Trouble with npower (night heating bricks)

aesir22

Hello
I have lived in my property (rented) for 5 years with the night heating brick system that was put in in the 70's after the property was built. When i moved in to the property it was never altered so it was on the tarrif and clearely switched on by the previous tenent. My daughter is asthmatic so i have never been able to use the heating stystem. I have paid £75 a month which was an agreement with npower since living at the property a short while, a letter was sent to me every 3 months quoting the i paid £75 a month ect so after a few months i didnt open or read and further letters from npower.
Early last year i recieved a recorded delivery letter from npower to say they were cutting my electricity supply as i owed them £3000 for electricity not paid over the previous 4 years! At my dismay and confusion i got in touch with them for some kind of explanation as i honestly asumed this could be nothing other than a mistake? They informed me this was no mistake. Although i hadnt blown the heat from the bricks i had in fact heated the bricks every evening without realising! I didnt even know how to turn the system off untill they sent an engineer to educate me, who might i add didnt know how the system worked as it was so old! The engineer also informed me that i am in fact on the highest tarrif there was and once i had let them know what tarrif i should be on i am to let them know??? I have no idea how to research this!?
My daughter and i are out of the house on average of 60 hours a week as she was a full time student now works full time and i have always worked full time so in the house for a short time each week apart from sleeping. I am on a very low income and I now pay £140 a month but am still getting debt letters and have no idea where to go from here. I have challenged npower about this on a number of occasions with no resolve. Each time i speak to them about this they just want me to pay more!!!

If anyone has been in a similar situation or can offer some advice it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Carla

Andy_WSM

Hi Carla, my initial thoughts are that this isn't really nPower's problem. You've consumed the power (somehow) and should have been keeping a regular account of meter readings. nPower have no responsibility for your heating system, it's operation or showing you how to use it. It's also entirely your responsibility to ensure you are on the tariff that suits YOUR lifestyle / consumption.

So you have no readings for any of this time period? You would really need these to contest a bill!

rogerblack

Neglecting anything else - the heat will have come out slowly, even if you do not open the vents.
It will have heated your property, if perhaps not at the ideal time for you.

Terrylw1

Something that doesn't ring true here - why would they let you build up a £3k underpayment over 4 years and do nothing about it?

I'm very sure they would have had a warrant served on you years ago.

So, where does this bill come from? Is it slowly increasing over the years due to your DD being too low or is it a catch up now?

Its important to post this because a failure to monitor and adjust the DD is covered in Ofgem's Standard Licence Conditions (SLC) which would add to a complaint.

If its a jump, it could be a different SLC failure such as meter reading or it could be some form of rebilling for missed data...and suppliers do like to ignore their billing code & the fact they may be at fault.

Post further info for more advice.

notbritishgas

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Something that doesn't ring true here - why would they let you build up a £3k underpayment over 4 years and do nothing about it?

.

aesir22 wrote: »

a letter was sent to me every 3 months quoting the i paid £75 a month ect so after a few months i didnt open or read and further letters from npower.

Carla

Whilst not the full answer regarding lack of action after 4 years I think not opening any Npower letters did not help the situation.

nPower

Hi aesir22,

This sounds a little worrying and your points about not understanding where this outstanding balance has come from, need to be looked into.

Can you pop over an email to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL] and I can see what's happened here and if we can help you out with this?

Many thanks,

Adam

Be_Happy

Sorry. I'm not making any sense of this.

Your previous posts include some early in 2011 when you are having problems with moving house and fuel bill trouble with British Gas - you mention having a combi boiler and gas heating..

You now say you have been in this property for 5 years and have electric heating???