Energy supplier

Hochiminh

Hi. I moved into my property just under a year ago. At that time, the Housing Association provided me with meter readings, however the meter readings had increased since then so I took my own. I called the energy supplier, Scottish Power, and they told me they were setting up a temporary account for me, and took the meter readings from me. Since then I never heard from them, and to be honest I was naive and just hoped they'd forgotten about me, which is kind of true. But anyway the other day I got a letter, addressed to the previous tenant, asking for a meter reading. I called them, and they told me they'd closed the account with this person, and they'd have to set me up a new account. They claim to have no record of me calling, and I've since misplacced the meter readings. They said they'd have to take the readings from the previous tenant moving out, which is unfair because even if the property is empty and no power is used, I know from experience they still charge a certain amount (!).
Anyway since I have not got an account with Scottish Power, and frankly I'm extremely annoyed at their lack of customer service, I wondered if I could switch to another provider? However in that case the current provider will just throw some huge number at me I can't afford, and block me from switching to another provider.

Any advice here? Any way of getting around this? I don't care about a bad credit rating right now, with all these bills I doubt I'll be able to go for a mortgage anytime soon anyway. A loan might be another story..

Thanks for reading.

Nada666

You took a gamble. You lost. They got back to you within twelve months so you have to pay up for all your usage.

You do not need to pay the previous tenant's usage - just use your original reads and date you moved in. It may take a month or three for that to process through but it will be neither here nor there to what you have to pay as you go along now. Pay that and wait for the starting reads to be amended.

Switching will not help - even if it is allowed to go through (unlikely) you still have to pay the arrears and all that will happen is that it will be due immediately rather than paid back over time.

I trust you have been putting money aside over the last year to pay for this bill? It is probably far easier to just pay off the lump sum rather than pay double your actual monthly payment.