Utility company / Energy

MillieWlo

Hi all,

 

I have a problem with my energy supplier/agent so hope you will be able to help.

 

 

I will try to be as clear as possible but the story is a bit complicated so please bear with me.

 

So I moved in to apartment end of November, 2021.

My contract stated  I have to contact some utility company to deal with my bills.

I tried to ring that company but there was no answer so I thought I will sort my utilities once ive moved in.

When I moved in I did not have electricity in my flat and agency said I was supposed to sort out my utilities earlier. They said there is nothing they can do. I did not expect a complete energy cut off= I rang 105, they told me Utilita is the provider. Then  rang Utilita who told me the flat was deenergized.

Going around in circles, I was finally able get hold off the person from utility company who said my flat is on prepayment. Something no one told me- when renting before I was always provided with key or card to top up but agency told me its not them being responsible for the meters.

Utility company who is responsible for meters in our apartments gave me meter number ( top up via METER PAY) and I was topping up not thinking of it until few days ago when I was not being able to top up.

I managed to contact the utility company responsible for the meters and I was told my account was moved to credit. That’s it. Nothing else. Can they even do that without consulting?

I asked more questions, no answer. This company Is just not reachable. In fact, I don’t even know if they exsist. I asked how come  I was moved, what are the meter reading, is my balance of 90£ I had on my prepayment meter will be included in my balance etc. Nothing.

 

  2 days ago agency reached out following probably a lot of complaints from tenants to change the supplier ASAP.

BUT this company is not a supplier. They are agent. I have no clue how this works at this point.

Calling any big energy provider I am being told they cannot do anything or get me on board as I cannot give them any details- I have no meter numbers, I don’t know my energy usage, I know nothing basically. I have no account details. Its been going on for months now, I have been trying to sort it out but I just cannot.

It is a weird one. I am afraid I will either be hit with some massive bill out of blue or energy will be cut off.

How do I even go about changing my supplier if I dont know who my supplier is?

Can i just go to energy provider and ask them to install their meters and just go from there?

 

Where should I go with it? Agency, who is a landlord and owns the building is telling us to deal with It ourselves…

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

You, as the tenant, have a contract with your energy company, Utilita, for the supply of energy.

This is entirely separate from your tenancy agreement, and is nothing to do with the letting agency and landlord.

You need to contact Utilita and sort this out with them.

Gerry1

If you don't pay the landlord for the electricity you use then you pay your energy supplier directly, just like everyone else does.  You should never use a card or key used by a previous tenant because it may have debt on it.  You should always contact your energy supplier to get a new card or key in your name.

You can find out your supplier is via a two stage process.  Firstly, you find out who is your DNO (Distribution Network Operator).  You then contact your DNO and they will tell you who your electricity supplier is, e.g. Utilita.

This site explains the process.  Find My Electricity Supplier

You can use the pre-payment meter on the wall to find out some useful information, including whether any debt is being reclaimed.  You scroll through various 'pages' each of which has a code letter.  For some pages, you have to insert the key to see the result.

These two sites explain the idea.

https://www.edfenergy.com/for-home/help-centre/faq/what-does-my-electricity-prepayment-meter-display-tell-me

https://www.eonenergy.com/prepayment/understanding-electricity.html

Once you are sure who is your supplier you can then contact them directly.

Make sure you read the meter on the wall each month, send them the readings (unless it's a non-dumb smart meter), make sure the bills show actual meter readings not estimates and keep your own records.

Don't forget to come back and tell us how things went !