nPower Prepayment Meter and Landlords Historical Debt

BlueDynamo

Thanks for the replies everyone you've all been really helpful.

SwanJon wrote: »

There's still a large debt on that meter.
You can write to npower to see if they can retrospectively close the account down to when the LL moved out, but from the sounds of it you were in the property when the debt was run up. What was the agreement over the electricity bill when the LL was living there (in rent or split between tenants and LL)?
I'd go for having the account closed down to mid 2011, giving the forwarding address of the LL for the bill - which will be around £1,800. You will probably need to look for somewhere else to live as it's not going to help the relationship.

Yes I was in the property for 6 months before the meter was installed but I believe the debt accumulated before I entered the property. I'm the only tenant who has been in the flat since before the meter was installed. It was agreed that we would pay the electricity on the meter rather than in rent.

I rang nPower this evening but unfortunately being too honest I said I wasn't the account holder. While being sympathetic to our problem they declined to confirm the status of debt on the meter due to the data protection act which is understandable.

I'm going to send the landlord an email tomorrow with photos from the meter identifying showing the debt dropping between two dates, the standing charge rate and the debt recovery rate. Hopefully that will prompt some explanation!

SwanJon

You aren't the account holder of the existing account, but you would like to set up an account in your name.
Due to the time since the LL moved out and the size of the debt means that you are probably going to have to jump through a few hoops.

The other answer is to get the LL to reduce the rent...

chanz4

You will also need to prove when you moved in