Previous occupant bills underestimated caused by bills to soar?

pinkteapot

I would go for honesty. Tell them you didn't read the meters until February or whenever it was you started actually reading them.

Give them all the actual readings you have.

Explain that, based on the actual readings, your monthly usage is around £x and so you can't possibly be responsible for the high usage they are attributing to you for the previous X months.

Sound contrite and upset - say you were stupid not to read the meters and now you're really worried about this huge bill, etc.

Try that first. Honesty from the outset will look better later on if you do have to complain.

Hopefully you can come to some sort of agreement with the supplier. Ignore what the someone told you about previous owner disputing your opening readings - in the future, take them as soon as you get the keys and take photos of the meter as proof (turn on date/time stamping on your camera if it has it).

myright

thanks. Well I guess I'll just tell them the past 2 months readings. I wished I had taken 1 in january now.

E.ON_Company_Rep_Chris

There’s been some really good advice here already myright, thanks everyone I can’t stress enough the importance of contacting your supplier with meter readings as soon as you can when you move home.

It’s a shame that you didn’t do this but it’s not fair for you to have to pay for somebody else’s gas and electricity.

As the readings we’ve used for the start of your supply were estimated, we can use the readings you’ve taken since then and look at re-estimating the readings from when you moved in. Do contact us with as much information as you have and we’ll work with you to make sure your bill is as accurate as possible.

Just to be clear, we do have a responsibility to the former tenants too and have to make sure that we’re being fair to you both, so we'll also look at any meter readings we do have recorded from before you moved in and hopefully find a compromise.

myright

thanks for the response amanda...

The former tennants only provided 2 meter readings in the year according to EON. as it stands what will happen with the underestimation that has been going on?

undaunted

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Camera phones are marvellous for times like these - when I completed the sale of my late father's house I took photos of the reading on the gas, electric and water meters on the day of exchange, duly dated. I then informed the relevant companies of the readings but have kept the photos on my phone just in case.

In principle this seems like a good idea.

In practice does anyone know whether it has been proven to "stand up" in Court (given that you can manipulate camera date stamps at will)?

undaunted

myright wrote: »

thank you for the top responses ^^

Basically, thhe problem is.... we have provided the actual readings for the past few months as advised by agent in eon.

The problem is that, the previous owner has been charged only by estimates. He only had provided the energy supplier with 3 readings in the whole of last year. (which i believe should have been incorrect).

Anyway, there was an initial dispute (which we wont get into, as its probably irrelevant to this situation).

When I provided them with actual readings. The actual readings were WAY higher than what I was getting billed for (the estimates). That added an additional £700 to what I owe for the 5 months. Noway did any of us use that.

Our past 2 months readings we provided shows that we only used £40 on avergae for gas and elec. So £700 +£500 for months is way off!

Suppliers do also bear some responsibility. It is not sufficient for them to bill you based on actual readings now without an actual or at least realistically estimated startin reading. Did the last occupier notify them they were moving out or you that you were moving in? If so they were of course quite free to read the meter themselves so cannot merely blame you for not taking an opening read!

It seems to me that the "third party dispute" here is really between them & the last occupier and not you & the last occupier as was suggested above.

Try taking your complaint to the Ombudsman as suggested if you get nowhere with the supplier. Good luck

E.ON_Company_Rep_Chris

myright wrote: »

thanks for the response amanda...

The former tennants only provided 2 meter readings in the year according to EON. as it stands what will happen with the underestimation that has been going on?

The old tenants will receive a catch up bill if we find that the estimated meter readings we used to close their account were too low, so we do have to make sure that any changes we make at this stage are fair and justified. I expect that we've been and read the meter ourselves in the last 6 months or should be due to pretty soon and that will help.

It's difficult for me to say for sure without having all the details. I'm happy to deal with this personally for you, you can email me direct with the info you have using the address on my profile.

myright

undaunted wrote: »

Suppliers do also bear some responsibility. It is not sufficient for them to bill you based on actual readings now without an actual or at least realistically estimated startin reading. Did the last occupier notify them they were moving out or you that you were moving in? If so they were of course quite free to read the meter themselves so cannot merely blame you for not taking an opening read!

It seems to me that the "third party dispute" here is really between them & the last occupier and not you & the last occupier as was suggested above.

Try taking your complaint to the Ombudsman as suggested if you get nowhere with the supplier. Good luck

well basically the previous occupant who i bought the house off, stayed an extra couple of months at my adress, which I let them free of charge as they were relatives. But I wish I hadnt now. They promised to ay the bill.

Anyway I couldnt prove to the company they stayed in my house for an additional few months. As they proved they bought/ rented another house out when I purchased this house.

Anyway the previous occupants had failed to close the account and it was still in their name. I tried contacting them to pay it. But they stopped responsding to me, hence I went through EON myself.

I have no proof they remained in my house for additional time after the sale of the property and they took advantage of my good nature to let them stay there rent free as long they paid their own bills.

so im accountable for paying from jan time, despite them not closing the account off the previous occupants in april time as they didnt themselves.

undaunted

Your last posts seems a little contradictory (and possibly to suggest that the third party may be between you & the last occupier after all). So,

On what date did you buy this house?

On what date did you notify the supplier / set up an account in your name from?

If you notified the supplier in April as your post seems to suggest you must surely have given them a reading at that time?

Is there a marked difference in consumption / billing between Jan - April and April to now?

Was there a tenancy agreement any other evidence (eg Council tax bills) for either you or the relatives that you could rely upon to support your claim as to where each of you were living?

myright

unfortunately not.

I am responsible from paying from Jan, because they have proven 'they were not in the house' by providing documents of their new place of residence which they say they were living at.

But they were not. They asked if they could stay in my house abit longer so they can do the other house up. I was okay with it. I didnt have a tenanncy agreement, because i didnt charge them and I relied on good faith they they will pay the bills as they were staying there. .

The company have ruled that they moved out of the house in january , when I took over. I cant fault that cus i dont have docs to prove otherwise. So all the bills prior to that are owed by the them.

However, all after needs paying by me.

Even so the estimations, that come through the door were completely out of touch in comparision to the readings. They were alot lower. Which I had to rectify 2 months ago with the company and gave them proper readings for 2 months.

The previous owners had me believing they were paying the bills, but were not, and in the process failed to close their account in january when they really should have . The account has been on their name till May. EON closed the account for them, when I called up. and then changed it to my name.