Receiving demanding letters from previous owners energy supplier?

rainbow_fountains

Reed_Richards said:

When I bought my new house I did not immediately sell the old one.  So I had two sets of energy suppliers.  Obviously I told the supplier for my old house my new address.  But this supplier continued to bill me for the old house, correctly in my case.  I think the OP (@rainbow_fountains) is probably in the same situation, their old supplier knows their new address but are still billing them for the old one. 

So we actually contacted our supplier ahead of time (a month in advance), which is apparently not the way to do things but we didn’t know, we let them know back in February that we would be moving in on 13th March. The flat we moved out of is actually now empty, so shouldn’t be using energy at all (no central heating, no radiators and no gas). I wondered if our online bills say our new/current address but are actually billing for the old place like you said, but I’d expect the bill to be very tiny if that was the case, but it isn’t.

Anyway, ecotricity have the meter readings now and are sending us a final bill so all
we can do is wait

rainbow_fountains

bsms1147 said:

When did you apply to switch (I say switch, as what you’ve done is switch the supply at your new property to your chosen supplier, rather than ‘take it with you’, which isn’t possible. Your old supplier will continue supplying your
old address, just someone else will be responsible for it).

However, you may have been lucky with this one.

Did you start the switch a few days/a week or so before you move? There’s a statutory minimum timeframe between a switch application and it going through, something around 16-21 days. If you instigated the switch not long before move-in, and the losing supplier were on the ball, they may have had sufficient time/info at their end to know that you (or ‘someone’) would be responsible between 13th (at move in) and the end of the minimum switch period, the 26th.

If something like this has happened then you were a customer with them for those ~2 weeks, before your new supplier (who supplied you at your old address) gained your address.

The advice is always to register with the current supplier, then wait (ideally until you have access to your account details with them, eg an online account), then you can switch to whoever you want. It’s unfortunate that it isn’t made more clear.

We applied to switch a month before we moved in, purely by accident (we were moving broadband and everything else so did energy at the same time). In our welcome email from our supplier they mentioned something about 6-8 weeks to deal with the current supplier, so maybe that’s what this overlap is.

MWT

rainbow_fountains said:

We applied to switch a month before we moved in,...

You can't actually do that, but some suppliers in an effort to keep you as a customer try to work around the actual switching system and disguise what they are doing.

They will register with the deemed supplier on the day you move in to take responsibility for your new address themselves then immediately switch the supply from the deemed supplier to themselves.

If it all works then you see nothing other than a bill from your chosen supplier from the day you moved in.

However it doesn't always go smoothly and then you end up in the position you are in...

It would be a lot more helpful if your supplier just explained what you needed to do to properly switch to them, but there is the risk that you would find a cheaper supplier than them and not switch, so they try to hide the correct process from you...

rainbow_fountains

MWT said:

rainbow_fountains said:

We applied to switch a month before we moved in,...

You can't actually do that, but some suppliers in an effort to keep you as a customer try to work around the actual switching system and disguise what they are doing.

They will register with the deemed supplier on the day you move in to take responsibility for your new address themselves then immediately switch the supply from the deemed supplier to themselves.

If it all works then you see nothing other than a bill from your chosen supplier from the day you moved in.

However it doesn't always go smoothly and then you end up in the position you are in...

It would be a lot more helpful if your supplier just explained what you needed to do to properly switch to them, but there is the risk that you would find a cheaper supplier than them and not switch, so they try to hide the correct process from you...

Thanks that sounds like it, we’re waiting for the final bill now, hopefully it won’t be too much 

Reed_Richards

rainbow_fountains said:
The flat we moved out of is actually now empty, so shouldn’t be using energy at all (no central heating, no radiators and no gas). I wondered if our online bills say our new/current address but are actually billing for the old place like you said, but I’d expect the bill to be very tiny if that was the case, but it isn’t.

Your bills would be tiny if you had smart meters (that work) or if the ghost who now lives in your old flat is supplying meter readings.  Otherwise the bills will be derived from estimates based on your past rate of consumption.  

Anyanka1

OP, I cannot believe no-one has yet posted this link:    I suggest you use it.  The advice you have received is correct:  Like it or not, energy companies have new occupants by the you-know-whats.

You have to accept whoever the incumbent supplier(s) is/are when you move in and, ideally, set up account(s) with them ASAP giving them actual meter readings.  Clearly that ship has sailed so you will have to make do with estimated readings.  As soon as you have set up energy account(s) depending on whether you have one or two suppliers for gas and electricity, you are free to switch but you would be wise to provide both the inherited supplier and that of your choice with meter readings as soon as you are advised the switch is happening.

niktheguru

Op you need to look at the bills from your current supplier. Who are you actually with?
Look at the latest bill. Check the dates it says it is covering, check the meter numbers on the bill and ensure its the same as the meter numbers in the house. That way you will know they are billing you correctly.

Checking dates are key here. You shouldnt be billed for the same energy twice, but sometimes with this mess it happens.

You should only be paying ecotricity for usage abd standing charges from the date you OWNED the property (I.e. exchanged contracts and completed......not the date you eventually move in) to the date your new company took over supply (assuming they actually did)

Ensure you have meter readings for these key dates.

Make sure you have online accounts for  oth companies so you can access your bills ASAP and check.

getmore4less

rainbow_fountains said:

We recently bought our first home, we stuck with our existing energy suppliers from when we rented and just moved them over to our new address.

We started getting letters from the previous owner’s energy supplier Ecotricity (addressed ‘to the occupier’ but with an account number), at first they were welcoming us to our new home and informing they used to supply energy to the previous owner, give them a call to set up our account with them etc. So clearly they know the previous owner moved out and I assume that’s all settled up as we haven’t received a bill or anything.

We received a couple of these friendly letters and just ignored them, but today we got another one with a very different tone saying that we ‘must call them’ or else we’ll be moved onto their emergency tariff.

We have no contract with them, they don’t even know our names, they have acknowledged that their ex customer (previous owner) has moved out. Are they just trying it on? Scaring us to get us to sign up with them? Or do we actually owe them something?

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Hasbeen

getmore4less said:

rainbow_fountains said:

We recently bought our first home, we stuck with our existing energy suppliers from when we rented and just moved them over to our new address.

We started getting letters from the previous owner’s energy supplier Ecotricity (addressed ‘to the occupier’ but with an account number), at first they were welcoming us to our new home and informing they used to supply energy to the previous owner, give them a call to set up our account with them etc. So clearly they know the previous owner moved out and I assume that’s all settled up as we haven’t received a bill or anything.

We received a couple of these friendly letters and just ignored them, but today we got another one with a very different tone saying that we ‘must call them’ or else we’ll be moved onto their emergency tariff.

We have no contract with them, they don’t even know our names, they have acknowledged that their ex customer (previous owner) has moved out. Are they just trying it on? Scaring us to get us to sign up with them? Or do we actually owe them something?

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Is above? Because OP does not appear to understand forum etiquette and deletes their opening posts when resolved?

Thus not helping any other posters faced with a similar situation?

But it is still their prerogative to do so if they wish.