AVRO Overcharging after death

Victoria_Groth

My dad died back in November. He was with Avro and we continued with them for ease. How I wish I hadn't. They are insisting that we still need to pay £129 per month, even though the property is empty. They will reduce this to £30 for 3 months at a time, then they put it back to £129 with no warning. Three times we have gone through this battle. We're using so little gas/electricity but they continue to say a house of that size requires a DD of £129.
Kind of lost it with them today as I'm sick of the conversation about the fact the house is empty. They have agreed to reduce the DD to £75 now, but over the last 3 months we have averaged £20 charges. It is still too high.
How do I tackle them? I just want a fair DD covering the costs we are incurring (which are high as there is a 34p a day standing charge!!!)

JJ_Egan

Are you in contract ??
Your Dads contract ceased upon death .


Have you been giving them monthly meter readings ??

Gerry1

Cancel the direct debit or switch to a prepayment meter.

mac.d

When you agreed to continue with Avro after informing them of your father's death did you agree on a new fixed contract, or has the supply just been moved onto a standard variable tariff (as JJ Egan says, the contract your Dad had with them ends as soon as you let them know he is deceased)? If it's the latter, you will be paying more than you need to and should look at switching to a cheaper supplier asap. Obviously if you are planning on selling the house you need to look at either a supplier with no exit fee, or something like Bulb's standard tariff.

In the meantime, can you provide Avro with up to date meter readings, and do this monthly if possible? That way, they should be able to see that not much energy is being used and stop trying to keep the DD so high.

Gerry1

If you haven't signed up with Avro you might even be on a 'deemed contract'. That would be the worst of all worlds, and if you haven't been credit checked that would explain why they're so nervous about lowering the DD.

Robin9

[QUOTE=Gerry1;76080358....................._if_you_haven't_been_credit_checked_...................[/QUOTE]

Do the executors of a will or administrators of an estate even have a credit history ?


We've had a similar problem with Flow following my MIL's death insisting on a high DD then having to reimburse it .

t0rt0ise

Somebody must have given their bank details to pay a direct debit from because the deceased bank account should be frozen. So whoever is paying it should change supplier or simply cancel the DD and pay on receipt of the bill.

JJ_Egan

Bank needs to be informed .
Accounts dont get frozen automatically .

Victoria_Groth

Thanks for all the replies.
I have no idea what contract we are on as we were in such shock when we informed them he’d died.
We have been providing meter readings every month. But still they deal £129 acceptable despite using no gas for several months and minimal electricity. It seems that most of our monthly bill is a standing charge.
Had severe responses from customer services but hey still maintain that they have to collect the higher amount.
We are now looking at changing supplier, I did hope we wouldn’t need to go that far. Another job I didn’t need to do. Can’t believe they are being so unreasonable.

JJ_Egan

He died = account ceased .
Balance due from the estate or refund .


You have taken out a new account ??
Are you running this account as a standard no exit fee tariff / If so it will be expensive .
Standing charges are 16.8 p per day on both gas and electric .


Something is missing in your original post as they are not supplying your dad .

Victoria_Groth

To be honest it was quite a blur We cancelled the existing contract and they just put us on another one. There are no exit fees and yes you're right, the standing charges are high. But I could cope with that if they would just let us pay what we owe, and not the ridiculously high amount they want us to pay.