business usage at home for utilities so can easily be domestic.