Help needed about pre paid meter debt

silver.squirrell

Hello,

I hope someone can help/guide me.

I bought a property over 5 years ago with a pre paid electricity meter already installed. I spent 2 months doing it up and let it.

Last week I get a letter from a debt recovery firm wanting £80 covering the period I was doing up the property. This is strange because we topped up the meter while work was being done and when I let the property, there was almost £10 credit which the tenant who moved in got.

The debt recovery firm wrote "Please be aware that if you had a pre-paid meter, this could have been installed if your energy supply was in arrears. A proportion of the amount of money you put on the meter would have gone towards paying off the arrears".

This doesn't make any sense as the meter was in the property when I bought it at Auction with vacant possession. and if there was £80 owing I wouldn't have had any electricity in the property when I moved into the to start the renovation and not had £10 credit when the tenant moved in.

Also In the last 5 years I didn't get a single letter from Eon Energy saying I owed them money.

Its not the amount they say I owe that bugs me, its the principal that after 5+ years they can say I owe them money.

So any advice/help would be appreciated:)

Many thanks in advance,

Silver.Squirrell

PaschalFun

silver.squirrell wrote: »

Hello,

I hope someone can help/guide me.

I bought a property over 5 years ago with a pre paid electricity meter already installed. I spent 2 months doing it up and let it.

Last week I get a letter from a debt recovery firm wanting £80 covering the period I was doing up the property. This is strange because we topped up the meter while work was being done and when I let the property, there was almost £10 credit which the tenant who moved in got.

The debt recovery firm wrote "Please be aware that if you had a pre-paid meter, this could have been installed if your energy supply was in arrears. A proportion of the amount of money you put on the meter would have gone towards paying off the arrears".

This doesn't make any sense as the meter was in the property when I bought it at Auction with vacant possession. and if there was £80 owing I wouldn't have had any electricity in the property when I moved into the to start the renovation and not had £10 credit when the tenant moved in.

Also In the last 5 years I didn't get a single letter from Eon Energy saying I owed them money.

Its not the amount they say I owe that bugs me, its the principal that after 5+ years they can say I owe them money.

So any advice/help would be appreciated:)

Many thanks in advance,

Silver.Squirrell

Presumably you registered as the new owner and hence the energy user when you bought the property - else how else would the supplier know who you are?

Any debt belongs to the person who accrued it, not to any new owner.

dogshome

When taking over a property with a PAYGO meter, you are are supposed to contact them - They then the issue a new top-up card and a new account number that's unique to you


If you simply carry on useing the card that was in the premises, the supplier does not know you are a new occupier and you inherit any outstanding debt on the account - Yes PAYGO meters can carry debt for a number different reasons


After 5 years is going to be difficult to challenge this bill, as you know the date, but not the meter reading

silver.squirrell

Thank you Pashalfun & Dogshome for your posts.

The simple honest thing is I don't remember if I contacted the Electricity provider or not as it dates back to 5.5 years ago! I assume the seller of the property (Housing Association) would have informed the Electricity firm of the change of ownership. I might have done it myself (but I can't remember)? All I know is the tenant who move into the property did change electricity suppliers within weeks of moving in, and that was still more than 5 years ago. But she didn't get a "final bill" from the supplier either addressed to her OR me!

Dogshome, you said that a debt can still be carried to the card meter. But why would I still be able to use the electricity in the property while building work was done, if there was a £80 debt? I thought the whole point of having a key meter was for people to pay for the electricity they use, and when they run out of credit, they get cut off until they top up the key again. I thought the whole point of these meters was to STOP people running up electricity bills they can't afford to pay?

Surely this Backbilling where its too late for them to chase me must kick in?????

[Deleted User]

silver.squirrell wrote: »

Thank you Pashalfun & Dogshome for your posts.

