Interim charges with different supplier

d0dge

I've been abroad for a year and came home on April 2nd. On March 1st I signed up with First Utility for gas and electricity, thinking this would be plenty of time for them to switch my supply over.

Unfortunately it took them until April 26th and I have now received a bill from Eon for my usage between April 2nd and April 26th. Eon must have been the supplier of the tenants who rented my house while I was away.

I have no issues with paying for what I've used, but the Eon bill is extortionate, particularly because it's an Economy 7 plan and the daytime rate is ridiculously high.

I'm not keen on paying way over the odds to a supplier I never signed up with in the first place.

Anyone been in a similar situation before? Can I negotiate with Eon on the basis that I never entered into any agreement with them? Can I get any contribution / compensation from First Utility considering it took them an unreasonably long time to handle the switchover?

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

d0dge wrote: »

I've been abroad for a year and came home on April 2nd. On March 1st I signed up with First Utility for gas and electricity, thinking this would be plenty of time for them to switch my supply over.

Unfortunately it took them until April 26th and I have now received a bill from Eon for my usage between April 2nd and April 26th. Eon must have been the supplier of the tenants who rented my house while I was away.

I have no issues with paying for what I've used, but the Eon bill is extortionate, particularly because it's an Economy 7 plan and the daytime rate is ridiculously high.

I'm not keen on paying way over the odds to a supplier I never signed up with in the first place.

Anyone been in a similar situation before? Can I negotiate with Eon on the basis that I never entered into any agreement with them? Can I get any contribution / compensation from First Utility considering it took them an unreasonably long time to handle the switchover?

When did the tenancy cease?

d0dge

Thinking about it, they moved out on April 3rd and I moved back in on the 4th.

So the Eon bill is actually for 4th-26th April. I'm satisfied that they're not charging me for my tenants' usage, but not so happy with the extortionate rates they're trying to charge me!

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

You shouldn't have even initiated the change then until the 4th. Despite the fact you know they were leaving, it isn't your place to touch anything until the day you take posession of the property.....

If we ignore the above, taking supply is down to the "gaining" supplier, in this case FU. Their tardiness has cost you money. When you took over supply, e.on will put you on their standard tariff, never their cheapest. You could have asked on the day you took over supply to go onto a cheaper tariff, but most of these have exit fees anyway, so you'd still be out of pocket.

They've put you on an economy7 plan because you have an economy7 meter. Many suppliers won't let you have a single rate tariff with an e7 meter, so it may be worth double checking with FU that they can do that for you - if they don't, you'll still face a higher day rate.

Finally, the difference between the most expensive on the market and the cheapest (and there is no evidence that either of the two tariffs your on fall into those extremes) over 22 days is for most people going to number in the tens of pounds. If you use huge amounts of energy it'll be more, and vice versa.

d0dge

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

You shouldn't have even initiated the change then until the 4th. Despite the fact you know they were leaving, it isn't your place to touch anything until the day you take posession of the property.....

I contacted FU in advance and told them I was moving in on 4th April, effectively like a house move but with no previous contract to move over. I get what you're saying but as it stands, if I'd left it till the 4th to even initiate the switchover then I'd have been on Eon's rate for another month...

They've put you on an economy7 plan because you have an economy7 meter. Many suppliers won't let you have a single rate tariff with an e7 meter, so it may be worth double checking with FU that they can do that for you - if they don't, you'll still face a higher day rate.

Makes sense. The FU tariff is definitely a single rate one thankfully. When I do meter readings I do have to provide the R1 and R2 readings separately but the price per kWh is the same for both.

Finally, the difference between the most expensive on the market and the cheapest (and there is no evidence that either of the two tariffs your on fall into those extremes) over 22 days is for most people going to number in the tens of pounds. If you use huge amounts of energy it'll be more, and vice versa.

The difference was about £15. Obviously that's not going to break the bank, I just resent supporting these overcharging habits of utility companies.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi d0dge and welcome to the Forums.

Thought I'd pop on with a few details about what happens with a change of tenancy and a change of supplier.

When we're told of a change of tenancy, we'll close the existing account and open a new one based on the details we're given.

Did you talk to us when you took over responsibility for the property in April?

As Bluebirdman says, unless you told us differently, the new account will have started on our standard tariff. This isn't necessarily the cheapest but there aren't any restrictions or tie-ins leaving you free to change supplier/tariff without penalty.

As there's an Economy 7 meter at the property, the tariff will automatically have been set up on these prices.

We're able to put customers with an Economy 7 meter on a single rate tariff. All we do is add the night and day readings together and charge as a single rate. We do, though, need to talk to customers first to make sure this is what they want.

Once energy is used, customers are liable for the costs under the terms of a deemed contract.

With a change of supplier, it's the new supplier's responsibility to let the old supplier have the meter readings they intend to use to start their account.

The old supplier will use the same readings to close their account. This makes sure customers are only charged once for the same energy.

Make sure the final bill is based on accurate opening and closing meter readings.

Hope this is of interest.

Malc

d0dge

Hi Malc

Thanks for your input. Here are the responses to your questions:

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Did you talk to us when you took over responsibility for the property in April?

No, because I didn't know there was an account with yourselves registered to the property until I received a bill from you on 22nd May. Prior to moving in, I simply researched which supplier I wanted to register with (which ended up being First Utility) and told them what date I would be moving in.

As Bluebirdman says, unless you told us differently, the new account will have started on our standard tariff.

It's difficult for me to understand how "telling you differently" should be my responsibility. I can't see how I would have known to contact you when I had no way of knowing that you had previously supplied the gas and electricity at the property. I didn't have an account with you; the only account I had agreed to was the one with First Utility.

