Summons for a bill I never had an account for - need urgent help

louspoon

I have been chased by NPower for the last four years for a bill that they say I owe. I have ignored it as I have never had account with them ever.

When I arrived into my property, I went with Bulb, who have now gone bust. I entered a contract with Bulb and remained customer just before they went into administration. I’ve never had an NPower account and I have never signed any paperwork or anything anything online to say that I would be a customer.

I don’t know how they’ve got my details, but they say that I owe them £395. I’m now getting nasty grams from NPower Solicitors saying that they are arranging collection. I really don’t know what to do because I’ve never had an account with NPower.

la531983

When you arrived into your property did you register with the INCUMBENT provider in your property at the time?

If not, that was your fatal mistake. I bet it was NPower. You dont need to sign anything, when you move into a property and turn as much as a light on you are in a deemed contract with whoever is providing energy to that property at the time (usually whoever the previous occupants were with)

user1977

la531983 said:

You dont need to sign anything, when you move into a property and turn as much as a light on you are in a deemed contract 

You don't need to turn anything on, you're on the deemed contract as soon as you become the occupier.

la531983

user1977 said:

la531983 said:

You dont need to sign anything, when you move into a property and turn as much as a light on you are in a deemed contract 

You don't need to turn anything on, you're on the deemed contract as soon as you become the occupier.

Well yes, I was just trying to illustrate how the system worked with a lovely example lol.

louspoon

.la531983 said:

When you arrived into your property did you register with the INCUMBENT provider in your property at the time?

I genuinely can't remember. I have moved a few times before that this is the first time this has ever happened.

jlfrs01

Who are NPower addressing their letters to because if you've never dealt with them or had an account, then presumably the person they're chasing is the previous owner/occupier? If the property was with NPower and you went Bulb upon moving in, then they would have initiated a supply transfer and the previous account holder should have been billed for any outstanding balance. 

louspoon

jlfrs01 said:

Who are NPower addressing their letters to because if you've never dealt with them or had an account, then presumably the person they're chasing is the previous owner/occupier? 

They are addressing them to me, I'm not sure how they got my details.

TELLIT01

Ignoring attempted contact from a utility company is not a good idea, as the OP has discovered.  Had they contacted NPower when they received the first letter this would probably have been resolved very quickly.

TheMilkmansDad

Have you actually seen the NPower bill? As above, I suspect the supplier when you moved in was NPower and you should have registered with them before initiating the switch.

You need to look at both the NPower bill (when you get it) and compare to your opening bill from Bulb - what are the dates and meter readings on these 2 bills?

ArbitraryRandom

As @la531983 has explained, as soon as you took responsibility for the property (even before you moved in) you took over the existing supply agreement with the current supplier (in this case nPower) - so you are incorrect that you never had a contract with them.

This would mean you would be responsible for any use of energy between taking ownership and your switch to bulb being complete - plus the daily standing charge. If you started a switch as soon as you moved in, then this may only be a week or two of energy... so a relatively small amount... until any charges and costs have been added due to you ignoring the debt for years. 

I suggest you respond to the most recent letter, find out how much you owe, come over to the energy board if you think they're estimating a high amount or double counting usage that you already paid bulb for (complicated by what's happened with bulb since), and arrange a payment plan before you end up with the additional costs of debt collection or a CCJ... 

sheramber

Does it not take 2 weeks to change supplier?

If so, you would have a charge for the supply until it was changed over.

if you are renting your landlord could have given them your details

You need to contact Npower and fnd out what period the bill covers before you can do anthing else.