Eon demanding money from an address I no longer live at

holwills12

Can anyone help with this one…. I moved from my old flat on the 28th of November 2021, somehow, after reporting I had moved and my energy provider is with Eon at my new house. Eon have sent me a bill for over 3K for the old property and have now taken it to their legal team. I rang the generic line and someone told me not to worry and send proof I have moved, which I did, and now I have been sent to the legal team. It doesn’t make sense how they have decided to send a bill 2 years later… if I want making payments why not reach out before then. I do feel this is a scam and something is not right. 

GrumpyDil

It's not clear but did you notify EON you had moved out when you moved and gave them a final and accurate setof meter readings? 

holwills12

Hello.
yea so we told Eon a change of address, so we kept Eon and moved to another property on the same street. My husband notified them on the readings etc but now 2 years later we are getting letters that the account is still active. It’s only in my name too but years ago we had a joint account so it’s worrying how it’s only in my name. 

Mark_d

So you moved out of a flat in Nov 2021.  Were you still responsible for the flat after this date?  Did the tenancy end on this date, or did sale of the property complete on this date?

Assuming you are no longer responsible for this old flat, were you providing accurate meter reads whilst you were there?  What did the final bill say when you provided your final meter read on leaving the property?  If the final bill was not based on an accurate meter reading then the amount could be revised when EON sent their own meter reader to the property.

What does the £3k bill say?  What period does it relate to?  If you were paying for all your energy usage whilst responsible for the flat, what does this bill say that you owe the money for?

TheElectricCow

Start with the basics - Is the bill for usage at the time you were living at the property or are they trying to bill for a period after you moved out? Secondly, what are they actually asking you to pay for i.e. what readings are they basing this new bill off and do these correlate to any readings you previously provided?

dunstonh

It is important to use the right words and not leave ambiguity. 

Is the bill for usage after the date you ceased being responsible or is it for unpaid use whilst you were responsible?
Did you give a meter reading when you left the property? (telling them you have moved out is not enough.  You need to give a reading)
How have EON described this £3k bill? (i.e. how is it broken down)

 I do feel this is a scam and something is not right. 

it doesn't sound like a scam.  What makes you think it is?

It could be that you failed to give a reading when you left the property and the new people responsible gave a reading when they became responsible.  They may have given a wrong reading or a false one. 
You may have been in arrears or had a wrong estimate value used (estimates are never right) and when the new people gave their reading, Eon then correct what you owe.

This is why detail is so very important.   You just saying you moved out is not enough.

Robin9

£3k is quite a lot of money and suggests to me more than a few months of usage. As above is this for a period before you moved out (or rather when your lease finished, when the landlord should have taken over) or for the period after ?

Alnat1

You say you gave Eon a "change of address".

Did you say - we are moving out of the property so please close the account, here are the final meter readings? Or did you say - please bill us at this new address from now on?

If the second, Eon may have assumed you were still responsible for the previous address but needed correspondence to go to a different address.

When you move you should close the account at that property, register with the company who is already providing energy to the new property and then switch the account to your company of choice. The account is attached to the property, not the person, it doesn't move with you.

Robin9

@holwills12    Have you been receiving bills -  accurate or estimated for your present property as well as your previous one or is the £3K the only one you have had since you moved out?  ?

wild666

When I moved out of a property in late 2010 I closed the account and gave meter readings  but 36 months later the supplier, BG, sent a bill for £750 for about 14 months usage after I moved out. Luckily I still had copies of the final readings and the date I moved out and closed the account plus I had a recording of the conversation with the CS team so I sent them the copies at first they wouldn't accept that I moved out on the date indicated so I told them to send me a letter of deadlock and I would go to the ombudsman, they never sent an email or letter so I went to the CEO and that stopped it as I included the same info that I sent to the CS team as a complaint.