Bereavement - empty house Eon

madge197

My father passed away 12 months ago and since the house has been empty. I contacted Eon to advise of this to be told to give final meter readings of which i did and advised that the property would be in probate. Some 9 months later i received a letter from a solicitors Phillips & Cohen adsvising that Eon had transferred the account to them to 'help me' clear the bill. I contacted Eon to ask why i had received a letter to be told that i had an outstanding balance on the account of £679. This was estimated.... It turned out when i gave the final readings there was an outstanding balance of £166 on the account of which i paid the same day. I have since received daily calls (hounding) from the soliciters at 8am which i refuse to take. I contacted Eon again today with new readings and i now have another outstanding balance for £205 for an empty propery. I complained to be told they have only tarriffs with a stansing charge (implemented in Jan this year) so what is the cost for? Nothing is on in the house, there is no central heating i am confused. I would have expected when i spoke to the bereavement team that i would have been advised of the correct process and furthermore advised to swap the atrriff to ensure no further charges on the account. The proerty is currently going through probate has anyone had a similar experiece?

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi madge197,

I'm sorry about this messing about with the account, especially at a time when you really don't need the hassle and worry.

We do have a specific department that deal with account's like these and I can point you in their direction.

The basic process is to let us know, then we can put the account in a specific sort of tracking to stop debt collection etc, we would also take readings.

The account would still be open and the responsibility of the executor until the property was sold (or someone moved in).

Therefore, we would still need regular meter readings to bill accurately (even if there is no usage) and a forwarding address to send the bills to.

I can help you with this, just let me know.

Helena

madge197

I have already been in touch with this department on a number of occassions over the past year, however nobody can help advise me on the correct tarriff to be on or help me to understand how/why we are still receiving such high bills.

I am hassled on a daily basis by the solicitors Phillips & Cohen they call at 8am every morning even at a weekend!

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

madge197 wrote: »

I have already been in touch with this department on a number of occassions over the past year, however nobody can help advise me on the correct tarriff to be on or help me to understand how/why we are still receiving such high bills.

I am hassled on a daily basis by the solicitors Phillips & Cohen they call at 8am every morning even at a weekend!

I understand,

If you email the account details to me at [EMAIL="WebForumAdvisors@eonenergy.com"]WebForumAdvisors@eonenergy.com[/EMAIL] I will take a look for you.

Helena

Wywth

Bills still have to be paid whilst the property is subject to probate - the executors should be handling that.

I would suggest you get the executors to shift the the account from E.on to someone that charges a low or preferably no standing charge if there is unlikely to be any/much consumption, else E.on will charge about £100 a year (per fuel) before anything is consumed.

leah14

We too are in the same situation Empty house waiting for Probate since December 2012 paid the outstanding balance straight away when bill came in February 2013. E-on have now presented us with another bill for usage = 10 units of electricity and 28 units of gas plus 26.09p standing charge per day because we did not realise we had left a pilot light lit ???
Spoke to their "Bereavement Support" department as I am obviously prepared to pay for what has been used but fail to see how they can justify charging the full standing charge amount in such circumstances when no-one is living in the property their response was we have used the supply no matter how small the amount is so have to pay the full standing charge. Needless to say as soon as probate is granted any time now we will defiantly be changing supplier

Wywth

leah14 wrote: »

We too are in the same situation Empty house waiting for Probate since December 2012 paid the outstanding balance straight away when bill came in February 2013. E-on have now presented us with another bill for usage = 10 units of electricity and 28 units of gas plus 26.09p standing charge per day because we did not realise we had left a pilot light lit ???
Spoke to their "Bereavement Support" department as I am obviously prepared to pay for what has been used but fail to see how they can justify charging the full standing charge amount in such circumstances when no-one is living in the property their response was we have used the supply no matter how small the amount is so have to pay the full standing charge. Needless to say as soon as probate is granted any time now we will defiantly be changing supplier

What do you think a standing charge is supposed to be there for?

Why do you think it shouldn't apply to you? :huh:

You can change supplier even before probate is granted, but if you are going to sell/transfer anytime soon, you may as well wait for the new oweber to take care of things.

As executor, you are responsible for mitigating any costs attributed to the estate. If you've failed, maybe others could have a claim against you personally.

macman

Exactly the same overheads apply whether the property is occupied or not. Supply maintenance, repairs, meter reading, billing...

spiro

Under OFGEMs new rules suppliers have to reduce the number of tariffs and remove all Tier1/2 tariffs and replace them with a standing change plus a single until rate (or 2-rates if E7 etc). This is designed to make it simplier for people to compare tariffs but it penalises very low (or zero) users because whilst they may never have used all their T1 units they will have to pay the standing charge.

alanq

spiro wrote: »

Under OFGEMs new rules suppliers have to reduce the number of tariffs and remove all Tier1/2 tariffs and replace them with a standing change plus a single until rate (or 2-rates if E7 etc). This is designed to make it simplier for people to compare tariffs but it penalises very low (or zero) users because whilst they may never have used all their T1 units they will have to pay the standing charge.

There will no longer be tiered charges for energy used just a standing charge and a single price for each unit used. The rules allow a standing charge of £0. So there is no reason, as far as the rules are concerned, that the likes of EBICO cannot continue to offer £0 standing charge tariffs.

Wywth

I see nPower have now removed daily standing charges, at least on their standard tariff, maybe others too, for those customers that pay by DD (monthly or quarterly)
They removed 2 tier pricing on 1st May.