Once energy is used, customers are liable for the costs under the terms of a deemed contract.

Understood and once again, I am not trying to get out of paying for the energy I have used. That was why I went to the effort of setting up an actual contract with a new supplier way in advance of my move-in date.

With a change of supplier, it's the new supplier's responsibility to let the old supplier have the meter readings they intend to use to start their account.

In which case, I assume First Utility did not provide the meter readings I gave them on my move-in day, which is something I will take up with them.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

d0dge wrote: »

Hi Malc

Thanks for your input. Here are the responses to your questions:



No, because I didn't know there was an account with yourselves registered to the property until I received a bill from you on 22nd May. Prior to moving in, I simply researched which supplier I wanted to register with (which ended up being First Utility) and told them what date I would be moving in.



It's difficult for me to understand how "telling you differently" should be my responsibility. I can't see how I would have known to contact you when I had no way of knowing that you had previously supplied the gas and electricity at the property. I didn't have an account with you; the only account I had agreed to was the one with First Utility.



Understood and once again, I am not trying to get out of paying for the energy I have used. That was why I went to the effort of setting up an actual contract with a new supplier way in advance of my move-in date.



In which case, I assume First Utility did not provide the meter readings I gave them on my move-in day, which is something I will take up with them.

If I may....

It would appear your gripe isn't with eon, but the general process. I'm afraid you haven't much to go on. The system is set up to ensure continuity of supply - ie when an old occupant leaves, you don't have to call up and agree a contract before you have energy.

If I were the sitting tenant (admittedly I'm an energy geek) and I received a letter from eon telling me "We're sorry you're leaving" (they definitely got one of these), I'd have gone up the wall. I don't care who the next occupant is, it's my bill until the tenancy ceases.

You had a deemed contract with eon, you didn't negotiate or alter that, and you now have to pay the bill. If you get a reduction out them, great from an MSE perspective, but I don't give you much hope.

macman

OP, you've done this back to front. You are in a deemed contract with the existing supplier (Eon) from day one of your occupation, or in this case the day the previous tenancy ended. You can't switch away until you first register for an account with them and supply opening reads. At this point you may specify your desired tariff. You are then free to commence a switch.
If you did none of this, you are placed on the default (Standard ) tariff, which is also the most expensive.

d0dge

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

If I may....

It would appear your gripe isn't with eon, but the general process

As per my last post, I'd say my gripe is actually with First Utility for not organising the switchover when they should have. It's an unfortunate by-product that I got tied into Eon's poor pricing and didn't know about it until the end of the following month, but we seem to have established that there is nothing untoward about what they did.

If I were the sitting tenant (admittedly I'm an energy geek) and I received a letter from eon telling me "We're sorry you're leaving" (they definitely got one of these), I'd have gone up the wall. I don't care who the next occupant is, it's my bill until the tenancy ceases.

Having met my tenants, I'm 100% sure they would not have reacted so defensively to such a letter. It would have come as no surprise to them to learn that they were moving out and I was moving in, and there's no implication that they are going to lose possession of the gas/electricity supply prior to their move-out date.

macman wrote:

OP, you've done this back to front. You are in a deemed contract with the existing supplier (Eon) from day one of your occupation, or in this case the day the previous tenancy ended. You can't switch away until you first register for an account with them and supply opening reads. At this point you may specify your desired tariff. You are then free to commence a switch.
If you did none of this, you are placed on the default (Standard ) tariff, which is also the most expensive.

I'll outline what I did once again: I contacted First Utility at the start of March,registered for an account with them, specified my tariff and told them I would be moving in on April 4th. On the day I moved in I supplied them with an opening meter reading. First Utility expressed no issues with this at any point, but for some reason they failed to be ready by that date. So the account setup / switchover was not completed until 26th April, and they used a meter reading from that date instead of my actual opening one.

Let's bring this to a close. To me, what I did was simply good planning. Everything takes time to set up and I figured it would save all parties concerned some hassle if I was proactive about it *shrug*

It seems the only thing I did "wrong" was to contact First Utility too early, but with respect, my only regret now is that I didn't contact them earlier. If I had waited until the day I moved in, I would have been stuck with Eon until the end of May instead of the end of April.

The questions in my original post have been answered and I'll be contacting FU rather than Eon to find out what went wrong. They've since apologised for taking so long to set the account up and I don't hold out much hope of getting anything else from them but we'll see.

Thanks to all for their comments and guidance.

matelodave

As far as I can see it, you didn't have a contract with Eon so FU would have been unable to transfer the supply until you did. Secondly you can't actually specify when you want the change to happen.
You request a swap and agree a contract withthe gaining supplier (FU) who then have to ask the leaving supplier (Eon) if they'll let you go. Which they will if you have a contract with them and there aren't any arrears. A lot of the delay can be with the leaving supplier dragging their heels when agreeing the swap.
When all the contractual niceties have been sorted out between the two companies and they have agreed between themselves when the switchover date will be, then your gaining supplier (FU) will ask you for a reading which they'll give to the leaving supplier who will then have to validate & agree with before they can send you a bill. Any problems at this point can also delay the swap over.

This process normally takes between 4-6 weeks so if you didn't become an Eon customer until 4th April and FU managed to get you swapped over by 26th that's only 22 days, be thankful that it wasn't two or three weeks longer.
You may feel hard done by but actually you've done rather well and both FU & Eon should be congratulated on getting it sorted out in such a short time even though you didn't go through the correct process.
Stop whinging