Npower and a 2 year old bill

Pinkyeyes

Hi all, this is my first post on here, be gentle! I was hoping someone on here might be able to shed some light on this situation that we're having with Npower. It's quite a long and frustrating story, so apologies for the long post!

At the end of October 2009, my now-hubby and I moved into a new build house with gas and electric supplied by Npower. I rang Npower and told them we had moved in and could we please have some bills. Npower didn't believe they supplied us, so I spent at least half an hour on the phone with them trying to convince them that we owed them money and supplying them with meter readings. Eventually they agreed and promised to send out bills.

We received electricity bills, but no gas bills. I rang Npower again, and asked for bills for the gas. They said there was a delay because they had to register our new gas line.

Still no gas bill. I rang up a third time, was promised a bill, which again didn't arrive. We were happily paying the electric bills as they arrived regularly.

In June 2010, we switched supplier as I was fed up with Npower's inability to send us a bill - I told my new supplier this and they said they would be able to sort that out for me. We started paying our new supplier by DD and paid off the outstanding electricity bill to Npower, but never received a gas bill - having asked for this at least four times, I gave up as they clearly weren't listening to me anyway.

Fast forward to February 2012 and suddenly out of the blue hubby and I get a letter from a debt collection agency demanding £529 for gas payments to Npower. We still at this point, had never had a bill. I rang Npower and they couldn't understand what had happened - they had my many phone calls registered and had logged that I had indeed told them we lived in the house and had requested bills and supplied meter readings. They didn't know why we hadn't received any bills or why it had taken so long for the debt collection agency to get in touch as they had handed over the case over a year before.

Following many conversations with various customer service people, it became clear that Npower failed to write to myself and my hubby, but sent bills to the company that built the houses for over a year after I had informed them that we had moved in.

Npower offered to take £100 off the bill as a gesture of goodwill, and we have started repaying the money to them, somewhat reluctantly, as I feel like I've tried time and again to rectify the situation. Having done some investigating on here, I wonder if they should be charging us at all for gas that was used two and a half years ago - surely that counts as back billing? Isn't it against their billing code?

Sorry if my rambling post didn't make sense - I am finding the whole situation baffling to be honest, never had any problems like this before!

chanz4

You say gas supply was been registered, did the supply get put in by the correct channels by the builder? Normaly when a supply is put in the builder automatically requestes an mpr.

jalexa

Pinkyeyes wrote: »

In June 2010, we switched supplier as I was fed up with Npower's inability to send us a bill ...

...Fast forward to February 2012 and suddenly out of the blue hubby and I get a letter from a debt collection agency demanding £529 for gas payments to Npower. We still at this point, had never had a bill.

On the face of it the entire gas bill should have have been subject to backbilling waiver [more than 12 months prior though individual circumstances vary].

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication/finish/43-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills/412-the-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills-back-billing-for-domestic-customers.html

You need to ask the question of NPower, consider the response, if not satisfied escalate the issue strictly in accordance with the Complaint's procedure until "deadlock" (or 8 weeks has elapsed) whichever occurs first, then refer to the Energy Ombudsman.

Separately I would complain about the deep discourtesy of a DCA referral without prior contact. Don't settle that complaint for less than £50 D&I compo (distress and inconvenience).

chanz4

It is important that you give all facts here, because if the supply was unregistered the billing would be under a theft legislation of the gas act.

Pinkyeyes

Thanks for your replies!

I'm probably being thick (I'm pregnant and I'm sure the baby is eating my brain cells) but what is mpr?

I assume it was all put in correctly by the builder; we live in a new village that hasn't been finished when we moved in (and still isn't), and we had lots of issues when we moved in because our roads didn't officially exist. When I spoke to Npower when we first moved in they couldn't find our road so they didn't think they supplied us, but all the information was in our welcome folder telling us that they were our suppliers. I know on the day we moved in, the builders took all the meter readings and it was their job to forward those onto the respective companies involved and I have a copy of those figures.

Hope that makes sense.

chanz4

Dont bet on it, thats why Im asking the question

Terrylw1

Its quite clearly Powers fault and you have lots of evidence of contact, which means you have not attempted to mislead or prevent them from billing you, hence the billing code applies.

The supply must be registered since they've told you that they have been sending the gas bills to the developer. They also set you up for elec and billed you through this time.

The developers won't have been paying and when it hit a Collections stage, its easily seen that you are there and they would just correct it.

Its a total load of incompetence and the reason why the billing code came into play on back billing. You are also protected by Ofgems back billing rules which states if you have not been billed at all for energy, everything over a year old is the suppliers problem, not yours.

Pay nothing further and raise a complaint. After 8 weeks you can refer it to the ombudsman.

Honestly, there is a billing code but suppliers try it on and then immediately back down when they realise they have a customer aware of the rules.

Get your money back and any compensation for this.

Pinkyeyes

I just rang them up again and asked them to re-open my complaint, which they couldn't do, but they have started a new complaint for me. The woman I spoke to said it had already been to their back-billing team but they had rejected it as we had been with Npower for less than a year - I maintained my argument that I had not been billed for this energy use for over two years and therefore I should be protected by the billing code. Terrylw1 I had your post in front of me while on the phone and kept quoting bits to sound like I knew what I was talking about!
We shall wait and see what happens. I'm quite happy to go to the energy ombudsman now, providing the matter doesn't get satisfactorily resolved. I've got the bit between my teeth now.
Thanks again for all your help people!

jalexa

Pinkyeyes wrote: »

I just rang them up again and asked them to re-open my complaint, which they couldn't do,

In that case I would go straight to the Energy Ombudsman now and let the EO/NPower argue the toss on the original complaint. Otherwise it's just an 8 week delay.

undaunted

chanz4 wrote: »

It is important that you give all facts here, because if the supply was unregistered the billing would be under a theft legislation of the gas act.

But the customer says they had repeatedly contacted Npower (who don't appear to dispute that) what court is therefore going to consider them to have been stealing energy rather than querying Npowers failings here?

undaunted

Pinkyeyes wrote: »

I just rang them up again and asked them to re-open my complaint, which they couldn't do, but they have started a new complaint for me. The woman I spoke to said it had already been to their back-billing team but they had rejected it as we had been with Npower for less than a year - I maintained my argument that I had not been billed for this energy use for over two years and therefore I should be protected by the billing code. Terrylw1 I had your post in front of me while on the phone and kept quoting bits to sound like I knew what I was talking about!
We shall wait and see what happens. I'm quite happy to go to the energy ombudsman now, providing the matter doesn't get satisfactorily resolved. I've got the bit between my teeth now.
Thanks again for all your help people!

If they were supplying the property for two years, now want paying for that and you lived in it throughout it's ridculous for them to claim that you were a customer for less than a year!

Stand your ground and let them try & argue that point with the Ombudsman if they wish to be awkward about it.

If you have already been complaining to Npower for over 8 weeks theres no need to wait another 8 just because of their procedures. You can go to the Ombudsman now if you wish