Over £7000 held in credit!

grumpyoldwoman1

Just adding fuel to the fire in the campaign against routinely overcharging vulnerable adults. My elderly relative was being charged over £400 a month for her one bedroomed sheltered accommodation. She continued to have money taken for a year after her death despite zero energy usage. The money did come back automatically, but the overcharging had obviously placed her in some financial hardship in the meantime. The company in question was Ovo. I contacted them first, out of courtesy, to ask them to put in some safety checks to prevent this from happening to other people, but have had no response to date, hence I am trying to raise awareness wherever I can to try to get these abusive practices stopped.

la531983

Sounds like multiple failures from the other side maybe.

Did anyone tell them she was vulnerable?

Was she on the Vulnerable Customers Register?

Did anyone tell them she had died?

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

My elderly relative was being charged over £400 a month for her one bedroomed sheltered accommodation.

Was she (or her carers, or her financial LPA) checking her bills and making sure that meter readings were being submitted regularly?

She continued to have money taken for a year after her death despite zero energy usage.

She was not being charged after her death; this was a matter for her estate and her executors to deal with.

Keep_pedalling

Who ever is administering the estate is doing a pretty poor job. It should not be possible for them to continue to take money from the account as the bank should have been informed of the death and all her account frozen.

Magnitio

It is pretty poor that a company continues to debit £400 a month if the account is £7,000 in credit. Surely a simple check should be in place for such circumstances.

Scot_39

A long time ago EOn (note EOn and not the newer EOn Next) used to auto refund excess credit around annual account review time.

But EOn Next - for smaller amounts in £100s not £1000s as here - they now seem to require you to request the refund - a little tick button used to appear or disappear on their online system if looked at the DD page.

I wonder if thats now common - that it now requires a customer intervention ?

But if so - I dont think that is fair - for such large amounts.

As with Ovo there is no other DD plan - no MVDD equivalent. (I am pretty sure Ovo were possibly even the first big supplier who had been offering it to then drop out of offering MVDD - and that maybe 3-4 years before the Ukraine and now Iran era energy crisis emerged. (Note some have never offered the monthly variant).

Possibly EOn NExt will eventually bring option of MVDD back to their c3.5-4m customers when / if harmonise account systems

tlcgrantham

I’m with Eon next and pay by MVDD. You have to ask for it.

Scot_39

Yes, was aware, but on a low fixed income monthly variable isn't always the best.

I just like knowing my monthly income and outgoings month to month in advance.

I was only saying that the OPs mum wouldn't have had the option at Ovo.

dunstonh

She continued to have money taken for a year after her death despite zero energy usage.

You really need to contact the executor of the estate, as they don't seem to be doing their job. If you are paying a firm to do this, then you may wish to consider complaining or checking everything they do carefully. If its a family member or friend, then they may be out of their depth and not understand their duties.

Firms are only as good as the information they are given. So, its easy to blame the firm but what were the family members doing to help? or any other support workers?

Bigphil1474

The original post was clear that the money was returned eventually. It's easy to blame the firm, because it's their fault. Why do they need a credit balance of £7k even if the £400 a month was accurate. It's still 18 months worth of energy.

If the executor is a family member, then checking all the utilities could easily have been missed off their list of jobs to do, but that's no excuse for any company to be charging £400 a month for someone who is 7k in credit. It shouldn't happen. My dad was £700 in credit a few years before his death with his water bill, and his quarterly bill was only about £30, so they stopped billing him for about 4 years, and we still got a refund after his death. My dad was with BG for energy at the time and their bereavement team were spot on dealing with his accounts. OVO absolutely should have systems in place to prevent this.

QrizB

Why do they need a credit balance of £7k even if the £400 a month was accurate. It's still 18 months worth of energy.

Energy companies typically review DDs annually. The DD review is based on the amount of energy used in the previous 12 months, which is in turn based on the meter readings supplied.

If the OP's mother was using £400pm of energy (she was providing accurate meter readings) then her latest review before her death would have left the DD alone. If meter readings then stopped, the energy company will have continued to bill on the same basis using estimated readings.

If the executor is a family member, then checking all the utilities could easily have been missed off their list of jobs to do, but that's no excuse for any company to be charging £400 a month for someone who is 7k in credit.

During the 12 months between her death and someone taking responsibility, £400pm is £4800. So roughly £5k of the £7k credit is entirely the fault of the executors / administrators. And the energy company didn't realise the account was £7k in credit until those same persons submitted an accurate meter reading.