EON Heat Supply - No contact for 18 months and then a massive bill!

fdsre

Hi, I have a question. My apartment is linked up to E.ON Heat Supply. For those that don't know what this is, basically our block shares a communal hot water system supplied by EON. It's an exclusive contract meaning there is no price competition nor any opportunity for residents to switch... I'll save my comments on this for a later date.

In short, I have been living there for 18 months. My letting agent supplied my contact details and meter reading direct to EON when I first moved in and since then, no bill has ever been sent or contact made. I received a bill this week for close to £1,000. My question is - what are my rights in relation to this? Surely I (through the letting agency) fulfilled my obligations? Is there any kind of time bar EON needs to abide by in relation to billing?

Grateful for your comments / shared experiences. Thanks!

modsandmockers

£1000 over 18 months works out at £55 a month. Have you been paying separately for heating, lighting, cooking, electronica etc? £55 a month is an awful lot for hot water, but if it includes everything else, then it seems reasonable. Did you never think to put money aside for your energy bills? Did you ever ask the letting agent for more information about the scheme?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.


I doubt if anyone on this forum can advise you about the special arrangements for your 'Eon Heat supply'.


You seem to be alluding to the 12 month back-billing provision in the Code of practice for Accurate bills. http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/customers/energy-industry-codes/code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills.html


This means that where the company are at fault and haven't sent you a bill, then you only can be charged for the last 12 months supply.


However this doesn't apply if you haven't taken steps to get an account no and make provision for payment; and examples are quoted in the code.


You really can't rely on your letting agent to set up a supply, and do nothing yourself - presumably making no payments - and think that absolves you of any responsibility. The account is in your name!

modsandmockers

Cardew wrote: »

You really can't rely on your letting agent to set up a supply, and do nothing yourself - presumably making no payments - and think that absolves you of any responsibility. The account is in your name!

I'm sure that you are technically correct, and that all letting agents will totally agree with you. But why should there not be some kind of requirement that letting agents, in return for their considerable fee, should provide all the necessary information relating to the property (including general advice about the need to carefully monitor, and budget for, energy bills)?

modsandmockers

https://heat.eonenergy.com/

"E.ON Heat is a low carbon, renewable heating and hot water system that's produced locally and distributed through a heat network.
E.ON Heat networks generate heat from a central source to homes and businesses through a network of pipes carrying hot water.
Advantages of E.ON Heat networks:
Reassurance on price – we operate a fair pricing policy, and only review prices annually in the springtime so there are no surprises when it comes to winter bills
Set prices – charges are designed to be no more expensive than heating provided by a traditional gas boiler.
You’ll get a reduction on your account when you pay by fixed monthly direct debit of £35 over the year. If you also get electricity from us you’ll get another £35 reduction.
There’s a dual fuel discount of £20 when you get both fuels from us, £10 for heat and £10 for electricity, and paperless billing (£5 per fuel).
Meter readings are taken remotely and are based on heat consumption.
Worry free heating – all your heating equipment is cared for and maintained by us.
Environmentally sensitive – E.ON Heat is a low carbon heating technology that provides more secure and sustainable energy."

Cardew

modsandmockers wrote: »

I'm sure that you are technically correct, and that all letting agents will totally agree with you. But why should there not be some kind of requirement that letting agents, in return for their considerable fee, should provide all the necessary information relating to the property (including general advice about the need to carefully monitor, and budget for, energy bills)?

Of course a lot of letting agents are incompetent - and of course they should do as you suggest.


However it would appear that the OP has done nothing himself for 18 months about getting an account set up in his name and apparently paid nothing. He believes he has 'fulfilled his obligation' but has done nothing himself, and it seems that he feels he is in line for some sort of reduction of a legitimate bill.

macman

Why would you ever rely on an LA to do this competently? You wouldn't expect them to register your account for water, phone or broadband, or for council tax, so why so with gas and electricity? When they do so, readings are invariably messed up. It's the householder's account, and their responsibility, no-one else's.
Since the back-billing code does not apply, they can bill you up to 6 years later.
You knew that the system was communal and offered no choice of suppliers when moving in-why complain 18m later?

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Morning fdsre,

Thank you all for posting and giving the information that you have.

Malc and I don't deal with HEAT accounts, they're looked after by a specialist team and they're the ones who have access to these accounts as they're on a different system.

There is quite a lot of information on our website about HEAT and how the accounts work etc, I'm not allowed to post links but if you just pop HEAT in the search box it'll come up.

Hope this helps a little.

Thank you

Helena

modsandmockers

Cardew wrote: »

Of course a lot of letting agents are incompetent - and of course they should do as you suggest.


However it would appear that the OP has done nothing himself for 18 months about getting an account set up in his name and apparently paid nothing. He believes he has 'fulfilled his obligation' but has done nothing himself, and it seems that he feels he is in line for some sort of reduction of a legitimate bill.

I have no more sympathy than you do with people who deliberately try to exploit the incompetence and chronically old-fashioned practices of the privatised energy retailers. But I have quite a lot of sympathy for people who (unlike many of the cognoscenti on MSE) are simply defeated by their own lack of understanding of the rules of the game.

It is quite possible that eon will never recover the OP’s debt of £1000, and it will eventually be sold to a debt collector for a tiny fraction of its value. And so the loss will be shared out between eon’s bill-paying customers, and the OP’s credit history will be wrecked

But why did it take 18 months for eon to work out that it was no longer being paid for the energy consumption at the OP’s address? If they had acted sooner, then maybe there would have been no problem...

So who is the victim here? - Eon? The OP? Or Eon’s unsuspecting bill-payers?

Cardew

modsandmockers wrote: »

But why did it take 18 months for eon to work out that it was no longer being paid for the energy consumption at the OP’s address? If they had acted sooner, then maybe there would have been no problem...

So who is the victim here? - Eon? The OP? Or Eon’s unsuspecting bill-payers?

I agree with the thrust of your post.


Who knows why an account wasn't set up - incompetence by Eon perhaps. Even if the Letting Agent had contacted Eon perhaps neither he or Eon was aware that the address was on Eon Heat Supply - a different system to normal.


It could also be that they were not aware anyone had moved into the flat.


From the link you posted, it appears that if you register online and pay by direct debit you get a total of £120pa discount, yet the OP did nothing for 18 months until he got a £1,000 bill.


I really don't think you need to be a member of the MSE cognoscenti* to understand that you need to pay for gas and electricity and you have some responsibility in that matter. He also is sufficiently well informed to know that there might be some provision along the lines of 12 month back-billing, to escape paying for a legitimate debt.


* 12 months ago I couldn't spell cognoscenti; now I is one!

fdsre

Hi guys,

Thanks so much for your responses. I guess in hindsight I should have provided more details (it's only my first post here.. sorry!). The LA did indeed successfully provide my details and I also subsequently contacted EON to make sure because, like many here, I don't trust any LA to ever do a good job. The meter readings are provided automatically by a smart meter but I take your points that I should have followed up after a few months to see what's going on. What surprised me is the fact that there was no contact for 18 months and then a bill arrives..

The block where I live is relatively new and a number of the 500 or so residents on the facebook group have been complaining of similar situations happening to them. So that's why I thought about getting your advice! Thanks so much.

And @Cardew, thanks so much for sending across that link. It's really helpful!