Final bill on prepayment meter

jemz

I hope someone can advise. At my previous property I had a prepayment meter with SSE for electric. I moved out at the end of March and updated them and topped up the meter just before I left to make sure there was enough to cover me. 

I’ve just received a letter from them saying I owe £235! I’ve rang and they say it’s because of the daily standin charge that had accumulated since mid February and that I wasn’t topping up enough to cover it. I don’t understand how that can happen? I was topping up regularly so as far as I was concerned any daily standing charges would have been taken off the credit that I was putting on. 

I don’t have a spare £235 to be able to pay this and to be honest I don’t understand why I should have to pay it. The whole idea of having a key meter was to make sure I didn’t get a bill. 

Any help? 

Mstty

Did you get a photo at the end of March showing a credit or debit on the meter?

You should always get a final figure when moving out.

Worth checking your move out date is set right with them for starters.

MWT

jemz said:

..I’ve rang and they say it’s because of the daily standin charge that had accumulated since mid February and that I wasn’t topping up enough to cover it. I don’t understand how that can happen? I was topping up regularly so as far as I was concerned any daily standing charges would have been taken off the credit that I was putting on.

Do you recall how much you were topping up each time? ... and were you perhaps making regular use of the emergency credit around that time as well?

If you use the emergency credit the standing charges are not collected until the next top-up that is sufficient to reset the emergency credit availability... ... but... even if this was the case it is hard to see how you could run up a bill for £235 over about 45 days...

I would suggest asking them for a detail, printed, statement showing how and when that £235 has built up.

jemz

I didn’t take a final reading as it was prepay I didn’t think I needed to as long as I left it in credit. 

I normally topped up between £20-£50 at a time except the last one which was £5 just to cover the last few days whilst it was empty. I did use the emergency credit quite often but that would only be for a day at a time as it didn’t last long. 

They are getting someone to call me back so I’ll ask for a breakdown then. It seems ridiculous that they can create such a bill without letting me know until after I moved out! 

MWT

jemz said:

They are getting someone to call me back so I’ll ask for a breakdown then. It seems ridiculous that they can create such a bill without letting me know until after I moved out! 

After you move out is the only time they would have a reason to create the bill as it would sort itself out with normal use if you were still  there... ... but it still feels like something is wrong with their numbers as it can't just be standing charges and if you were topping up with £20-50 at a time that would have been plenty to cover any accumulated charges from emergency credit use.

SAC2334

All details are there to see on the prepayment meter screens. The supplier can also see them from the last top up as they are electronically sent through.

Pressing the blue button and scrolling through to screen  E , ( screen H is also used for this info with some suppliers )  will show the total credit applied since the meter was reset for a new occupier .Every top up is recorded on this screen 
Screen G  will show the total kwh s ( the reading ) since the meter was installed.

Did you not inform the supplier that you were vacating the premises.? If not, the next tenant may not have registered with them neither and supplier would not be aware 

The first screen which shows on pressing the blue button is screen A .This one shows the credit or debit .If no tops have been made the standing charge will build up and the screen will show "debt /owed " against the ammount on the screen .

£235 debt on standing charge build up  equates to not far off 3 years ( £80 a year ) of either the property being vacant or the prepayment meter being tampered which in some area s was a very common thing to find or the meter having a fault .

jemz

The last day of my tenancy there was 27/3 and I’d notified them about a week or two before that I was moving out. I’d lived there for about 4 years and I doubt there was any tampering with the machine before I moved in as it was a housing association property. I’m not aware of any faults on it either. 

If it works out at £80 a year in standing charges then surely they should have notified me of this during that time? But the woman I spoke to on the phone said it was from 16th Feb. I can’t understand how they can even come up with this figure (or any figure!) when I was topping up regularly. 

I hope someone calls me back this week and says it’s a mistake! 

Xbigman

Have the people who moved in after you set their account up properly? When you get a call back check all the dates carefully.



Darren

jemz

Update, I've had a call today and they are saying that approx £183 of the bill is from a bill before the prepayment meter was installed (I remember them clearly telling me that it would be added to the meter to pay off) and that £52 is from standing charges that were not taken off whilst using emergency credit. 

The meter was installed in 2018 and I never had any contact about the bill until I've moved out. So if I'd stayed there for another 10/20 years I wouldn't have heard anything about it and clearly wouldn't have heard about the standing charge supposedly adding up, despite regular top ups! 

It took having to go through CAB to get them to call me as they clearly ignored my messages. 

The person who called is going to look into it further but I can't see how what they've said is fair

Mstty

@jemz why was the prepayment meter fitted in 2018. Was this due to a debt?

jemz

Mstty said:

@jemz why was the prepayment meter fitted in 2018. Was this due to a debt?

No, I moved into the property in 2018 and it was fitted with really old storage heaters. I know how expensive they can be so asked for a prepayment meter so I could keep on top of what I was spending. In the time it took for them to install the meter is when I supposedly accrued the £183 but they said they would add it to the meter and I heard nothing more about it after that