Scottish Power now charging rental for meter

Qwiksilver

Mother-in-law passed away 2 years ago and her property is still on market. All bills up to date and regular meter readings provided to Scottish Gas.
Wife called today to update on meter reading (zero as no power used in last quarter). She was informed that the new bill would be sent out within a couple of days. When my wife asked why send a bill out when no power has been used Scottish Gas informed her that they are now charging meter rental of £11.48. This has never been applied before.
Has anyone else had this additional charge arbitrarily applied and is it common practice?
Just to clarify it is NOT A PREPAYMENT METER.

Antispam

Are you sure its rental and not standing charge as most utility companies now have a standard charge even if you dont use any energy you have to pay x amount per day

Qwiksilver

Thanks for replying spam.
It was the advisor on the phone who refereed to it as a mater charge.
Would a standing charge not constitute a change of conditions and require agreement as it has not previously been applied?

Antispam

I believe it was regulator that wanted the change as previously your were charged a upper tier for x amount of units and a lower tier for rest, low users are the ones who have tended to loose out on the change

cing0

There is no such thing as meter rental - its standing charge.
I think this is a practice or trend by suppliers to change your tariff without telling you. Putting low users onto one with a standing charge.
Facts are, they have to tell you of a change in your prices.
Problem is, they will say they have written and informed you of this but if you didn't get it, who does the energy ombudsman believe ?

What the energy companies are telling people is Ofgem made them implement standing charges but I think what ofgem have really done is to get suppliers to reduce the number of new tariffs - they just get rid of the no standing charge ones.

Nada666

cing0 wrote: »

What the energy companies are telling people is Ofgem made them implement standing charges but I think what ofgem have really done is to get suppliers to reduce the number of new tariffs - they just get rid of the no standing charge ones.

No that is not true. Two-tier tariffs have been banned by Ofgem. This is separate and in addition to the reduction in the number of currently available tariffs.

macman

Solution is a switch to Ebico with no SC.