Utility Warehouse - demanding money back from a closed account - why?

Stephio21

Hi,
I unwittingly had to become a UW customer in order to change to my own providers - as UW were the last tenants providers... six months later this matter was solved after many threatening letters from UW about unpaid bills - even though I was paying my own providers. 
UW finally closed my account - which was in credit - sent me a cheque and I hoped it was the last I'd hear from them. Unfortunately, 3 months later they are now demanding more money from me as the mis-calculated the final bill amount as it included the government handouts. They want to reverse these payments (3 nos.) and expect me to pay it - is this fair? Equally, the amount they are demanding is more than the original final bill (£210 vs. £187)
Can someone please advise what I should do - as they are threatening to call in the debt collectors, I'm currently off work with a broken leg and getting really stressed out by these constant demands.

Neil_Jones

When you move into a property you become a deemed customer of whoever's providing the gas/electric biling wise, in this case Utility Warehouse.

You cannot transfer (as I understand it) an energy company from one property to another just because you're moving.  If you were with (for argument's sake) British Gas when you lived at 221B Baker Street, and you moved to 17 Cherry Tree Lane, you would have to sign up with BG again.

In the meantime you'd be with UW for six weeks.  And you would have to pay for the energy you used in that six weeks (or longer if you stayed with UW until you could get somebody else to take over the supply)

Are you saying you were disputing the energy costs you had to pay when you were "unwittingly" a UW customer?

CSI_Yorkshire

Stephio21 said:

They want to reverse these payments (3 nos.) and expect me to pay it - is this fair? 

Were you entitled to them or not?

Fighter1986

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Stephio21 said:

They want to reverse these payments (3 nos.) and expect me to pay it - is this fair? 

Were you entitled to them or not?

Everyone was.

Did you receive the cost of living help payments through both UW and your other provider at the same time?

If there was overlap in billing then one provider is indeed entitled to their cost of living payments back.

As regard the bill totals, all that matters is the readings on the bills, do they marry up with the reading you took when you moved in, and the reading you gave your new supplier when you switched?

CSI_Yorkshire

Fighter1986 said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Stephio21 said:

They want to reverse these payments (3 nos.) and expect me to pay it - is this fair? 

Were you entitled to them or not?

Everyone was.

Everyone with an active electricity account on the first of a month was.

If the OP only actually had the account for a couple of weeks, then of course they wouldn't be entitled to three months of payments.

The payments might have actually been the previous tenant's.

It needs clarification, particularly as it appears to be one of the OP's main concerns.

Mobtr

From what I understand from the original post, UW was billing the property eventhough the OP had changed supplier & was now paying the new supplier for the same period of time, UW hadn’t closed the account down. 

If this is the case then UW would have been adding the EBSS money to the account on 1st of each month, as would the new supplier. 

When UW closed the account a final bill would have been produced backdated to the date of the changeover, however, the EBSS was still on the account. As the OP was not entitled to it, it has now been removed and the account rebilled. 

As long as the meter reads match then the bill will be correct & will need paying. 

Could by that the refund originally given was more than the OP had originally paid to UW, if indeed they had paid anything, but looks like they didn’t query it at the time 

[Deleted User]

Under its Licence Conditions, a supplier is allowed to re-issue a Final Bill when new information comes light. It can then follow the normal legal debt recovery procedures. Clearly, if the OP disputes the debt he can ask the supplier to ‘prove it’. There are many template letters online.