Bills for the Occupier - what happens?

Moonandmoon

Hi,

We are ongoing customers with E-on for gas and electric. We moved into our new property in December and supplied our new meter readings and so started a new billing with them.

We have been receiving letters from E-on marked to the occupier, which I have opened (previously) and are the bill for a months use before we legally bought our property.

The property was empty for a month as we were buying it on the part-exchange scheme from Persimmon and it took us until then to complete. The Estate Agents had the heating on in this time.

Anyway, we rang E-on and they told us to ignore these bills to the occupier. But we're still getting them. We've rung them twice now and they say ignore them, they're not your problem. Surely this will escalate to Bailiff level though?

We are paying our current bill and have never defaulted. So where do we stand? Should we just ignore these letters?

Thank you

M

p.s. we offered to forward to the bill to the estate agent but E-on said no?

Moonandmoon

Just rang them again and they said the same thing: ignore the bills, they are not for you. They are for the (unnamed) occupier who lived there before. The bailiffs will not be able to come round in the future as you as a customer are paying your bills.

Will be interesting to see what happens...

Wywth

No one can pursue any bill addressed to 'the occupier'

If the bill was for the previous tenant, it would be in their name.

It sounds like they don't know who to bill.
If the property was unoccupied for any period between tenancies, then it is usually the Landlord that is responsible.

If your LL is shirking this responsibilty, it makes you wonder what other responsibilties they may shirk :eek:

dogshome

Best to Email Eon, that way you have a written record of your contacts with them about these 'Previous Occupier Bills' just in case it all goes Debt Collection shaped

jalexa

Moonandmoon wrote: »

Anyway, we rang E-on and they told us to ignore these bills to the occupier. But we're still getting them. We've rung them twice now and they say ignore them, they're not your problem. Surely this will escalate to Bailiff level though?

..... Should we just ignore these letters?

You are entitled to raise a formal complaint on the first occasion you are not 100% satisfied with a customer service outcome.

Technically they are nothing to do with you, assuming you had no legal responsibility for the premises for the period being billed, but these things can easily go "pear shaped". I do not recommend ignoring the continuing letters. A formal complaint by email will create an audit trail of E.ON incompetence.

E.ON_Company_Rep_Chris

Hi M

It’s right that these letters and bills aren’t strictly your concern as they relate to before you moved in but you’re also right that we’ll continue to send them unless we contact the people that were responsible for the empty period.

If there’s a balance outstanding this will eventually be passed for debt collection who’ll also use the only known address. As your name is not attached to this particular account, you wouldn’t be held in any way responsible but the letters are a nuisance nonetheless.

Sometimes, we have no choice but to continue to write if we don’t know who was responsible but in this case, it sounds like that it’s the agents we should be writing to and I’m sorry that we didn’t act when you suggested forwarding the letters to them.

I’d like to get this sorted properly for you, could you email me at the address on my profile with the details please?

Many thanks

Amanda

undaunted

E.ON_Company_Rep_Amanda wrote: »

Hi M

It’s right that these letters and bills aren’t strictly your concern as they relate to before you moved in but you’re also right that we’ll continue to send them unless we contact the people that were responsible for the empty period.

If there’s a balance outstanding this will eventually be passed for debt collection who’ll also use the only known address. As your name is not attached to this particular account, you wouldn’t be held in any way responsible but the letters are a nuisance nonetheless.

Sometimes, we have no choice but to continue to write if we don’t know who was responsible but in this case, it sounds like that it’s the agents we should be writing to and I’m sorry that we didn’t act when you suggested forwarding the letters to them.

I’d like to get this sorted properly for you, could you email me at the address on my profile with the details please?

Many thanks

Amanda

Your response attempts to be helpful but also seems to contain a degree of nonsense.

What right do you think you have to continue harrassing the present occupier - something you have now admitted is a nuiscence (therefore actionable) - with bills / mail for a person that your company cannot be bothered to identify and knows full well no longer lives theres?

Moonandmoon

Amanda,

Would it be possible for you to let me know the department with E-on who my husband can contact directly about this? The account is in his name.

I'm reluctant to send my details across as I am worried these will become 'the occupier' details. British Gas did this to me in our previous property, which unfortunately is why I'm very hesitant.

We will follow the contact to the appropriate department with letters/e-mails as other forum users have suggested.

Many thanks,

Maria

E.ON_Company_Rep_Chris

Hi Maria

I understand your concern if you’ve had a bad experience in the past.

The details I’m after are really just the address concerned, I shouldn’t need anything else and it certainly won’t affect your account.

Alternatively; you can send an email complaint via the Contact Us form on our website and one of my colleagues will help.

Thanks

Amanda

wakeupalarm

Why not just forward them on to the estate agent? If they are the ones who left the heating on when it was unoccupied and it was before you bought it?

The're not your bills or problem so let the estate agent sort it out.