EON - Death of account holder

waynerockett

My mother passed away recently.  She didn't leave a will, didn't own a house, only had a small amount of savings.

As the next of kin and only child I've been dealing with her affairs.  All has gone smoothly until EON.

Now, I should first explain that I'm probably not handling this well, I'm not referring to my mother's passing, but my dealings with EON.  I'd left EON until last as it was a touchy subject.  On her last day, she was very nattered about EON, she'd misunderstood a bill from them and thought the amount she was in credit was the amount she owed, and massively overpaid.

Anyway, I contacted EON about closing her account, choosing to phone rather than do it online.  The first words from the advisor were "oh and you're only telling us about it now", actually I was telling them the day after getting the death cert (which they required so I could only have done it one day earlier at best) and also the day after her house was returned to the council.  The advisor said to just do it online instead.  So I sent all the details.

They refused.  Unless I can provide a will which doesn't exist or a copy of probate.  I've not needed to go through probate, due to her having an estate of less than £30,000.  EON even linked to the government website helpfully telling me how to apply for probate, but ignored the fact that the link they provided also states that probate isn't required in this case.

I've had no issue with anyone else closing down other accounts.

There is an element of me that says, just leave the money with them, it isn't worth the hassle, and another part of me that thinks sure, pay for probate and get the money off them. 

However, a huge part of me thinks, hang on, there must be a lot of people who have a family member die, and are struggling financially that could really do with that money back from EON straight away rather than having to pay for probate and wait 16 weeks.  So I partly feel I need to argue the point for them.

I did do a bit of a cheeky, and contacted EON saying that my father had passed and that I believe he owed them money, and what was the process.  Guess what, they said they didn't require a will or probate to prove I was the executor in that case.

In slightly related news, whilst my mother was a customer of EON, it transpired that they were emailing account statements out to an email address (not hers, she never had one), but somehow they had added an email address to her account of someone with a similar name.  So again, they didn't seem too bothered then about proving who they were talking to.

So my question is, has anyone else had this issue when dealing with EON, what was the path you took and what was the outcome?

Brie

is it eon or eon next?  have you tried unhappy@eonnext.com which seems to be the same no matter what.

or have you tried via: Bereavement support for energy customers | E.ON Next  (eonnext.com)

waynerockett

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not after help in following the process, it is a simple process (or always has been with other energy companies), I'm after if anyone else has had this specific situation with EON where they want probate for an estate that probate isn't required for.  It seems the only reason they want probate is so that they can sell you their legal partners probate service.

Swipe

Try posting on the MSE bereavement board. Someone there will be able to advise.

Jyana

I went through Eon for a parent's account after they passed around six years ago. We did have to go through probate for it, but as far as I can remember we didn't have to send that to Eon at all, all they wanted was a copy of the Death Certificate.

I only dealt with the Breavement Team at Eon who were great, we had the property running on minimal usage for a little while as we were selling it, so slightly different circumstances. Maybe they have changed things over the last six years, but I can't why they would insist on probate if it's not personally required, are you dealing with the BT directly?

waynerockett

Thanks @Jyana that is the kind of thing I wanted.

That is all I expected to have to do too, but even with a death certificate they won't close the account, and the bereavement team now seems to now just be a team that tries to sell you probate services.

stripling

waynerockett said:

Thanks @Jyana that is the kind of thing I wanted.

That is all I expected to have to do too, but even with a death certificate they won't close the account, and the bereavement team now seems to now just be a team that tries to sell you probate services.

I'm so sorry you are having to deal with this.
I didn't even need death certificates for any of my mother' utilities but I had Power of Attorney so maybe that had an impact - although I never used it for most of them. 
I would contact Age UK's helpline. You should be getting this money back and once they've seen the death certificate they shouldn't be making you jump through hoops.