The simple honest thing is I don't remember if I contacted the Electricity provider or not as it dates back to 5.5 years ago! I assume the seller of the property (Housing Association) would have informed the Electricity firm of the change of ownership. I might have done it myself (but I can't remember)? All I know is the tenant who move into the property did change electricity suppliers within weeks of moving in, and that was still more than 5 years ago. But she didn't get a "final bill" from the supplier either addressed to her OR me!

Dogshome, you said that a debt can still be carried to the card meter. But why would I still be able to use the electricity in the property while building work was done, if there was a £80 debt? I thought the whole point of having a key meter was for people to pay for the electricity they use, and when they run out of credit, they get cut off until they top up the key again. I thought the whole point of these meters was to STOP people running up electricity bills they can't afford to pay?

Surely this Backbilling where its too late for them to chase me must kick in?????

You can use a prepay meter with thousands of pounds of debt.
My record debt I have seen on a prepay meter is 9k debt ! and 2k debt is commonplace..Suppliers will deduct a weekly repay rate of between £3.50 and £16 a week which is taken off the credit on the meter..Possibly £3.50 a week could have been deducted whilst you were using the meter and you may not have noticed.

silver.squirrell

WOW I didn't know that a meter could have any debt on it let alone £1,000's.

My question to the debt recover firm is can they prove the £80 debt is mine. and why has it taken them 5+ years to contact me

As I wrote its not paying the money that's the problem its the principal.

matelodave

Unfortunately there is also the principle that you should have contacted the energy company at the time and registered yourself as the new account holder. You are still liable for debts for up to six years.

Never ever assume that it's someone else's job (even if it should be) you should either do it yourself or make sure that it's been done to avoid problems in the future

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

silver.squirrell wrote: »

Hello,

I hope someone can help/guide me.

I bought a property over 5 years ago with a pre paid electricity meter already installed. I spent 2 months doing it up and let it.

Last week I get a letter from a debt recovery firm wanting £80 covering the period I was doing up the property. This is strange because we topped up the meter while work was being done and when I let the property, there was almost £10 credit which the tenant who moved in got.

The debt recovery firm wrote "Please be aware that if you had a pre-paid meter, this could have been installed if your energy supply was in arrears. A proportion of the amount of money you put on the meter would have gone towards paying off the arrears".

This doesn't make any sense as the meter was in the property when I bought it at Auction with vacant possession. and if there was £80 owing I wouldn't have had any electricity in the property when I moved into the to start the renovation and not had £10 credit when the tenant moved in.

Also In the last 5 years I didn't get a single letter from Eon Energy saying I owed them money.

Its not the amount they say I owe that bugs me, its the principal that after 5+ years they can say I owe them money.

So any advice/help would be appreciated:)

Many thanks in advance,

Silver.Squirrell

silver.squirrell wrote: »

Thank you Pashalfun & Dogshome for your posts.

The simple honest thing is I don't remember if I contacted the Electricity provider or not as it dates back to 5.5 years ago! I assume the seller of the property (Housing Association) would have informed the Electricity firm of the change of ownership. I might have done it myself (but I can't remember)? All I know is the tenant who move into the property did change electricity suppliers within weeks of moving in, and that was still more than 5 years ago. But she didn't get a "final bill" from the supplier either addressed to her OR me!

Dogshome, you said that a debt can still be carried to the card meter. But why would I still be able to use the electricity in the property while building work was done, if there was a £80 debt? I thought the whole point of having a key meter was for people to pay for the electricity they use, and when they run out of credit, they get cut off until they top up the key again. I thought the whole point of these meters was to STOP people running up electricity bills they can't afford to pay?

Surely this Backbilling where its too late for them to chase me must kick in?????

silver.squirrell wrote: »

WOW I didn't know that a meter could have any debt on it let alone £1,000's.

My question to the debt recover firm is can they prove the £80 debt is mine. and why has it taken them 5+ years to contact me

As I wrote its not paying the money that's the problem its the principal.

Hello silver.squirrell and already some good advice on here - thanks all.

