EDF owner occupier, big bill for 1 month?

qwertyjjj

We moved into our property in April and immediately switched to NPower. However, we today got a letter stating that EDF had us on a deemed contract at the start and we now owe them £198, which is a lot considering our monthly bill is normally £70. The letter was addressed to owner/occupier.
Do we have any comeback on the deemed part of the contract as this is the first we have heard about it, no bills, no letters, just a demand.

spiro

A deemed contract exists with the current supplier the second you switch anything on. The high charge may be due to the CoS reading if the property was previous empty and EDF only had estimated readings. Did you phone EDF with a reading the day you moved in?

qwertyjjj

spiro wrote: »

A deemed contract exists with the current supplier the second you switch anything on. The high charge may be due to the CoS reading if the property was previous empty and EDF only had estimated readings. Did you phone EDF with a reading the day you moved in?

No, because we assumed the previous owner (landlord) had done it and I just assumed when we switched to NPower that was it...didn;t realise it took a month or more to switch.

vuvuzela

If you didn't give them a reading when you moved in, they could well be billing you for the previous occupant's usage, unfortunately.

glasgow_DFW

you assumed allot! I moved in and thought someone else would do it all for me.
You clearly have access to the internet it would have taken you moments to find this out.

Terrylw1

You could also be paying for the landlords usage and standing charge as they have a habit of not informing suppliers of the periods between tenants. This often causes the next tenant to get lumped with debt the landlord knows he/she should pay.

Common trick by dodgy landlords. Always do your own reads, no matter who, don't trust landlords or associations...no matter how big or the years they have been trading.

brewerdave

Terrylw1 wrote: »

You could also be paying for the landlords usage and standing charge as they have a habit of not informing suppliers of the periods between tenants. This often causes the next tenant to get lumped with debt the landlord knows he/she should pay.

Common trick by dodgy landlords. Always do your own reads, no matter who, don't trust landlords or associations...no matter how big or the years they have been trading.

Should be easy to check if you have been stuck with landlord's/previous occupants standing charge - you know your start date so should only be charged for the number of days from that to the EDF end date when you switched. If any more days have been charged, then the bill should be rejected and recalculated - you will probably have to provide proof of the date that your ownership/tenancy started.
Actual utility usage is more difficult as you don't have a meter reading - but you may be able to "negotiate" a lower estimated opening reading based on usage patterns.

macman

You can't switch to a new supplier until you have opened an account with the existing one, with whom you are in a deemed contract. And even then the process takes 4-5 weeks typically.
If you didn't take opening readings then you'll need to prove your date of entry and get rebilled.

Terrylw1

macman wrote: »

You can't switch to a new supplier until you have opened an account with the existing one, with whom you are in a deemed contract. And even then the process takes 4-5 weeks typically.
If you didn't take opening readings then you'll need to prove your date of entry and get rebilled.

There is nothing in SLC14 that allows a supplier to object on that basis.

As Chanz pointed out on another thread, the only way it go wrong is if the previous tenant hasn't closed their account and have accumulated Outstanding Charges.

I totally agree on setting the account up first though, its not going to suffer the operational errors that could occur.

Terrylw1

brewerdave wrote: »

Should be easy to check if you have been stuck with landlord's/previous occupants standing charge - you know your start date so should only be charged for the number of days from that to the EDF end date when you switched. If any more days have been charged, then the bill should be rejected and recalculated - you will probably have to provide proof of the date that your ownership/tenancy started.
Actual utility usage is more difficult as you don't have a meter reading - but you may be able to "negotiate" a lower estimated opening reading based on usage patterns.

Absolutely.

Its just that sometimes people open the account from the end date of the last one. I know in newer SAP systems, they don't seem to cope well with missing days inbetween,

Standing charge is easy. In terms of estimation, a supplier would likely rework the estimate based on the adjusted date if no actual were given. Until then, they would have opened the latest account based on the closing reading of the old tenant. They can monitor consumption but its a longer process so I guess it depends on the quality standards in place...or whether the management style is more "clear the Widgets in red now!".

qwertyjjj

macman wrote: »

You can't switch to a new supplier until you have opened an account with the existing one, with whom you are in a deemed contract. And even then the process takes 4-5 weeks typically.
If you didn't take opening readings then you'll need to prove your date of entry and get rebilled.

So, how did NPower manage to open our account and switch it if we didn't have an account with EDF or it was a deemend account?