Co-Op gas & electric debt mess.

Mister_Green

I have been with Co-Op energy for about 18mths. I pay by direct debit.

Yesterday I received a letter from them saying that they wanted to increase my DD from £71 to £539 a month to "help clear the amount of £2,940 that appears to be outstanding"

This was a complete shock. I had no idea I was even in debt to them. I presumed, wrongly of course, that my DD was covering my energy use. I called them and they said that I had been in debt from the first bill and it has been increasing ever since.

I did not check the online bills, I just presumed everything was OK.

I just can't understand why they let it increase to so much before letting me know, and asking to increase my DD by so much!

I can't afford to pay the huge debt, nor can I afford to pay £529 a month! What should I do??

Thanks.

P.S. I have no idea how I used so much either, I live in a detached 2 bed bungalow. The insulation is poor, but still.

Quentin

If the figures are correct, then you do owe them, and simply saying you cannot afford to pay the debt won't wash.


See if you can get them to agree you pay this off over a longer period, bearing in mind that this has taken 18 months to build up, but they want it paid in just 6.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Assuming this is all based on actual meter readings, you owe them the money and you need to pay for what you've used. If the £71 a month has been paid each month, and you've still build up almost £3k arrears this means your "real" usage is £234 a month. That's incredibly high.

You need to do some checks to see if there's a problem - turn everything off, are the meters still spinning?

What they should do is allow you to pay for your actual usage (£234), plus then pay the arrears over the period it accrued ie. 18 months. This is a payment of £397. It's still a lot, but assuming everything is in order it's the best option.

If you genuinely can't pay that amount, then a pre-payment meter is your only option.

Mister_Green

Thanks for the replies.

The culprit appears to be the electric used, not the gas. My central heating is gas, so the only electric used is the usual stuff, apart from electric underfloor heating in the kitchen which is on for 2hrs in the morning and 2hrs in the evening during the winter.

The meter is electronic so there's no 'spinning wheel' to see.

I can't see how I can possibly have used/be using so much!

Is it possible the meter is faulty?

Lube

Can you post your usage. I hope you do now check your usage in future too not have a go just it sensible thing to do. It does appear to be rather a lot of money to pay

macman

Basics: post your annual kWh consumption on each fuel from your bills or annual statements, and also the arrears on each fuel.
The reason they 'didn't let you know' is that they they have no idea how much energy you are using unless you submit regular reads, which you presumably have not. What has now happened is that, following an agent read, you have received a huge catch-up bill and your DD has been hiked to recover it. Quarterly reads by you would have alerted you to the problem 2 year ago-the supplier only has to read the meters every two years.
How do you heat your hot water?
Are you sure that the u/f heating is not on 24/7 due to a faulty timer?

Mister_Green

I am waiting for my previous supplier to give me the final reading. I will then post my consumption.

macman, your presumptions are incorrect. There have been 4 meter reads since I joined them.

I am fully aware of "what has now happened..."

I have only been with them since the end of January 2013, so I would not have been alerted to the problem 2yrs ago.

My water is heated by gas.

Yes, I am sure the u/f heating is not on 24hrs due to a faulty timer!

According to the reads, my consumption over the past 98 days was 1342kWh, yet the 193 days prior to that the consumption was 10,445kWh. The consumption over the last 24hrs has been 10kWh (I haven't changed anything or switched anything off)

Mister_Green

I have again spoken with the supplier and gone through all readings. They have agreed that "something is wrong" and that the usage is "exceptionally high" for the type of property.

Fortunately the new meter was installed in Feb 2009 so at least I know the reading then was 0.

I am sending readings every day for the next 2 weeks on their request at which time they are going to call me and try and resolve any issues.

I'll let you know the outcome.

macman

Why do you need a reading from a previous supplier 18m ago to tell you your current annual consumption? Your current supplier has to give you a annual statement, so sometime in the last 18 months they must have done that-or you can ask them by phone. Or calculate from your last 4 quarterly bills-deduct the opening from the closing read.
If you have submitted 4 meter reads in that period, then it appears that they have not been used. If they had, your DD should have been increased much sooner. What has probably happened is that the system has rejected them as erroneous because they were so high. If so, it then substitiutes estimated readings. Your bills would have clearly shown them to be estimated, had you checked them.
98 days ago was the start of May: was that roughly when the u/f heating was switched off for the summer? If so, that would be the first thing I would check. The giveaway is that the usage from May onwards is pretty much average kWh usage-so that does not indicate any kind of meter error.

Mister_Green

I am awaiting the final reading from the previous suppler because, if the current readings are erroneous, as both the new supplier and myself suspect, then I can hardly give you my annual consumption based on the past 12 or 18mths now can I. As I mentioned I know when the meter read '0', so I can calculate my average up until I took on the new supplier. I thought it would be better to do this as I never had this problem over previous years.

The 4 actual readings were used, but they did not inform me that my account was getting in arrears until the other day when I got the letter. I just presumed that due to paying by DD then everything was OK. Yes, I agree that they should have asked for an increase in DD if the usage was apparently so high.

I have used the u/f heating for the past 5yrs. my usage has been roughly 10 - 13 units per day on average, not 54 units per day as was the case for those 193 days mentioned. Before the u/f heating my consumption was around 9 per day.

The porch where the meter is located did have a leak during storms a while ago and water came in through the roof and soaked the meter, perhaps this caused a malfunction, I have no idea.

macman

Your annual consumption will tell us whether the readings are likely to be correct or not. For example, 10,000kWh pa is more than three times the average, but still feasible, 20,000 kWh pa is not (and 20K pa equivalent is what you were using in that winter period).
PS: erroneous readings is not the same as meter error-the latter means human error, i.e. a misread. Assuming that your current billing reading matches the meter reading, it's not erroneous.
Your supplier needs to explain why they did not increase the DD at review time, because by then your arrears must have already been considerable.
I still doubt meter error, as your current usage appears to now be fairly normal at just under 5,000 kWh pa. A 'temporary' meter error is not very likely.
You could put the u/f heating back on and log daily usage for a while? You now know fairly accurately what your 'background' usage is, so any increase would then be due to the u/f heating.