Written by John Kruse, one of the leading experts on Bailiff Law, this consumer friendly guide is essential reading for anyone who comes into contact with a bailiff.
The book is easy to understand and clearly explains the rights
a bailiff has, and also what they cannot do when collecting debts and repossessing goods etc.
I am in the process of buying a house that was repossessed. We have no knowledge of the previous suppliers for Gas, Electricity or Water. there is also a prepaid electricity meter fitted, but according to the surveyor, not for the gas. He cannot find a water meter fitted either. How do I go about getting the services reinstated, as the electricity has been disconnected at the mains, most likely by the repossession company. We have a perfect record of payment for the current property, but I am moving out whilst others will remain. I want a standard electricity meter fitted immediately and before I move in as I am not prepared to pay the extortionate prices they charge and can easily pay by direct debit. Would also prefer to have a water meter fitted as I will be living in a 3 bed house on my own and my water usage will be well below average so water rates will be much higher than they need to be. How do I find out the supplier of the old owners? Can I just contact any supplier and find one that will replace the meter and supply my gas/electric.
Hi Heckler. You need to phone your local distributor for electric, they should tell you who supplies you. For gas, I think it should be National grid/Transco.
Also phone water company in your area to ask them to look into fitting a gas meter. if they are anything like Anglian Water (they cover area where I live) they make an appointment to come to the house and see if they can actually fit a water meter and then will make another appointment to actually fit it. Process may take a while but well worth doing in your situation. Should save you a lot of money!
Cheers, have now found out that the supplier is British Gas for both leccy and gas, and both have prepayment meters fitted. They say that once they have carried out a credit check they can change them to standard meters. Does this mean that I will have to keep them as a supplier for a minimum length of time, or can I switch at my convenience? I also have a query regarding these so called comparison sites, 3 times in the last 8 years I have been told by these sites that another supplier is cheaper and have switched. My direct debits have gone down as they stated t5hat was all I needed for my requirements... within 4-6 months that supplier has doubled my direct debits... it's happened 3 times with 3 different suppliers... and it's not down to increases in energy prices and my energy useage has always remained constant. Do they deliberately undercut other companies with quotes that cannot be sustained and is this practice legal?
Yes they do underquote the initial direct debit amount to obtain the business and this is legal. The only way to compare costs is to do the calculation on the actual consumption figures.
Why are you paying by direct debit? The 'discount' available hardly makes it worthwhile cinsidering that you are paying an arrears bill partially in advance and that they will manipulate the DD to obtain a free loan from you. Better to pay the bills online quarterly in arrears. Utilities do not encourage DD payments unless they see monetary advantage in the system.
Cheers, it's a very sneaky and underhand practice and should be outlawed as it's getting people to sign up under false pretences.
As for original queries, seem to have it all in hand, although took half the day about a dozen or more phone calls.
At least I know I can get the gas/leccy prepayment meters removed as there's no issue with a credit check for that.
Water is fine with no outstanding debt, can apply for water meter when I create the account after completion on the house. They said an engineer would be set out to assess fitment of a meter... not sure what that means, can they refuse to fit one if say there is a shared stopcock like my current home.
BT have also confirmed the line is installed and can be unblocked at no charge.
It's a weight of my mind as I'd not considered any of these possible extra costs when doing the budget for the house... and the money to pay them if they arose wasn't available.
Never knew buying a home was so stressful... seems to be tripled when it's a repossession as the repo company are being as awkward as they can, it's like they are deliberately trying to scupper the sale.
I don't think it's that unreasonable. The supplier does gain from the account being in credit, but that is the reason why direct debit tariffs,(particularly online), are cheaper than standard ones. The company has a steady reliable cash flow & as such is able to offer a lower tariff. As for the discounts, I certainly wouldn't call npower's £100 dual fuel discount negligible!
The main difference at the moment is the effect that all of the scrutiny has had on prepayment tariffs. I recently had cause to rebill a customer who had been wrongly billed on a PP tariff & the balance was actually higher on a credit tariff! Given the extra costs associated with prepayment (& yes, they do outweigh the customer paying in advance), the balance has swung too far in my view.
But what is the point in a customer paying by direct debit because they have been quoted lower prices than paying by another method, when in reality the customer is not paying less??!! The fact that on Direct Debit, the price per unit used is less is meaningless when suppliers set the Direct debit at a level higher than the usage is likely to be - and then are reluctant to refund the customer when they end up in credit.
I'm sorry davehsug, but your statement about Direct Debits is hogwash!
Paying by DD is useful for me as I am a touch forgetful and sometimes bills get paid late because I simply forget.
What bugs me is when a company deliberately sets the DD way below your usage to trick you into switching and then doubles it a few months later. I'm not a heavy gas user as I only use it for central heating and hot water, and the central heating isn't used between April and Oct anyway.
By this time you are usually well in debt to the energy company and so they hike the DD up past your actual useage to cover the shortfall. This hits people rather hard. My folks got hit like this just a couple of months ago, they switched last Sept and then in April got a letter saying their direct debit was being raised from £55 a month to £137 a month and they owed £441.. Luckily they were able to pay them the money and we told them that the DD was not being raised above £70 or it would be cancelled and the supply switched.
I've heard that some of the companies, Npower in partciluar calculate your useage based on 18 months, and include 2 winters. Read a report on the BBC website yesterday about a guy who sued them and won over their overcharging and they tried to keep it quiet.
As Pelham said, companies do not charge "less" for paying by DD, unless there is something in it for them. You have to judge whether the benefit of not having to remember to pay outweighs the negatives of DD (you lose the control, the payments can be easily manipulated). I prefer to take regular meter readings myself and pay according to the units used by a payment card
Yes the can refuse to fit a water meter on the grounds that it is impractical or that it is prohibitivey expensive. These grounds are unusual. The consumer has a right to appeal the decision.
Unknown Suppliers
. Would also prefer to have a water meter fitted as I will be living in a 3 bed house on my own and my water usage will be well below average so water rates will be much higher than they need to be. How do I find out the supplier of the old owners? Can I just contact any supplier and find one that will replace the meter and supply my gas/electric.
Reply With Quote