PREPAYMENT METER - got a bill?? 2 meters?? advice please

curlydeb

Cant believe this has happened - I have a pre payment meter because I have 2 meters - I have incurred debt

They informed me of the following

Prepayment key meter - supply electricty to lights and appliances
2nd off peak meter - heating and hot water

Off peak has a debt because charge not applied
Started account 22 june 12 was charged for off peak till 4th sept 2012

It has never been charged from 4th sept 2012 to 8th feb 2014 because nobody has checked the accounts of people with 2 meters this means that this debt is sent to the pre payment to collect on behalf of the off peak meter.

Now altered this to £8 per week £4 usage £4 debt, and written off £101.42 leaving a debt of £231.92 despite still having a prepayment meter I am still in debt.

They sent out a debt load to people with 2 meters in property this has resulted for me a debt of £333 for 4th sept 2012 to 8th feb 2014

To get off the prepayment meter the account balance needs to be without debt - in this respect I haven't been debt free because of the system change error and subsequently np power want to charge me £60, therefore I can't have it removed. If the error hadn't have occurred I could have the pp removed to avoid such issues in the future as both are calculated.

What can I do about this, they have admitted it's their fault but I have to pay the debt??

Any advice appreciated (Npower)

curlydeb

Forgot to add they have been adding £15 week debt to my meter as they wanted to charge me £1500 (7 years in advance for the off peak meter) the £4 useage and £4 debt is total £8 which I managed to get it down to

chanz4

Yes you will need to pay them. I would ask what the chances are in an e7 pre-pay, or ask them to fit a second pre-pay on the offpeak under the seperate mpan

dogshome

Bit confused as it seems you are reporting that you have a Pre-pay meter which supplies all your house power, with the exception of Heating and Hot Water which is on a Credit meter ?

If this is the case it's a very unusual set-up, but if n'power have failed to send any bills for this credit meter since Sept 4th 2012, you are entitled to claim relief under the "12 month Back-billing Agreement" which in broad terms bars the supplier for chargeing for any power supplied before one year ago

You need to make a WRITTEN claim and head the letter Complaint

chanz4

not 100% wheres the customer meter and have the not been able to access

curlydeb

dogshome wrote: »

Bit confused as it seems you are reporting that you have a Pre-pay meter which supplies all your house power, with the exception of Heating and Hot Water which is on a Credit meter ?

If this is the case it's a very unusual set-up, but if n'power have failed to send any bills for this credit meter since Sept 4th 2012, you are entitled to claim relief under the "12 month Back-billing Agreement" which in broad terms bars the supplier for chargeing for any power supplied before one year ago

You need to make a WRITTEN claim and head the letter Complaint

Many thanks for your response - that is correct I have a prepayment meter but not for the heating and hot water believe it or not, they said that they have changed a system and this is the reason that they have not billed me for the heating and hot water.

Could you give me info on the "12 month Back-billing Agreement" as i dont know about this.

curlydeb

chanz4 wrote: »

not 100% wheres the customer meter and have the not been able to access

They have not tried to access they said they changed the system so thats why its not been read

curlydeb

I am been crippled with electricity charges any further help would be great
example of what I am paying - any help appreciated
03/03/2014 Payment 20
27/02/2014 Payment 30
23/02/2014 Payment 10
22/02/2014 Payment 15
18/02/2014 Payment 20
16/02/2014 Payment 20
14/02/2014 Payment 10
13/02/2014 Payment 20
10/02/2014 Payment 20

dogshome

12 month Back Billing
This isn't a rule, it's an ageement suppliers made between themselves, ( Otherwise Ofgem the regulator would have imposed one), which n'power have signed up for.

There are conditions, but in your case you meet them.
Where the supplier has failed to send the customer a bill for more then a year, the agreements terms are that the supplier cannot bill for any Gas/Elec supplied earlier than one year ago - The year is counted backwards from the date that the supplier does eventually manage to produce a bill
As already posted, you need to WRITE to n'power, heading the letter Complaint, claiming 12 month back-billing relief against charges for the Heating/Hot water Credit Meter

Your set up is odd and though you haven't said so, I suspect you are on an ECO 7 tariff that delivers relatively cheap power overnight for the Heating & Hot water, but charges a high price for power used during the day