Shell Energy Owned Money but Why?

piperm87

Hi all,

Sorry in advance for the long read.

We moved into our newly purchased property 30th October 2020. The previous owner had passed away and had no family so all his estate went to his accountants to divide as per his will, this went through probate which took 2 years to sort out, to which the house was empty. We managed to strike a deal with the accountants before it went on the market and got it at a decent price.

Shortly before we moved i got a deal with British Gas to supply our energy, i misread the email at the time as the deal didn't actually start untill 18th November 2020 so unknowingly to me for the first part of the month we were been supplied by Shell. Now, I've had no contact at all from them in the past 12 months to say we owe them any money but Saturday last week i got a letter from their debt collectors requesting our details and meter readings from when we moved along with serial numbers. I promptly contacted Shell Energy to find out what was going on - According to them there is a outstanding balance of £536 on the account and they want their money! Now, I don't have a problem with paying them for the usage between 30th October and 18th November as its fair enough but £536 is a little bit steep for 2 and abit weeks usage.

I've contacted them and explained the situation but unfortunately they require meter readings from when we first moved in - for some reason i provided these to British Gas over the App but the electric one hasn't saved and thus they estimated it, so they aren't good enough so they came back requesting 2 meter readings over a 7 day period so they can estimate it off that, they have also asked for proof of my meter serial numbers so verify that they are the same meters as when we moved but we had those changed to smart meters 6 months ago as part of the BG deal.

I'm also concerned that the accountants who had sold to us came and got the meter readings for them on the day of moving and haven't handed them in and also that British Gas didn't make Shell aware of us changing supplies at the beginning of our term even though they were that shell were the out going energy supplier and thus 2 companies have been supplying us with energy over the past 12 months.

Has anyone had a similar issue to this before and if so how did it go in the end? Ive never been in a situation like this and i am finding it rather stressful at the minute, i want to try and make sure i can handle it professional and in the right way and it will help if i know what to expect  

Many thanks

Matt Piper.

[Deleted User]

A hard lesson to learn but ALL properties have a deemed supplier UNLESS the supplies have been capped. The moment you started using energy you were in a deemed contract with Shell. You should have contacted SHELL with your details and meter readings.You were then free to switch.

Presumably, you still have access to your BG online accounts? If not, you could raise a Subject Access Request against BG asking for the opening and closing meter readings for the old meter. You would then need to provide Shell with this information along with proof that you only became responsible for the property on a given date. It might be worth asking the seller whether they have the information that you need. 

Best of luck.

* the Deemed Supplier is the supplier that was on the National Database at the time that the property changed ownership.

Xbigman

Your opening reading should be on the first bill you had from BG.


Darren

piperm87

Thank you, Yes i completely hold my hands up to making the mistake - Only second time i have moved home and just went about it the same as when i moved last time as i had no issues then. It was just a different scenario as we purchased off other home owners first time who were moving into a new property, this time they were accountants who were just looking at off loading an asset, they were half soaked to be honest and i should of taken this as a prompt to cover my own backside but the stresses of moving and getting settled in where a little over whelming at the time especially as we had problems with the house from the first day which i had to sort out - this is not an excuse mind.

They have asked me to provide them with meter readings over a 7 day period to see what we are using and I'm guessing (hoping) the will charge us accordingly for what we owe, then they will raise a dispute with BG over whats outstanding, so long as they provide me with a charge for the usage between those dates and aslong as its reasonable I'll be happy to just pay it to get the cloud from over my head. Annoyingly the opening meter reads aren't available online for some reason and the opening meter read for the electric is an estimating - this has really got my back up as i know i submitted them at the beginning via the app and i know they were saved but i never recorded this as i wasn't expecting any come backs.

Never Moving House Again!!