EDF forced my house to change to a prepay meter?

Etla

I've just moved to a new room and today a bunch of edf ppl charged in saying my landlord did not pay the bill and they even got a warranty from court. Another tenant said I should've not let them in yet the people threatened to call the police. So I let them in to change to the prepay meter.....
Since the bills were included, now we are only left with £5 on the top up card....with 6 other people in the house. Clearly, the landlord doesn't care about anything and whether he will topup for us.
Should I've let those people in??? I've heard the edf customer service have been very poor...

jalexa

If they had a warrant you had no choice. TBH your grievance is with your landlord not Edf. Pre-pay may be no bad thing and is the same price as standard credit.

molerat

Etla wrote: »

I've just moved to a new room and today a bunch of edf ppl charged in saying my landlord did not pay the bill and they even got a warranty from court. Another tenant said I should've not let them in yet the people threatened to call the police. So I let them in to change to the prepay meter.....
Since the bills were included, now we are only left with £5 on the top up card....with 6 other people in the house. Clearly, the landlord doesn't care about anything and whether he will topup for us.
Should I've let those people in??? I've heard the edf customer service have been very poor...

This is the important part. If your tenancy agreement clearly states that electric is included your LL is in breach of contract if he does not supply it. You need to speak to him now.

timbo58

agree with molerat.
And IMHO edf customer care is pretty cr&p:
They never answer the phone within 20 minutes
They don't send bills when required
They can't keep appointments to change meters

macman

Any landlord who includes gas and electricity in a tenancy agreement in a house with 6 occupants (is this is a flat or an HMO I wonder?) is clearly not great at economics...
And remember that the meter will be recovering debt as well-so you'll be paying the LL's debts every time you top up.

chanz4

if its in your tennancy call your local council and report, also as a multiple occupancy property he has legal obligations

Smi1er

I would be telling the landlord that you will be deducting the topups from the rent and supplying receipts. Put it in writing

Terrylw1

Does the property have the fire alarms linked to this meter?

I thought you couldn't fit a PPM in those circumstances for safety reasons so could this be a way to reverse it?

Sounds like you've got a dodgy landlord so be careful.

If you had liability for the utilities, the warrant officer would have aborted.

spiro

As you say 'card' rather than 'key' have they changed the gas/elec/both meters?

Whichever they have changed put the device in the meter and if you scroll through the screens you will see the Debt Recovery Rate, this is the amount the meter will take each week to clear the old debt. If this debt is not yours (utilities clearly included in tenancy agreement) you need to deal with asap because not only will you be paying for ongoing consumption but you will also be paying for his debt.

As other have said including utilities in this day and age is stupid on the part of the LL, but I know at least one uni student who is in a shared house and that is the situation. :eek:

chanz4

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Does the property have the fire alarms linked to this meter?

I thought you couldn't fit a PPM in those circumstances for safety reasons so could this be a way to reverse it?

Sounds like you've got a dodgy landlord so be careful.

If you had liability for the utilities, the warrant officer would have aborted.

The firealarms should not be linked to the same supply for this reason, but bet their is none.

inregards to the warrant, its cut and dry no payment no credit meter

Terrylw1

chanz4 wrote: »

The firealarms should not be linked to the same supply for this reason, but bet their is none.

inregards to the warrant, its cut and dry no payment no credit meter

But if a warrant is obtained against non payment, which I know is against the property, when the warrant officer turns up and finds a new tenant in there who has no debt or knowledge of this issue, fitting that meter is just a complaint and a quick reversal as its been served against the wrong person, despite it being for the property.

The problem with alarms is likely to be a big one. Since a lot of landlords have flats/houses which used to be standard dwellings, there won't be a communal supply for the fire alarms to be wired to. They won't pay for a seperate supply to be fitted and I wonder how this legislation stacks up in terms of the PPM's that are already out there?

So, now its going to be much harder to fit PPM's on these non payers.