Advice on my Gas provider situation

kiki24

Hi All,

I have a strange situation here and could do with an advice. I have lived in a house for a year(renting), what has happened is that the landlord who owned the end of terrace house had converted the downstairs into a business property and upstairs as a 1bed flat.the situation is that the business is what the official address is and the flat is an added and gas connection goes to the business address but is used by the flat(that is what I was told but have never verified it) so the situation is this, when I was living there I got the meter readings out of my Landlord and at the moment I have both the meter readings when I entered the house and when I left, when I was in the house I called npower to tell them that I had moved in but I was told that they don't provide me with gas, it is when I left that I received an estimated bill of £850. I have explained the situation to npower but they keep sending me the 850 bill despite them saying that they will correct it(has been ongoing for two years). I am fed up with the situation and thinking about what I can legally do. They threaten to send in the bailiffs . What will happen if they send the bailifs? what can I do? I have not contacted ofgem as I want to use them as last resort, I am thinking about letting them and see what they can do, but need to know how I can teach them a lesson.
Thanks

Andy_WSM

kiki24 wrote: »

but need to know how I can teach them a lesson.
Thanks

You won't teach nPower a lesson! They are the most incompetent clowns in the industry - and voted worst for customer service in the UK.

Good luck. You'll need it :eek:

macman

What did your tenancy agreement say about payment of the utility bills?
Was the gas metered separately for the business and the flat?

dogshome

It would seem that sometime after you had moved in and contacted n'power, your landlord had the Gas account switched from himself to you.

Most unfair, particularly if the Business Premises were occupied during your tenancy.
I'm afraid this is between you and the landlord and nothing to do with n'power

However at least you do have an bill Estimated bill which gives the unit costs of the Kwh used and the Standing Charge, so from these figures coupled with the Start and End meter readings you have, you should be able to calculate what the bill should be (Post the tariff details and meter readings if you want help working it out ).

Haveing verified the bill, there remains the question of what proportion of the bill was consumed by the Business Premises - Even if they were not occcupied
a Daily Standing Service Charge will be listed on the bill, which should be equally divided
If your landlord doesn't want to play ball, there isn't a lot you can do but go to the Small Claims court.

[Deleted User]

The normal method from any supplier is nt to send in any bailiffs but to switch the meter(s) to prepay, by warrant and locksmith if need be. The outstanding amount, together with the costs of locksmith and warrant ( approx £250 ) is then added as debt to the meter. the weekly repayment is in accordance with the level of the debt. £16 a week is the maximum.
I ve seen exactly the same thing last year with a small business downstairs and flat over sharing the same gas supply and meter. The landlord was too tight to spend out on second meter installations and tried to con the flat dweller into paying the full bill. Business gas and electric should be on a business tariff, much higher standing charges so if you come to an agreement you should only be sharing 25 p a day standing charges, thats a normal sort of domestic standing charge for a prepay meter