Harrassment from E-ON - For Gas Supply that I don't have

Bobby_Bristol

I have been renting a property since March 2011, in this time I have had energy supplied via National Power, for the record, I only have electricity, no gas is used in the property.

In Feb 2011, my landlord and previous occupant, whom I've known for 20 years contacted E-On and closed down the account and was given a final bill, which was paid. 
Nothing was heard from EON until early 2014, when a series of letters addressed to the occupier was escalated to a debt collector, who came to the property, checked the meter, saw it was inactive and gave me a number to call EON, he also made a seperate call in front of me to close the account down. 
However despite assurances from EON that the account had been closed down, I have had variosu people from EON, letters and now a letter threatening to take the landlord to court if £540 is not paid in 2 weeks and that a prepaid meter will be fitted. which seems strange as that meter would still get a zero reading !!
I have to say that EON have been inconsisent and at times liberal with the truth when I have dealt with them, last year one man knocked on the door and when I told him I was with National Power he said he had access to their database and would check my gas consumption! I'm a bit scared to give me name and number to them, in case I am chased for various things and my landlord who is also a close friend is overseas, I will of course bother him (again) if I have to, the citizens advice bureau have said the meter is in your property so you have to pay them to remove it, but has anyone else got any advice as I believe EON have not really provided the correct information since 2011.

Thanks in Advance !

es5595

Your landlord will simply have closed ‘his’ account with EoN, you are responsible for opening a new one in your name. 

There will be a standing charge building up, regardless of the fact that no gas is being used. 

It has probably built up to such a debt that they are now looking to collect it. 

Gerry1

If the OP has never used any gas at any time then there is no deemed contract and no standing charge.

MWT

Gerry1 said:

If the OP has never used any gas at any time then there is no deemed contract and no standing charge.

That is true, but the OP should still have contacted E.ON to give them the readings that prove zero use so the charge can be removed...

https://www.eonenergy.com/help/billing-and-payments/standing-charge.html

Ectophile

Be very careful here.  Don't get into a situation where you admit to owing them a standing charge, or a situation where you (or your landlord) agrees to pay them to remove the gas meter.

If you have not used any gas at all since you moved in, then you do not owe any standing charge.  That's because you haven't "taken a supply" of gas.  It's an important bit of legalese, relating to the Gas Act and deemed contracts*.

If E.ON ask you or the landlord to pay money to remove the meter, tell them to take a hike.  Not your meter, not your problem.

----

*When you move into a property and turn on any gas appliance, you are automatically under a "deemed contract" with the existing supplier and must pay their bills.  But the way the law is written, if you never turn on any appliance, then you aren't under any deemed contract, and they have no legal basis to bill you anything.

The Electricity Act has very similar wording.

macman

So, there is a live supply, but you've never used it? Or, the supply has been disconnected, but the meter remains in place?
You use the term 'inactive', which is ambiguous.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Bobby_Bristol said:

I have been renting a property since March 2011, in this time I have had energy supplied via National Power, for the record, I only have electricity, no gas is used in the property.

In Feb 2011, my landlord and previous occupant, whom I've known for 20 years contacted E-On and closed down the account and was given a final bill, which was paid. 
Nothing was heard from EON until early 2014, when a series of letters addressed to the occupier was escalated to a debt collector, who came to the property, checked the meter, saw it was inactive and gave me a number to call EON, he also made a seperate call in front of me to close the account down. 
However despite assurances from EON that the account had been closed down, I have had variosu people from EON, letters and now a letter threatening to take the landlord to court if £540 is not paid in 2 weeks and that a prepaid meter will be fitted. which seems strange as that meter would still get a zero reading !!
I have to say that EON have been inconsisent and at times liberal with the truth when I have dealt with them, last year one man knocked on the door and when I told him I was with National Power he said he had access to their database and would check my gas consumption! I'm a bit scared to give me name and number to them, in case I am chased for various things and my landlord who is also a close friend is overseas, I will of course bother him (again) if I have to, the citizens advice bureau have said the meter is in your property so you have to pay them to remove it, but has anyone else got any advice as I believe EON have not really provided the correct information since 2011.

Thanks in Advance !

Thank you all and welcome to the forums Bobby_Bristol,

There are a couple of things here, first of all when you take responsibility of a property we need to open an account for you, this is where we would also ask for the opening meter reads to start the account from. There still needs to be an account open even if no gas is being used.

Depending on the specifics like macman has mentioned. It may be possible to remove the standing charge.

Your standing charge will be removed if you’re on our standard tariff, E.ON EnergyPlan or E.ON EnergyPlan with Prepayment and all of below apply to you:

• You haven't formally accepted a contract either verbally, through a telephone conversation or online.
• The E.ON EnergyPlan or E.ON EnergyPlan with Prepayment tariff was automatically applied to your account on your supply start date as you've not formally accepted a contract either verbally, through a telephone conversation or online.
• You haven't used any gas and/or electricity since you took over responsibility for the property e.g. from the date you started the account.
• You can provide readings to help us identify that you've not used any gas and/or electricity since the start date of the account.
• You can provide evidence of how long the property was empty for and what period gas and/or electricity wasn’t used for, to help us to calculate the period for which the standing charge should be removed.
• If you can provide evidence to show that you only use one type of fuel at your property you'll not have to pay a standing charge for the fuel type that you're not using. You'll still have to pay a standing charge for energy used at the property.

If you think you’re eligible to have your standing charge removed you'll need to get in touch when you receive your bill.  If your readings confirm you’ve not used any energy for that period we'll remove your standing charges and the adjustment will be shown on your bill when we've processed your request.

 There's also quite a bit more info on the website, if that would help. 

Helena