npower overcharging?

Badkeesh

my friends and I have just started renting a 3 bed house and we're new to the world of bills-not-included. However, we think our bill from npower for our first month is a little steep...

The bill says this:

Electricity:
22/06/2013: 8760 estimated
24/07/2013: 8903 customer read

143 kWh at 14.920p = £21.34
33 days at 9.800p per day = £3.23

total plus vat is £25.80

Gas:
22/06/2013: 2665 estimated
24/07/2013: 2838 customer read

Gas used:
Calorific value 39.1
173 (100s cubic feet)
= 5438 kWh

Cost split:
5438 at 3.730p = £202.84
33 days at 45.200p per day = £14.92

So the total for the gas + vat is £228.65

Should the gas really be that high? We are three adults; we haven't had the heating on at all. I suppose the shower gets used more than once per day and the washing machine is used two or three times per week. Until today that hob has been broken so we haven't used it, and the oven is electric.

Any advice? We can't afford this every month! Plus this was the charge for the hottest month of the year! What on earth will it be like in winter?

Wail

Well the first thing screaming at me are the two estimated start figures. Did you take Actual Readings on your first day. If so, what are they?

Badkeesh

nope, my house mate said she would do it as she had experience with it before and also has better availability. Then she didn't do it. She called them over a week later and told them the current reading and when we moved in.

Another thing is that we actually received a bill before this for 22nd June to 11th July (with the same estimated readings I've given), which was £38. How could it suddenly jump by so much? And why did we receive two bills within a few days of each other?

On the day we received the £254 bill we also received three bills for the previous tenants which say "to the occupiers", which are all for outstanding charges from last year running up to about £3000. These are dated 31 July, which we shouldn't have received because we told npower that we'd moved in on 22 June

dogshome

£224 Gas Bill for just one month in Summer ! - Wow

So your housemate phoned in just over a week after you moved in and gave n'power the meter reading on that day, and what it was when you moved in

How does the Estimated Start Reading on the Gas Bill compare to the Moveing-in reading that n'power were given, because thats the one that should be the Start reading for your first bill

Apart from the fact that n'power's entire billing system is in chaos at the moment, they are also trying to recover the previous tenants debt.
To sort this out you need to WRITE a letter to n'power headed Complaint, setting out the moving in reading they were given and requesting a new and correct bill

PS - When you next move don't leave the responsibilty to immediately report your occupancy and meter readings to the suppl;iers, to someone else

nPower

Badkeesh wrote: »

nope, my house mate said she would do it as she had experience with it before and also has better availability. Then she didn't do it. She called them over a week later and told them the current reading and when we moved in.

Another thing is that we actually received a bill before this for 22nd June to 11th July (with the same estimated readings I've given), which was £38. How could it suddenly jump by so much? And why did we receive two bills within a few days of each other?

On the day we received the £254 bill we also received three bills for the previous tenants which say "to the occupiers", which are all for outstanding charges from last year running up to about £3000. These are dated 31 July, which we shouldn't have received because we told npower that we'd moved in on 22 June

Hi Badkeesh,

When you and your housemates moved in, did you provide any electricity and gas move in readings? If not, when your housemate called a week after moving in, did they give the move-in readings then?

If you haven't got any move-in readings, is there a land lord or previous tenant you know of who you could ask to see if they took final/move-out readings when they left?

Without these actual firm readings, the move-in readings will be estimated based on the previous consumption in the property.

If there's anything else I can help with, you can find my email address on my profile page.

Kind regards,

Adam

Jonesy88

Could you let us know the reads your housemate took a week after you moved in? Then people will be able to work out your actual usage and access if the start estimates are correct or not.

npower may have used the week in reads to calculate what the homemove reads would have been. Dogshome - the occupiers dont have a move-in read, hence the estimate. I dont see whats to complain about IF the other reads havent been ignored.

ETA: if the old occupier didnt leave a forwarding address then i suppose final bills would have despatched to the supply address. However you have a brand new account, their debt is no concern or yours. The fact they were in debt suggests they probably didn't ring npower with regular reads... (my own opinion)

macman

OP, you are being billed on imperial units. But do you have an imperial or metric meter (it's marked on it, 100's cu ft or m3)? If it's metric but being billed as imperial, then it will increase your bill by a factor of nearly 300%. Check the meter now.
Unfortunately you've really not helped yourselves by not taking an actual day one read, as that figure can only ever be estimated now. However even allowing for that, your apparent consumption is insanely high. Whereas your electricity usage is about half the average.
PS: almost all modern washing machines are cold fill-no gas is used.