NPower & Landlord

DD265

We moved into our flat in May 2015, private tenants and the property is owned and managed by a business.

There is no gas, just electricity. This is my first place of my own so I have no experience of it, but the electricity is currently supplied by NPower.

NPower and the landlord have been in a dispute over the meter since before we moved in. NPower said it was prepayment, landlord said it wasn't. NPower came out to assess at the end of June and no it isn't prepayment, but they are taking their sweet time in updating their system. They told the landlord (at the end of July) that the update can take anything from 28 days to 90 days.

We were receiving letters for the previous tenant from NPower and one from a solicitor - all returned with "not at this address". Haven't had any for about 3 weeks now so maybe they've taken the hint.

My issues are twofold.

1) We don't have easy access to the meter so I have to ask the landlord to get readings for us. I have the reading from the night before we moved in but I don't know what we've used since. We've also not had any bills from NPower and they won't talk to us about the account because it's not ours.

2) I got the MSE newsletter about the cheap energy and I want to take advantage if this is a better deal than NPower are offering us (I don't even know what that deal is) but I don't know if we can do this with all of the above going on.

Would appreciate any help/advice.

ETA if it makes any difference, apparently we're on Economy 7.

modsandmockers

It’s really good that you have meter readings for the time that you moved in and, as time goes by, you should continue to take every opportunity you can to get up-to-date meter readings.

This dispute has the potential to run and run but, from what you have said, you are not about to receive any bills from Npower because - in Npower’s own words - ‘the account is not in your name’.

What does the tenancy agreement say about energy bills? Unless there is some (probably unenforceable) clause about you having to pay the landlord for your energy consumption, then, so long as you have notified Npower that you accept responsibility for the energy bills, it is hard to know what else you can do.

If and when the account is eventually transferred into your own name, then you need to insist that you can get free access to your own meters. In the meantime, I would simply put a suitable monthly sum into a separate bank account so that you will not be caught out by a future bill, and wait to see what happens - above all, don’t pay any bill that is not addressed to you personally, and don’t pay any bill until you have been able to check its accuracy using actual meter readings. The bill itself will tell you the name of the tariff as well as the specific tariff prices and, as soon as the account has been transferred into your own name, you should be free to switch. With any luck, neither Npower nor the landlord will be able to hold you liable for any energy you might consume whilst the account is in somebody else’s name.

[Deleted User]

Register with Npower with your date of occupancy and start readings.Make these start readings accurate, and don t leave it to the landlord.The eco 7 meter you have will have three readings, night/day and T for total. You only need to register the day and night reads.Usually rate 1 will be the day read, and r2 the night ( but it could well be the other way round ). These meters are always getting messed up with flat dwellers taking no notice of their consumption much and just leaving it to estimates or the whims of some lazy landlord .hence the disputes and the many prepay meters which are then force fitted into blocks of flats

DD265

Thanks both.

Npower won't let us register because of this ongoing dispute. I have calls to them listed on my phone bill and I have the emails exchanged with the landlord. Should I send them a letter in writing to confirm we live here to cover our backs? Is there anything I could say to make them sort it out quicker?

It's the not knowing when and how much they're going to bill us for that I don't like. I would be (pleasantly) surprised if it all got written off and I certainly wouldn't expect the landlord to pay it, they've only had somebody in here once to trim a door down.

I have asked the landlord about getting easier access to the meter readings and also said to them that we might want to change supplier so did they have any bills covering the period of our tenancy at all to give us an idea of numbers.

At a guess it looks like we could maybe save £29ish a month if we move to that Eon deal so it would be well worth it. Unfortunately not knowing what we're "spending" currently doesn't help, but Npower don't look to come up cheap on any of the comparison sites and I don't think the service is good enough to justify £30 a month extra.

modsandmockers

DD265 wrote: »

At a guess it looks like we could maybe save £29ish a month if we move to that Eon deal so it would be well worth it

A saving of £29 a month is HUGE! - to whom are you currently paying your monthly payment?

DD265

We aren't making any payments at all - I used some of the estimators to try and work out what it might be with Npower and it came up at £125ish a month. Eon on that deal came up about £95 a month.

I think it's the fact that we honestly don't know how much we're "spending" that bothers me. I don't have an idea of cost from a previous place and neither does OH. So whilst we're putting money aside, no idea whether it'll be enough! On the figures above it should be but in practise...

[Deleted User]

I can t understand Npower stopping the legal registration of a new occupier.These disputes are as common as muck.Once an occupier has gone, thats it ,they re not coming back ever. Its illogical to stop the new occupiers paying their dues. Dont even think about switching until you ve got Npower to act sensibly.Possibly they may need to see a tenancy agreement to see you have no connection with the former occupiers who may be running away from owing thousands.
Roll on smart meters to stop this ridiculous farce.They have the ability to switch to prepay mode to stop the wholesale theft of energy in the UK

modsandmockers

DD265 wrote: »

We aren't making any payments at all - I used some of the estimators to try and work out what it might be with Npower and it came up at £125ish a month. Eon on that deal came up about £95 a month.

I think it's the fact that we honestly don't know how much we're "spending" that bothers me. I don't have an idea of cost from a previous place and neither does OH. So whilst we're putting money aside, no idea whether it'll be enough! On the figures above it should be but in practise...

The good news is that you have lived there since May and have received no demands for payment for your energy consumption. The bad news is that you have no way of knowing how much energy you are using now or, more importantly, how much you are likely to use during the winter.

The good news is that Npower has confirmed that you are not the account-holder. The bad news is that you don’t know who is the account-holder - is it the landlord, or is it the previous occupant (who was clearly a non-payer)?

You have informed Npower of your existence (including the start date and meter reading) and you have calculated that your energy costs are likely to be between £95-£125 per month, so that is probably the amount you should prepare yourself to pay. In the meantime, I would suggest that your priority should be to gain free access to your own energy meters.