HUGE electricity bill!

Terrylw1

Well, you are nowhere near the old NE region then! Super tariff is specific to a super tariff meter which has only even been available in the NE region and cannot be billed outside of there.

With some if these very specific 1 region types, suppliers who came from other regions never knew about them...because elec was based on regions. So, they didn't understand them or how to bill them for years.

Whilst their licence states they must be able to register any supply, it doesn't force them to gave a product. Sometimes due to this, supplier staff take a risk and use a tariff they know they shouldn't, just to make it go away! That's what happened to anyone on supetariff at your property. I wonder if the previous tenant paid more for super tariff? Given npower bought out NE supplier, they perhaps get cheaper purchasing costs so it might have been less than Heat wise would have been. Totally incorrect tariff though due to bad investigation.

The most important thing is to see what the property is doing in terms of wiring. Then check its suitable or whether the landlord needs to change it back. Then look at tariffs and meter changes if the off peak load is not on an off peak consumer unit.

Some history to check first but repost so we can offer advice.

amie1234

More interesting stuff...

I've asked our letting agent to give me the meter readings for previous tenants, all the way back to 2008.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th rate on the meter didnt advance for them either. So, this must mean that N-power could have been offering all previous tenants a E10 tariff (or super domestic) knowing full well that they couldnt benefit from it ....since 2008 and maybe longer! Am I right?

In my mind then, we have been billed at a premium rate, without the balancing benefit of cheap units during off-peak hours.

N-power should recalculate our bill and give allowance for the fact that we would have used some of the electricity during the 'cheap' hours. I dont know how they would do this.

We have tried to keep our main consumption to the 'cheap' hours so a higher percentage of the electricity that we have used should be on a cheap rate.

I'm still to hear back from Adam at N-power and also, for a response to my complaint. I've also found and contacted the tenants who lived in the property previously- just waiting for a response.

I shall continue digging!

Amie

jalexa

amie1234 wrote: »

Thanks for keeping engaged with the post. Almost certainly you have a billing issue to solve (stick with Terrylw1's advice) but on "knowing full well that they couldnt benefit from it" I do not think you have strong argument.

It is the property owner's responsibility to ensure appropriate metering for the installed heating (and general household electric) installation.

Terrylw1

As Jalexa says, its the property owners responsibility to request the appropriate meter.

However, its also the suppliers responsibility to ensure you are not signed to incorrect tariffs that do not benefit you. In reality, other than recent changes, suppliers have always been reactive to complaints as opposed to actively reviewing their customers yearly usage vs their products. Not sure if all are like that, but I know some have been.

I think in this case, Npower are at fault in applying Superdeal to the previous tenant. This proves that someone there found a problem and rather than correctly set the tariff to Heatwise, they applied a tariff not available in your region. In a normal billing situation, that could cause a customer to be overcharged since Super deal, Heatwise , Warmwise, etc are not the same as E10 in terms of the hours and even certain additional meter functions.

Aside from that, every time the customer gave them a reading, the meter would appear as a possible faulty time switch. Any reading taken by a/meter reader would also show this and they even provide a specific data item in the data flow sent to give the reading to the supplier, this code would denote a possible faulty time switch.

The person who set up that Superdeal would also have seen that.

In terms of correction, if you know the meter is operating as a standard 24hr meter, the supplier can change the meter. Given the constant errors at the supplier end and the mess the landlord/contractors have caused, its not your fault and if you are being billed on the highest rate, you are being overcharged for what is essentially a standard rate supply. My suggestion would be to demand your account from your opening readings at standard rate so your bills are reduced and fall inline with the usage on the new standard rate meter that is fitted. They can't do this until the meter change though.

I would be very careful with requesting Heatwise rebilling to spread your heating/off peak usage across the other registers as it will be a pure estimate. They have no idea what you use so will either use the standard % their pricing guys assume go be for the average customer or may ask you what you are using based on your appliances. Based on what others posters have said, Heat wise can be expensive, so would standard rate be a better way?

How they do it is their problem to get a bill out, it may need a one off bill with credit/debt adjustments but from the meter change, billing would continue as normal.

Like I said, just be very sure you don't need the Heatwise style heating and need the standard meter.

nPower

Hi amie1234,

I'm really sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

I am on the case this morning and will post a response to you as soon as I can.

Best wishes,

Adam

amie1234

Hello Adam,

Glad to see that you have been working on my case this morning.

With the help of posts on this site, I now have a better understanding as to what has gone wrong- so the comments in my complaint letter are a little out of date now. Anyway, I'm sure you have followed these posts, which give a more up to date account of the problem.

When am I likely to hear from you?

Thanks again Terryw1, for your input. Youve really helped me make some sense of this whole saga....let's hope we get to the bottom of it!

Amie

amie1234

Also Terryw1, what part would you say that the landlord/contractors have had in this mess?

Thanks,

Amie

amie1234

''Almost certainly you have a billing issue to solve (stick with Terrylw1's advice) but on "knowing full well that they couldnt benefit from it" I do not think you have strong argument.''

Thanks Jalexa. I think we do have a strong argument, particularly as the problem has existed for so long. As Terryw1 suggested, this must've been obvious to the meter readers/N-power each time a reading was sent in...but they've just ignored it for over 4 years!

Each time n-power were sent a notification of a new tenant at the property, they would (or should) have looked at the type of tariff to assign them to (or checked the occupiers chosen tariff) and then they should have compared it to the capabilities of the meter fitted.

It certainly isnt our fault. We were told that we were on a heatwise tariff and had a heatwise meter- which sounds right. At no point before we got the big bill were we aware that there would be a problem.

Amie

Terrylw1

amie1234 wrote: »

Also Terryw1, what part would you say that the landlord/contractors have had in this mess?

Thanks,

Amie

They are primarily responsible for the situation. If it was a new build, the original contracts are most at fault and should never have wired a flat up like this. If the landlord bought the property later, they would be less at fault as they didn't cause it...but may have not tried to resolve it.

If the flat was wired correctly later than when it was built, the landlord is totally at fault as a sparky should point it out, but the landlord is paying for the work so it would depend on the sparkys integrity as to whether they turn the job down or do it and run away!

I would also continue with your complaint as Npowers board rep isn't on here as much as Eon's and many of Npowers threads seem to be ignored whereas the Eon reps reply on them all. See my point?

amie1234

Thanks Terryw1. The landlord has confirmed that no work has been done on the wiring since the flat was built.

I've spoken with the man that used to rent our flat. He said they used to get massive bills too and in the end, the tenant suggested a reasonable figure and n-power just accepted it as npower knew that they couldnt work out what the bill should have been.

I guess It's just a waiting game now to see what n-power come up with.

Amie