Haven't paid NPower since Oct '11, help!

Fire_Fox

Diesel82 wrote: »

My landlord is actually a colleagues' brother, and is far from a 'proffessional' landlord. As stated before he has never asked for any tenancy agreement to be signed, and has never questioned whether or not any bills have gone unpaid. I guess he's happy to do this based on trust and my colleague vouching for me, which could have turned out to be a very foolish move if I were the type to run off...

I should point out that I have paid off my council tax in full, and have set up a direct debit for the coming year to ensure I dont fall behind again, so I am taking positive steps. I have no other household bills other than broadband, which I have never missed a payment on. I now only have to clear my debt to NPower and I will set up a direct debit to them too (if they'll allow me to ofcourse).

Amiehall, it actually occurred to me last night that the welcome letter indicates a closing reading being taken when the last tennant left, I really hope this is the case.

I think Ill go with Firefox's suggestion of writing them with my statement of affairs, and including an initial payment- this seems the most sensible course of action to me. Im sure that I could achieve a more favorable result this way than by telephone.

Id also like to ask for a very rough 'ballpark' estimate of what my bill wil be. New-build, 2 bedroom, third (top) floor flat which requires very little heating even in winter. One TV, one laptop and a rarely used tumble dryer will be the main energy guzzlers.

I ask this purely because my parents may be able to offer me help in the form of a large lump sum, which obviously will be far easier than trying to agree a payment plan...

Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

Landlords have no rights to know whether tenants are paying bills or not, their liability begins and ends with registering for and paying the bills whenever the place in un-tenanted. Even if you did do a flit the council and utility suppliers could chase you for many years to come.

How much it will cost really is a 'how long is a piece of string' question, depends on the tariff, how long your showers are and what the wattage of the shower is, what you class as not much heating, what type of heaters there are. Anything from £50 to £100 a month would be normal.

For the future your priority bills are rent, council tax and food, broadband can go whistle if you are in real financial difficulties. CT is important because you can get taken to court at quite an early stage, rent because obviously you risk homelessness. Hopefully someone has been paying the water and TV license?

Have you considered a lodger? You'd have to ask the landlord's permission of course but it would bring in more money so you can get square with your finances, and have someone to split costs with.

[Deleted User]

The OP should get ready to expect prepay meters installed pretty quickly into your flat once you find the time to find the meters and inform Npower of the readings, ( I could do it in 10 minutes ) The only reason N.Power havent been into the property with locksmiths and fitted them is that they think its not occupied. The total money owing will be well over a thousand pounds by now. This will be loaded onto the prepays if you dont settle up pretty quickly. My next door neighbour had £16 a week loaded as debt on to her electric prepay alone( for a debt of £500 ), she was ignorant of the system of putting in start readings and dates and was baffled about why when she put a £20 credit in she only got £3.50 s in credit. The landlord, a new buy- to- letter, was also pretty dense about putting in end readings for his last two "runners " .and was quite happy at his latest tenant paying off the previous "tenants from hells " bills
Many flats I go to have two meters in the outside boxes near the flat doors, so your meter could well be at another flat.The gas meter could be outside in a semi concealed brown box

SwanJon

Diesel - once you have spoken to npower and have an account set up it might be woorth looking at their Energy Fund:
http://www.charisgrants.com/splash.html

Diesel82

sacsquacco wrote: »

get ready to expect prepay meters installed pretty quickly into your flat once you find the time to find the meters and inform Npower of the readings, ( I could do it in 10 minutes ) The only reason N.Power havent been into the property with locksmiths and fitted them is that they think its not occupied. The total money owing will be well over a thousand pounds by now. This will be loaded onto the prepays if you dont settle up pretty quickly.

My intention now is to pay the amount in full. Im hoping that by doing this I can avoid the dreaded pre-pay meters. What would be the best way to do this?

Once I get a meter reading, can I put it into NPower's website to get an accurate cost (without having to contact them)? That way, I can then contact them and pay off the full amount simultaneously, minimizing the chances of them wanting to install the pre-pay and maximize my chances of being able to set up a direct debit... I hope.

Great help so far guys, this is exactly why I came to MSE! :-)

[Deleted User]

Diesel82 wrote: »

My intention now is to pay the amount in full. Im hoping that by doing this I can avoid the dreaded pre-pay meters. What would be the best way to do this?

Once I get a meter reading, can I put it into NPower's website to get an accurate cost (without having to contact them)? That way, I can then contact them and pay off the full amount simultaneously, minimizing the chances of them wanting to install the pre-pay and maximize my changes of being able to set up a direct debit... I hope.

Great help so far guys, this is exactly why I came to MSE! :-)

Personally I would phone to discuss as overall always found npower to be very helpful. Perhaps jot down a list of points prior to the call so you don't forget them in discussion... Besides... it's much nicer to speak to someone

Nada666

As there have been price rises since Oct 2011 you do not want to just pay what would be quoted today as the whole difference will be priced at today's prices.

