Thread: Npower arrears

Hi one and all,

I am hoping that somebody on the forum may be able to give us some help/advice on a problem with Npower.

Our daughter has been a customer of Npower for some 18 months. She was paying for her dual fuel by direct debit each month amounts at this point we do not know.She did not receive any statements for 12 months,then she received a letter to say that her direct debit payments were not enough to cover her usage (why wait 12 months to tell a customer they are not paying enough).They wanted her to increase her monthly direct debit payments to £160 which as a single parent with 2 small children (6 & 3 ) was an impossible request,so she therefore cancelled her direct debit.

After a telephone conversation with Npower our daughter agreed on a payment plan of £29 a week for 12 months after this time the remaining arrears would be written off. She found arrangement very difficult to keep to, as a result has not been keeping up the agreed plan payments.

She has received a letter fom Npower today 27th June demanding a payment of £1,585 to pay what she owes. Our daughter phoned Npower today and was given the following options to repay the debt.
1.Prepayment meters be installed not possible landlord would not allow.
2.Or pay the outstanding debt.(Not possible as I am a single parent on benefits).

Any help or advice from the forum will be much appreciated.

Regards
Ian

if she did not receive any bills for the 12mts prior to this demand, they cannot enforce payment.

part of their own energy industry guidelines

dx

Yes, she does - NPower can enforce payment for up to 12 months. Jack states this is the period of time that her daughter didn't receive a bill.

Have NPower used estimates or proper meter readings when working out wjhat your daughter owes, Jacko. How much was your daughter previously paying by DD?

Also, did NPOwer use the correct readings to start your daughter's accounts on - some 18 months ago?

I suggest if your daughter did not receive any bills/statements for such a long time after moving to NPOwer, that NPower's rec ords may well be incorrect - meaning there may be problems in how the accounts have been billed. In short, your daughter should not pay or agree to do what NPOwer wants, until she knows the bills are correct. If she thinks there may be a problem, she should raise a query to that effect wuith NPower immediately (and maybe pay what she thinks is a reasonable amount)

thanks ml
read it wrong.

dx

Originally Posted by mattlamb

Yes, she does - NPower can enforce payment for up to 12 months. Jack states this is the period of time that her daughter didn't receive a bill.

Have NPower used estimates or proper meter readings when working out wjhat your daughter owes, Jacko. How much was your daughter previously paying by DD?

Also, did NPOwer use the correct readings to start your daughter's accounts on - some 18 months ago?

I suggest if your daughter did not receive any bills/statements for such a long time after moving to NPOwer, that NPower's rec ords may well be incorrect - meaning there may be problems in how the accounts have been billed. In short, your daughter should not pay or agree to do what NPOwer wants, until she knows the bills are correct. If she thinks there may be a problem, she should raise a query to that effect wuith NPower immediately (and maybe pay what she thinks is a reasonable amount)

Hi Matt,
Thanks for your reply, I am trying to get some more info from our daughter as things at this stage are a bit vague. We do know that she went over to Npower by a salesman calling and making all kinds of offers to get her to change to Npower. She was paying DD gas £20 electric £30 a month. She had been paying these amounts for quite some time about a year or so, then out of the blue a year later a letter arrived saying she owed in excess of £800 and that her monthly DD payments where not enough.
What we cannot understand is why Npower took a year to tell her that she was not paying enough for her duel fuel surely they must take some of the blame for escalating the bill.

Ian