Heavy handed gas bill recovery

andyrobbo

Hi all,

A bit of a saga but I'm looking for some advice as to where we stand with this.

We moved into our new house on the 1st December 2011 and immediately instructed Npower to take over the gas and electric from Southern Electric. Of course we gave the meter readings from the day we moved in and Npower took over on the 24th Jan 2012.

So, we had 1 month and 24 days owing to Southern Electric at the time of changeover.

When we started with Npower, we paid more than our usual direct debit to account for this amount outstanding - however, never received an invoice.

In hindsight, I suppose it was too much to expect that everything was taken care of as until a fortnight ago that was the last we heard of it.

We received a demand from a debt collection agency acting on behalf of Southern Electric for £170 for a supposed gas debt.

There is no way that we would have used £170 worth of gas in that time period (even at todays prices!)

So, we queried it with the agency who 'placed the account on hold until we can get a copy invoice from Southern Electric'.

We did this and received copy invoices from SE - addressed to the estate agent (like John Smith) and the previous occupier. As the envelope was addressed to us, we opened it and found the problem.

We remember getting the odd letter addressed to the estate agent and previous occupier. All of which were returned as addressee not known or moved away, unopened as per the law.

Apparently, these were the invoices from SE for our outstanding debt - sent to the wrong person so were never acted upon.

Now, almost a year on where we have no record of the meter readings we took we are faced with a bill of £170 plus a £25 admin fee! This hardly seems fair when SE sent correspondence in the wrong name and we have rightly returned it unopened.

The fact that thr usage is so high concerns me. If it was on a par with our normal usage then I could justify paying what we normally do. But since I have no proof of our usage I believe that I'm stuck.

To cap it off, we received a 'Final Demand' today despite the account supposedly being placed on hold until our query with SE was resolved. Even the recovery agent said that that letter shouldn't have gone out. There was a difference of 4 working days between a demand letter and the final demand with the threat of court action.

This seems very heavy handed and unfair. I have no objection paying for what I owe. But I resent paying a bill I can't say 100% is mine and after a catalogue of errors by SE that have resulted in it being sent to debt recovery.

Does anyone have any experience or advice in this type of thing?

Thanks
Andy

notbritishgas

Reading your post in depth I think this could be your fault.
It appears you did not ring Southern when you moved in to set up an account with them and give meter readings, am I correct?

Once that was done you would be free to contact Npower to initiate a switch and eventually give them a meter reading which they would give to Southern.

Southern would then have 2 accurate meter readings to provide you with a final bill for the 1 month 24 days.

From the lack of information you now have eg initial meter reading I fear you may have to accept their bill but you could find out if the bill started on 1 Dec or did it include some of the period when the previous owner was there.

macman

Did you reg with SE before commencing the switch to Npower?

jalexa

andyrobbo wrote: »

Apparently, these were the invoices from SE for our outstanding debt - sent to the wrong person so were never acted upon.

Quite right, they were not your invoices to settle.

For the benefit of others - when you move to a new home always set up an account with the current supplier, during which call you will be asked to state the date of entry and the readings on the date of entry. Always take photographs.

So you are the author of your own misfortune, but...

I would say the bulk of the £170 relates to the previous occupier who I would say has done a runner. Based on your explanation I would say Southern Electric have been negligent and/or incompetent.

Your supply start date is a matter of industry fact agreed between Npower and Southern Electric. Your date of entry is a matter of demonstrable legal or contractual fact though it is entirely possible that Southern Electric are unaware because I am not aware there is an industry mechanism for a gaining supplier to pass a date of entry (help please Terry), however they would have passed industry notification at the expiry of the cooling-off period. If that happened before the previous occupier had cancelled their contract, then IMO the first Southern Electric incompetence is that SE did not seek clarity on the previous householder's move date (and the new householders date of entry).

The next technical issues you need to establish is that the NPower opening reading and date and the Southern Electric final bill closing reading and date are identical. Next you need to compare the Southern Electric final bill opening date with your date of entry and formally challenge the account accuracy if the Southern Electric date is earlier than your date of entry.

Personally I would set a trap for Southern Electric by raising a £10 Subject Access Request for all the data SE hold. There is every chance they will shoot themselves in the foot.

Also raise a formal complaint strictly in accordance with the Southern Electric complaints procedure. I normally advise a single issue but in the circumstances I would say bullet point every single concern you have, particulary that they failed to stay the debt recovery. Anyway it is not your "debt" until you have an invoice and the Estate Agent's (and previous occupier's) "debt" cannot become yours without reason.

HappyMJ

It doesn't sound heavy handed as yet....It hasn't actually gone to court it just a few words written on a bit of paper trying to convince you to pay. If you want you can have your day in court. If you lose you will have 28 days to avoid a CCJ being recorded against your name. For a debt which is so small it is extemely unlikely they will take court action so personally I'd ignore it and wait for them to take you to court.

Final demand do not mean this is your final chance ever the court will look at both sides of the argument and on the balance of probabilities make a judgement. You then have a month to pay which is your final demand before your credit rating is affected.

Debt collectors typically purchase these debts for very little and write threatening letters to convince you to pay. If they can't collect on the debt they typically return the debt back to the supplier for the supplier to take further action. The debt collector will not take you to court.

Cardew

HappyMJ,

What you say is correct, except(IMO) about credit rating.

We have had countless examples on MSE of credit ratings being affected(often without the 'victims' knowledge) for a debt which has not been the subject of any court action.

Where DCAs are involved it is often a case of 'guilty until proven innocent'!