Have you located readings and meters yet? Find current prices on nPower's web site then calculate what the cost is at today's prices - that will provide you with an upper bound - then when you contact them they will back-calculate over the different prices. But take five minutes to estimate the cost first.

1) Dig out old bills
2) Look at readings on old bills
3) Find the meters
4) Compare with today's readings on the meters
5) Find the tariff price on nPower's web site
6) Do the sums (post again here if you need help once you have done the first 4.) Just multiply the tier 2 price by the kWhs you have used. Then add an extra £150 to £200 per twelve months.

macman

Diesel82 wrote: »

My intention now is to pay the amount in full. Im hoping that by doing this I can avoid the dreaded pre-pay meters. What would be the best way to do this?

Once I get a meter reading, can I put it into NPower's website to get an accurate cost (without having to contact them)? That way, I can then contact them and pay off the full amount simultaneously, minimizing the chances of them wanting to install the pre-pay and maximize my chances of being able to set up a direct debit... I hope.

Great help so far guys, this is exactly why I came to MSE! :-)

Why 'dreaded' PPM's? If you had PPM's from the start then you wouldn't be in this position, and they would have cost you exactly the same.
Why can't you just take 10 minutes to find and read the meter, and ten minutes to call them?
Every day that you dither, you are continuing to be billed on Standard tariff-the most expensive.

undaunted

Diesel82 wrote: »

I have no other household bills other than broadband, which I have never missed a payment on. I now only have to clear my debt to NPower and I will set up a direct debit to them too (if they'll allow me to ofcourse).

Without wishing to seem rude I suggest you visit someone like the CAB or a legal advice centre for help as you seem to have your priorities wrong. IE paying tthe broadband bill every month isn't going to help you if you find yourself with no electric to power anything!

You will need an estimated start reading by the sound of things - there is probably an indication of the opening reading on your bill (and how it was arrived at - estimated, read etc)

The reading now - there is a meter somewhere you can guarantee that - so you need to find it or ring the landlord, supplier etc until you do.

To come up with a sensible & pro rata payment proposal based on your circumstances. (Can you really now suddenly afford to pay in full or are you just hoping so?)

Personally I would not ring Npower - put it all in writing - given the stage you appear to be at. You do however need to either contact them or have someone such as CAB do so for you asap & with concrete proposals not "pie in the sky ideas" unless you wish to risk them suddenly seeking to fit a PPM, if necessary applying for warrants to do so etc

Diesel82

So, I finally located my meter today. Its in a shared area, a little cupboard at the end of the hall which is marked as a fire door, and required a FB2 key to open. Anyway, progress....

Ive also managed to locate a bill which shows the last 'actual' meter reading (27057 on 1/11/11) rather than the 'estimated' ones used after that.

Using my current meter reading (38492 on 22/3/13) I went to ukpower.co.uk's electricity cost calculator for a rough estimate.

I stated that I was on NPower's standard tariff, that my payment method is 'payment on receipt of bill' and popped in my dates and readings. Ive used 11435kWh which has cost me £1826.77. I had estimated around £1500-2000 based on estimated readings so not a million miles away. How are these online calculators for accuracy?

Some people on here are advising me to make a call to NPower, some are saying do the whole thing in writing and go in there with a payment plan etc in writing... Im unsure which would be best tbh. If that figure from ukpower.co.uk is accurate, I can pay it off in one payment, Im thinking it may be an idea to write to them with a grovelling letter, and a cheque for roughly £1800...

If I go to NPower's website, I can enter my account number and reading, and get what will presumably be a more accurate reading. Im reluctant to do this, as Id like my first contact with them to be via a letter with payment included- Im not sure if keying in my account number and meter readings constitutes 'contact' or if this is just a website feature to calculate customers' costs? This accurate cost would be good as I could then include the exact full payment, and also my bank details with instructions to set up a direct debit, hopefully avoiding the pre-pay meter.

As for my financial situation/ priorities, I could have afforded to pay for my electricity since Ive been here. As stated earlier in the thread, I went through a very messy breakup in 2011 which left me in a bad situation emotionally, and I havent good my head straight again until recently- hence coming to MSE and trying to work out the best way to do things. My parents will help me out with the one-off payment to clear the debt, and I will set up a direct debit afterwards, no problems so long as I can convince NPower to do it...

Nada666

The figure is not accurate. It is an upper limit. Your final bill will be less as it will be estimated back over price changes.

Npower will be happy to either receive a payment or allow you to pay over twelve months. It is also possible that they will extend it longer - to cover the same length of time as it accrued.

There is no need to include payment with first contact. Either write to them with your details or telephone them. They will set up the account in your name and send you a bill. Entering info online will not be useful as they will just charge you the prices of the day for the whole period - you will then have to do the letter or phone contact anyway to get them to revise it.

One important thing is to ensure when you receive the detailed bill is that they have indeed charged you pro rata cheaper prices for the older period.