Bereavement leaving YGP

cottonballs

Hi All, my mum recently passed away and we are trying to cancel her account with YGP and they are making things really difficult 😩 She was conned into a business account even though she barely earn’t anything and was paying over £300 a month to them. Now they are telling us we have to change the tenancy? And take responsibility for her account. My brother lives at the property and owns the house so we are confused by the tenancy term. And there is no business there now. He tried to open an account with a new supplier in his name and YGP blocked it. Can anyone advise please?

Robin9

As a small business it is now possible , under new OFGEM rules,  to transfer to another business supplier - once you are out of contact or near the end of a contract -,  in the same way as a domestic supplier can - YGP cannot block it on the basis of contract but was you mum a) in a fixed contract or b) in debt to YGP

You need to transfer to someone like BG , Edf, Eon who has both business and domestic customers

cottonballs

Hi Robin9 thanks for replying. We don’t actually know as we don’t have any paperwork and YGP haven’t provided us with any statements. All we know is that she had a monthly direct debit of £350 on a commercial contract and was only using domestic amounts of power never turning the thermostat above 19 degrees in a small terraced house! So if she is in debt the tariff they put her on must have been insane! My brother tried switching to Octopus which from what I can gather is a company that have business customers too but this was blocked

PRAISETHESUN

When switching suppliers, typically you contact the new supplier and sign up to them, and then they will coordinate the switch with your existing supplier. If your current supplier isn't playing ball then this approach might force them to. Not 100% sure how business supplies work, but from the comments above it sounds like it should work similarly to domestic supplies, so this might be worth a shot.

Robin9

Received this from my business supplier - TotalEnergies - 

From 19th December 2024 the Government, in conjunction with Ofgem, are extending the redress scheme and services provided by Citizens Advice, Citizens Advice Scotland and the Energy Ombudsman to include a new category of customers; Small Business Consumers. At present, these services have only been available for domestic and Micro-Business Consumers.

About to take them to task over missed metering engineer appointment !

cottonballs

thanks Praisethesun we did try this initially with Octopus but then they got back to us and said YGP had blocked the switch. My poor mum had been with them 4 years it turns out while they extorted money from an old lady and that’s not enough for them. Now they are sending threatening emails demanding money even though my bro has told them she’s died and given meter readings. Her contract was due to end this month, but they have another outrageous trick move in place to trap people. The account has to be terminated 3 months before the end otherwise it automatically renews for another long term and they say you can’t leave then! I doubt many people would realise this before it’s too late which is what they are banking on. This company needs to be stopped. 

Robin9

cottonballs said:

............................. The account has to be terminated 3 months before the end otherwise it automatically renews for another long term and they say you can’t leave then! ...............

No it doesn't  see my post re latest Ofgem 

Have you a formal complaint with YGP ? 

Contact Ofgem via their website.

cottonballs

After reading your post we informed YGP that my Mum’s business was small and no longer trading and to send a final bill but they have ignored our correspondence and keep sending threats instead. Will try ofgem 

Robin9

Have you followed YGP's complaints procedure ?

cottonballs

No not completely. We’ve now done that using the citizens advice template thankyou. Hopefully they will respond now 🤞

silvercar

If it’s a residential property, you need to check she has been charged only 5% VAT not the 20% charged to businesses and also is exempt from the CCL.