Deceased Mum's NPower bill

Fzzzbucks

Hi there,

My Mum died on November 14th and with it left a nominal sum of credit in her gas account. Her electric account was prepayment meter.

When my Dad rang up to inform them of this and sent the death certificate they told him that they're going to move the account over into his name, bringing with it the gas fixed tariff until May. This has not happened. The account is still in Mum's name.

Dad has requested that they change the prepayment meter to a normal meter and he is then set up with a new account and would like a dual-fuel tariff to save money. (The gas bill alone is £77 a month, electric is £60 for a single man living in a small terrace). Npower have said that they have no appointments for a meter until March at the earliest and until then he'll be unable to set up an account in his name and have Mum's account shut down. What's more, they're holding Dad in the May tariff Mum set up, meaning he can't request a dual-fuel tariff either.

Are they right to do this? It feels a little bit like Dad is trapped with Npower and their expensive rates, paying into an account that isn't even his. I'm not 100% sure of the legalities of this, but as I understood it, as Mum has no estate and she's no longer alive they can't legally expect her to pay bills.

Can anyone offer some insight into what to do in this situation?

Many thanks.

OPMDaze

Leave Npower they're the single most useless company I've ever had dealings with. Actually would make my Christmas if they went bust. Don't give them your dads bank details they can't be trusted with them.Plenty of better suppliers, in fact they're all better.

WhoIsThat

Fzzzbucks wrote: »

Hi there,

My Mum died on November 14th and with it left a nominal sum of credit in her gas account. Her electric account was prepayment meter.

When my Dad rang up to inform them of this and sent the death certificate they told him that they're going to move the account over into his name, bringing with it the gas fixed tariff until May. This has not happened. The account is still in Mum's name.

Dad has requested that they change the prepayment meter to a normal meter and he is then set up with a new account and would like a dual-fuel tariff to save money. (The gas bill alone is £77 a month, electric is £60 for a single man living in a small terrace). Npower have said that they have no appointments for a meter until March at the earliest and until then he'll be unable to set up an account in his name and have Mum's account shut down. What's more, they're holding Dad in the May tariff Mum set up, meaning he can't request a dual-fuel tariff either.

Are they right to do this? It feels a little bit like Dad is trapped with Npower and their expensive rates, paying into an account that isn't even his. I'm not 100% sure of the legalities of this, but as I understood it, as Mum has no estate and she's no longer alive they can't legally expect her to pay bills.

Can anyone offer some insight into what to do in this situation?

Many thanks.

I'm sorry to hear that your mum has passed away.

I can understand you probably don't need this problem to deal with at this sad time, but perhaps I can help simplify things to get to a satifactory conclusion.

Leaving the type of meters involved aside for the monemt, and concentrating on whose name the account is in.
The supplier should change the name of the account holder as requested, especially as they now have the evidence in the form of the death certificate supplied. They should not be delaying this.

It can be done almost instantly. How the supplier deems it appropriate to do in these specific circumstances may be debateable.
Either they can simply close your mothers accounts and start again with father as the account holder.
But I presume that your father lives at the address, and was doing so with your mother before she passed away.
In that circumstance, the supplier may suggest it is more appropriatye to simply change the name on the account only.

Assuming the supplier only changes the name on the account (rather than closing the existing accounts and opening new ones), that will have little effect on the electric PPM account.
With regards the gas that is supplied by a credit meter, then the supplier would allow your dad to retain the current fixed tariff - and that may be worthwhile as it was probably fixed some time ago, and prices available today are probably higher.

Of course, if the supplier opts for the former method and closes the existing accounts, and opens new ones for your father, it would be up to your father to choose suitable tariffs, otherwise he will be charged at the suppliers expensive deemed tariff.

Once the accounts are in your father's name, he will be free to switch supplier for either, or both fuels, if he so chooses.

Turning now to the meters, obviously, your father cannot have a dual fuel tariff with the existing meters. If nPower are saying they cannot change the PPM to a credit meter before March, then your father may want to make enquiries of another supplier.
But with it taking up to 5 weeks to switch supplier, and any new supplier will then want time themeslves to change the meter, if they would agree to do so, it may well be almost March before a meter change is achieved.

Once your father obtains the credit meter he desires for the electricity, he will need to decide then what is best to do, bearing in mind the gas tariff will end in May (if the case nPower allow the continuation of the existing tariff)

If there are any difficulties getting nPower to change the accounts into your father's name sooner rather than later, he should in the first instance follow the supplier's complaint procedure.

[Deleted User]

One thing I would check is that the prepayment meter may well be much cheaper to run than Npowers standard/variable tariff. You can see the tariff on the gas meter by holding down the red button till it beeps then you can see the pence per kwh rate. Same thing with the prepay electric meter. Run through the screens by pressing the blue button to see pence per kwh rates. You may be pleasantly surprised you are nt getting ripped off.
Usually standing charges are exactly the same as a suppliers SVT price per day
Prepay meters enjoy a price cap on the tariff which beats SVT..Only good fixed tariff yearly rates will beat it

nPower

Fzzzbucks wrote: »

Hi there,

My Mum died on November 14th and with it left a nominal sum of credit in her gas account. Her electric account was prepayment meter.

When my Dad rang up to inform them of this and sent the death certificate they told him that they're going to move the account over into his name, bringing with it the gas fixed tariff until May. This has not happened. The account is still in Mum's name.

Dad has requested that they change the prepayment meter to a normal meter and he is then set up with a new account and would like a dual-fuel tariff to save money. (The gas bill alone is £77 a month, electric is £60 for a single man living in a small terrace). Npower have said that they have no appointments for a meter until March at the earliest and until then he'll be unable to set up an account in his name and have Mum's account shut down. What's more, they're holding Dad in the May tariff Mum set up, meaning he can't request a dual-fuel tariff either.

Are they right to do this? It feels a little bit like Dad is trapped with Npower and their expensive rates, paying into an account that isn't even his. I'm not 100% sure of the legalities of this, but as I understood it, as Mum has no estate and she's no longer alive they can't legally expect her to pay bills.

Can anyone offer some insight into what to do in this situation?

Many thanks.




Hi Fzzzbucks


Thank you for posting and I'm sorry to hear of yours and your father's experience :-( I will be happy to take a look at this if you would like to send me an email (using the address from my profile) with the account details.

Thanks

Vicky