Energy suppliers overlap in bills

Estelle77

Hello,
I have an interesting situation here. Before we purchased the house and moved I was querying about the transfer of the utilities account, existing fixed deal with Scottish Power (SP) to the new address which was supplied by npower. This happened on the 7th November last year and the completion was set up on the 20th, which happened according to plan. The SP told me I have to set a new tariff on the new place and basically lured me into signing this up, saying it was the best deal. It happened quickly and I was at work so I did not have much time to get more info. Going home and making a comparison I found it was not the best I could get. So I cancelled it within 3 days and got a confirmation e-mail with the cancellation code. I thought it was all sorted. Then I signed up with another provider and this went live on the 3rd December or so (I am yet to see the bill as they give it every three months and the online account is quite limited in information).
To cut the long story short - I have now received a bill from SP that they supplied this address between 27th November and 15th December (according to the national database), but I have already paid my current provider on the 4th December (they took two payments, one for the month in advance) and also npower has billed me from the 21st November and 1st December. How come these two companies did not know the SP was officially supplying our address and how come the SP did not cancel my contract within the cooling off period? I am confused.
Thanks.

trickytree1963

Did you provide Npower with meter readings when you completed on the new property as they would have been your deemed supplier until you switched to the unamed company?

System

Estelle77 wrote: »

Hello,
I have an interesting situation here. Before we purchased the house and moved I was querying about the transfer of the utilities account, existing fixed deal with Scottish Power (SP) to the new address which was supplied by npower. This happened on the 7th November last year and the completion was set up on the 20th, which happened according to plan. The SP told me I have to set a new tariff on the new place and basically lured me into signing this up, saying it was the best deal. It happened quickly and I was at work so I did not have much time to get more info. Going home and making a comparison I found it was not the best I could get. So I cancelled it within 3 days and got a confirmation e-mail with the cancellation code. I thought it was all sorted. Then I signed up with another provider and this went live on the 3rd December or so (I am yet to see the bill as they give it every three months and the online account is quite limited in information).
To cut the long story short - I have now received a bill from SP that they supplied this address between 27th November and 15th December (according to the national database), but I have already paid my current provider on the 4th December (they took two payments, one for the month in advance) and also npower has billed me from the 21st November and 1st December. How come these two companies did not know the SP was officially supplying our address and how come the SP did not cancel my contract within the cooling off period? I am confused.
Thanks.

Whenever you move into a property - old or new - you are on a legally binding Deemed Contract with the existing supplier. NPower is entitled to bill you until such time as any transfer of supply is actioned by your new supplier. There is no such thing as a supplier transferring your existing contract to a new property. What they are in effect saying is that once you initiate a switch back to them from the Deemed Supplier they will contract with you on your old contract terms.

Suppliers that are signed up to 17 day switching have to take action via the industry during the cooling off period to take over your supply. It is not always possible to reverse this transfer before it goes through. The action may have to be retrospective.

I suggest that you ask SP for an explanation and get confirmation - in writing - that the bill has been cancelled. I am afraid this is what happens when there are too many suppliers in the mix.

footyguy

Estelle77 wrote: »

Hello,
I have an interesting situation here. Before we purchased the house and moved I was querying about the transfer of the utilities account, existing fixed deal with Scottish Power (SP) to the new address which was supplied by npower. This happened on the 7th November last year and the completion was set up on the 20th, which happened according to plan. The SP told me I have to set a new tariff on the new place and basically lured me into signing this up, saying it was the best deal. It happened quickly and I was at work so I did not have much time to get more info. Going home and making a comparison I found it was not the best I could get. So I cancelled it within 3 days and got a confirmation e-mail with the cancellation code. I thought it was all sorted. Then I signed up with another provider and this went live on the 3rd December or so (I am yet to see the bill as they give it every three months and the online account is quite limited in information).
To cut the long story short - I have now received a bill from SP that they supplied this address between 27th November and 15th December (according to the national database), but I have already paid my current provider on the 4th December (they took two payments, one for the month in advance) and also npower has billed me from the 21st November and 1st December. How come these two companies did not know the SP was officially supplying our address and how come the SP did not cancel my contract within the cooling off period? I am confused.
Thanks.

Something does not stack up.

If you applied to switch from nPower to SP on 07-Nov, you would not under normal circumstances have an actual switch date of 20-Nov.

The supplier must first give you 14 days cooling off period.

Please re-check your dates and amend as appropriate.

Please post legible images of the 3 bills you refer to (having removed personal info first)


Edit: When did you complete on the purchase?
Because from your thread of 15-10-2017, it would appear you had not even exchanged. :cool:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5727964

Robin9

Estelle77 wrote: »

Hello,
I have an interesting situation here. Before we purchased the house and moved I was querying about the transfer of the utilities account, existing fixed deal with Scottish Power (SP) to the new address which was supplied by npower.