It certainly sounds like we didn't know about the change of ownership at the time and I suspect the debt belongs to the previous occupant. As dogshome says, when we're told of a change of responsibility involving prepayment meters, we send out new payment devices (cards/keys). These allow meters to be reset and debt belonging to former occupants removed.

If this didn't happen and you used the existing key to top up, you'll have been able to continue using electricity. As Houbara says, this may have also meant you were inadvertently paying towards the old debt too.

Have you asked the current tenant if they've received anything from us in the past, most probably addressed to the Occupier? If we didn't know you were responsible for the property at the time, I doubt we had an address for you.

We've a specialist Prepayment Home Moves team (contact details are on our website) who can create an account for you covering the period in question and re-assign any old debt to those it belongs to. Totally understand this is a long time ago but they'll need to see some sort of evidence confirming the dates as it's likely there'll be knock-on effects on other accounts.

Not sure how far down the road we've gone with the Debt Collector and it might mean you need to talk to these to start the ball rolling. Our Home Moves team will let you know.

Hope this points you in the right direction silver.squirrell.

Malc

macman

Nothing to do with the vendor or HA: it's the responsibility of the incoming occupier to register for an account.
You really don't have any grounds here for disputing the bill. Back billing will not apply if you never registered or contacted them, and they can bill you up to six years later.

silver.squirrell

Hello Malc,

I REALLY appreciate your message! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

I read your email thinking this chap knows a lot, then I realised you work for Eon. :-)

I very genuinely don't know if I contacted Eon when I bought the property as its was the first rental property I bought with a Key meter in it, and I knew nothing about them. In fact I learnt more since I posted my question on this site than I EVER knew!!!!

As for the Key to the meter I think (but couldn't be 100% certain) that we used the key that was already there but.....????.

The tenant who occupied the property before it was sold to me had LOADS of people chasing them for money!!!! Most of them I managed to sort out while the property was being done up, but a few were not. So I got the tenant who moved into the property to send me ALL letters that were either addressed to the former tenant, or addressed to the current Occupier or to anyone else. I dealt with these letter one by one, either by replying via email, letter or me phoning them. I did this until the tenant in the property stopped getting letters. This is why I know Eon didn't contact me, as it would have been dealt with.

The first thing I knew about an outstanding debt was a letter arriving in the post to MY HOME ADDRESS (not the property that I let). I instantly contacted the debt recovery firm to see which firm thinks I owed them money. They told me it was Eon. A few very amicable emails have passed between us. In their last email to me they said I have 14 days to reply to it. So I thought I would ask for help/advice from MSE members.

What is sort of interesting in their last email to me they wrote:-

"I understand that you owned the property from XX/11/2013 which is when the supply for this account began. I can confirm that the supply for this account ended XX/02/2014 which is when you said your tenant moved in, which is why we and E.on Energy Solutions Ltd believe you are liable for this account".

"With this in mind, if you dispute your liability for this account, please can you clarify why this is"?

What was interesting to me was they used the words "believe you are liable for this account" The word "believe" implies uncertainty from their side. In the same way I am uncertain if I contacted Eon.

In the second paragraph they are asking me to almost prove "clarify" why I don't owe them money, when in fact the onus is on them to prove I do owe them money. To date they haven't come up with anything to prove I do. They haven't sent me any meter readings, or copies of letters they (Eon Energy) said were sent to me.

The other thing is, my tenant switched suppliers a few weeks after she moved in. Eon didn't contact her to say there was this debt. If they did, she would have contacted me or sent me the letter to deal with.

I am not the person who tries to avoid paying bills I know I owe, as its not the way I do things. If I get a bill I owe, it gets paid and gets paid ASAP!!!! But with this one, because of the passage of time, I can't remember everything that happened or what I did/didn't do.

t0rt0ise

Eon wouldn't tell your tenant that there was a debt on the meter because it wasn't her debt.

Are the dates given for when you bought the property and your tenant took over, correct? If so, it seems that you did open an account and are liable for the debt.