My son moved into a rented property with his girlfriend in April 2014,

she moved out in August 2014 & he moved out in April 2015

the house stood empty for May 2015 although he was still the tenant.

At the time he was in full time employment with one company during the week & worked every other weekend for another company.

In February 2017 they sent him a letter saying that in 20th January 2017 the meter had been examined & it had been bypassed prior to my sons occupation & included was a bill for a further £546 which they estimate is the electricity he used in that period on top of the £450 he'd already put on the prepayment card, they had in May 2014 refused to change the meter to a post payment one.

We have reached deadlock with them, it has gone to the Ombudsman who are siding with Npower in that they can claim 10 units a day usage as that is the national average.

Our argument is that they have not provided any proof that the meter was tampered with prior to my son & his girlfriend moving into the property, that there is no evidence to say it was not done after he left,

no account of his single full time working status has been taken into account.

Are there grounds to fight this or do we just have to roll over & take it no matter how unfair it is.

I do not object to paying an amount to make this go away, it has been very stressful 9 months dealing with them, but the amount they are claiming is greater than my own bill in a house which is 50% bigger, with my wife at home all day.

Not sure it makes any difference but my son now currently lives in New Zealand but will probably be returning next year.

how do they know it was tampered with prior to his tenancy?

how do they know it was tampered with prior to his tenancy?

I don't know they won't tell me, my suspicion & it is totally supposition is that the meter has been examined for some reason, the 'bypass' as they are calling it has been exposed, they have then gone back through the years to see what they usage has been, they have found my son's 13 months usage to be very low, put 2 & 2 together & believe he benefitted from the bypass

well it must have been done before

as afterwards whats the point no-one was living there I suppose...

so previous tenant did it and he benefitted from it?

well it must have been done before

as afterwards whats the point no-one was living there I suppose...

so previous tenant did it and he benefitted from it?

Sorry why must it have been?

We presume that somebody moved in after he left but we have no idea, or maybe it was empty until January this year, but that seems a long time to have a rented house empty.

sorry I was going by...

the house stood empty for May 2015 although he was still the tenant.

dx

Sorry maybe my bad wording, it stood empty in May 2015 as he'd already moved back home in April but had not given the 1 months notice.

ok so sounds about right

squatters or someone else moved in and did the dirty work.

what does the landlord say about all this

not really your sons problem if he were not the tenent

If your Son is now a resident of New Zealand, they can't issue a UK court claim in his absence, but he must tell them he is not in the UK.

Suggest he writes to them from New Zealand with a copy of anything official that confirms he is resident there. He tells them that he is now a resident of New Zealand with no current intention of returning to the UK. He disputes that there was any issue with the meter without an independent engineers report from someone not employed by NPower being provided and that there is no basis to any backdated bill. He advises them of the residency information when he was at the UK address and that even if there is a proven issue with the meter it is nothing to do with him. Any usage of energy through the meter was done in a knowledge of the cost being correct for the amount of usage.