Part of this confusion comes from trying to transfer your account. It can't be done.

When you leave a property you must give your supplier your readings. You will get a final bill which may include a exit charge. This account is then cancelled.

For your new property you must start again with a new supplier with a deemed contract

System

Robin9 wrote: »

Part of this confusion comes from trying to transfer your account. It can't be done.

When you leave a property you must give your supplier your readings. You will get a final bill which may include a exit charge. This account is then cancelled.

For your new property you must start again with a new supplier with a deemed contract

Absolutely; but it is also down to the fact that suppliers used to take up to 5 weeks to transfer a supply and they took no action during the 14 day cooling off period. To takeover a supply within 17 days, then have to start the ball rolling almost immediately that a switch request is made. When we move to one day switching, then 13 days the cooling off period will be after the supply has been transferred to the new supplier so it becomes a transfer reversal. With three suppliers in the mix, it is pretty easy to see how the system that sits beneath the suppliers can become confused!!

Estelle77

Oh people, so much misunderstanding.
It is the previous owners which were supposed to give the final readings to their last supplier - npower.
I did my part and gave the meter reading on the day of first entering the property to my current supplier as they were asking for it.
I have no objections against being billed by the previous provider up to the date the new one took over.
What made things complicated was that SP did not cancel the switch and got mixed in. I am waiting for their reply regarding this. I have contacted my current provider to clarify for which period I have been billed already and will be in touch with n-power also.

System

Estelle77 wrote: »

Oh people, so much misunderstanding.
It is the previous owners which were supposed to give the final readings to their last supplier - npower.
I did my part and gave the meter reading on the day of first entering the property to my current supplier as they were asking for it.
I have no objections against being billed by the previous provider up to the date the new one took over.
What made things complicated was that SP did not cancel the switch and got mixed in. I am waiting for their reply regarding this. I have contacted my current provider to clarify for which period I have been billed already and will be in touch with n-power also.

I am afraid that you may have misunderstood. When you moved in, the property already had a supplier linked to the meter and the address. This is called the Deemed Supplier. The Law on Deemed Suppliers was brought in many years ago to ensure continuity of supply. You entered into a contract with that supplier the moment you turned on a light. You should have contacted NPower with your details and a meter reading/s when you moved in. You were then free to switch to any supplier including SP. The Deemed Supplier is entitled to bill you for energy used up to the date of transfer. This can take 17 to 35 days from application to switch.

Trusting any supplier to attempt to takeover a Deemed Contract is fraught with risk, The Deemed Supplier has the right to block a transfer until you have contacted them. This forum is littered with examples of consumers who thought that they had taken the old contract with them only to be presented with a Deemed contract bill, many months later, for the whole period up to the date of that bill. Sadly, they have had no option but to pay up.

Estelle77

Hengus wrote: »

I am afraid that you may have misunderstood. When you moved in, the property already had a supplier linked to the meter and the address. This is called the Deemed Supplier. The Law on Deemed Suppliers was brought in many years ago to ensure continuity of supply. You entered into a contract with that supplier the moment you turned on a light. You should have contacted NPower with your details and a meter reading/s when you moved in. You were then free to switch to any supplier including SP. The Deemed Supplier is entitled to bill you for energy used up to the date of transfer. This can take 17 to 35 days from application to switch.

Trusting any supplier to attempt to takeover a Deemed Contract is fraught with risk, The Deemed Supplier has the right to block a transfer until you have contacted them. This forum is littered with examples of consumers who thought that they had taken the old contract with them only to be presented with a Deemed contract bill, many months later, for the whole period up to the date of that bill. Sadly, they have had no option but to pay up.

I was not aware of that but it makes sense. Thanks. Nevertheless, my experience is it usually goes over smoothly and they got their readings from the previous owners.

matelodave

You should never trust that the previous owners or tenanant would give the correct meter readings. It's up to you to ensure that you read the meters as soon as you take posssesion (not necessarily the day you move in) and notify the supplier.

By notifying the existing supplier that you are now responsible and giving a meter reading you can minimise any problems with erroneous meter readings.

You'll still have to pay them for any energy that you use between the day that you take over the property until the day it switches to a new supplier which, as said above, could be anywhere up to six weeks.

Estelle77

matelodave wrote: »

You should never trust that the previous owners or tenanant would give the correct meter readings. It's up to you to ensure that you read the meters as soon as you take posssesion (not necessarily the day you move in) and notify the supplier.

By notifying the existing supplier that you are now responsible and giving a meter reading you can minimise any problems with erroneous meter readings.

I understand that. It is a risk. But we re-calculated the usage and the tariff on the bill of n-power and it approx matches our estimates. And I have found a better deal than they have had.