Eon late payment charge debt collection charge of £20

E-Type_Man

I have no doubt that similar questions have been raised on this subject, but I am wondering where I stand with my situation.

I moved into my property in March and immediately applied via Uswitch to change my energy supplier away from eon, as I have had bad experiences with them in the past. The date for switching was given as the 30th March and from that date on I began a direct debit with my new supplier. However Eon kept sending me bills for gas supplied. I sent eon a letter stating that they were no longer my supplier and I also contacted Uswitch and Avro my new supplier, to inform them of the situation. On 2nd of June eon wrote to me explaining that once Avro have responded to them and supplied them with a final reading, a final bill from eon would be sent. Eon said that this could take upto 6 weeks.

On 5th of june I received from eon a letter saying that, thay were about to charge me £20 as a debt collection fee if I did not pay by 14th June. Reluctantly I paid the debt via the post office on 12th June.

Now I have just received another bill from eon which was estimated and it has included the debt collection charge of £20.

My question is. Is it legal for eon to charge a debt collection fee. When I moved into my property, I did not sign up with eon and therefore, we have no legal contract between us.

Would I be within my rights to refuse to pay the £20

Hasbeen

E-Type_Man said:

I have no doubt that similar questions have been raised on this subject, but I am wondering where I stand with my situation.

I moved into my property in March and immediately applied via Uswitch to change my energy supplier away from eon, as I have had bad experiences with them in the past. The date for switching was given as the 30th March and from that date on I began a direct debit with my new supplier. However Eon kept sending me bills for gas supplied. I sent eon a letter stating that they were no longer my supplier and I also contacted Uswitch and Avro my new supplier, to inform them of the situation. On 2nd of June eon wrote to me explaining that once Avro have responded to them and supplied them with a final reading, a final bill from eon would be sent. Eon said that this could take upto 6 weeks.

On 5th of june I received from eon a letter saying that, thay were about to charge me £20 as a debt collection fee if I did not pay by 14th June. Reluctantly I paid the debt via the post office on 12th June.

Now I have just received another bill from eon which was estimated and it has included the debt collection charge of £20.

My question is. Is it legal for eon to charge a debt collection fee. When I moved into my property, I did not sign up with eon and therefore, we have no legal contract between us.

Would I be within my rights to refuse to pay the £20

You would get more advice if you posted in the Energy section of the forum regarding your legally deemed contract with EON

tripled

When you take over a supply, you enter a deemed contract.  You are liable to pay for the energy used, and any standing charge, at the incumbent supplier's (eon's) standard rate until the switch goes through.

It is your responsibility to give eon the correct meter readings for the date you moved in. It is Avro's resposibility to provide the meter readings for the date the supply switched over. If this does not happen, or the reading given is incorrect, then an estimate is used.

If you have all the relevant readings, I suggest you supply them to both providers. If it is not subsequently sorted out, raise a complaint with Avro.