We have had this issue since we moved where we several times asked npower in install pay as you go meters due to being on a limited income and can better manage our money that way yet for various reasons they have cancelled or never turned up to install those meters. So we move providors, now with EDF as they have a payment system where we can pay on a payment card each week as if it were still payg yet retain the quarterly meters etc. Only the Npower bill for just the gas has arrived and it seemd to be about double what we would have expected. Covering a 3 month\9 day period they have billed us £249 and thats just for the gas alone when we would have expected about that for both gas and electric. Thats about what £15-£16 per week. In our old house we would have spent half of that for the same period and that was on payg. We have moved to a 3 bedroom place from a 2 bedroom place so that might account for it some might say. But no since we moved the 3rd bedroom has not been used and the back living room has not been used and neither has been heated or the radiators left on in any of those rooms. In effect we should have been using up less gas for heating because we are currently using 1 living room less than the old house untill we get sorted and can fix up the other rooms. So what about the boiler?. the old house when we left it was about 7 years old but this boiler in this house is 11 years old according to a dated label on it. But surely this cant be making up the difference for a boiler just 4 years older?. The meter readings according to the bill seem to be right from what the current meter reading is today, just that the useage is double what we know we would have used in the old house on a more expensive payg tarrif. As said we have now moved providors and there is no way on earth we can pay this bill with the old providor and the reason why we moved providor because we spent near 3 months trying to get the payg meters installed. So what are our options to dispute the energy consumption seeing as in our mind there is either a faulty meter or a fauly boiler because there is no way we will have used up twice as much gas as in the old house when we have been heating less rooms in the new house than the old 1 in the last quater?.

The thing is that we would sooner go back to pre payment meters than ever go down the DD road. As the amount DD'd can be changed by the providor at any time and they dont exacally have to accept the meter reading for DD, well they certainly did'nt several years ago. As the issue we have had in the past is where we used to use only half of an estimated average based on the property due to being very energy concious. The providor did not accept the meter readings and refused to send someone out as they only read every 12 months back then. The result was they took twice as much out of the bank account as we would have used and left us with no money and a pain of an overdraft fee to pay back. I think the payment card option is the best idea if that service does not incur an extra charge for using it and there is a little flexability on paying a day or 2 late every now and then if there are reasons for missing a paymernt date. I dont see what the issue would be with the payment card fixed weekly payments just as long as there are say 4 payments in a month?. Will have to give Eon a call tomorrow to try and get some clarification on payment cards.

Thanks for the reply but still slightly confused over what you said about the payment cards against what the rep said. The rep did'nt actually say we had to pay a fixed rate at a fixed weekly\fortnightly durations etc. The impression we got was that we could simply pay whatever we wanted when we wanted but he did say we could pay weekly, fortnighly or monthly, just never seemed to mention that it had to be set and fixed that way. The way you described the online setup to submit meter readings etc does sound very good and I guess we would certainly benefit and like that aspect seeing as it would seemingly show it we would be paying to much or not enough pased on what regular payments we would make. There is really only a few things we are unsure of, is there an extra charge for using a payment card to make regular payments in this way?. And what about the fixed payments on fixed regular durations of weekly or fortnightly, just how does that work if it were setup to pay on a weekly or fortnightly basis?. Does it have to strictly have to be payed on a fixed day\date of the week or fortnight?. And what would usually happern if 1 week or payment date etc it it were a day or 2 early or a day or 2 late as surely there is a flexability for illness, bad weather hollidays or any number of reasons that from time to time would prevent a paymrnt being made at a fixed set day\date?. 1 more thing, when making the payments this way how does Eon determine which part of the payment covers electric and which part covers gas?. Do they split it 50\50 or simply use it against the total cost of consumption based on submitted meter readings?. Also we have had the first letter from Eon and there is no payment card or mention of the payment card service that we (ourselfs and the Eon rep) agreed to prior to signing up?.

I often think all the aerial upgrade work for the digital switchover that we all told was needed in all cases is\was nothing more than a con to get a lot of companies a lot of work and even more money when often a simple signal booser would upgrade the signal where it would only in few cases need improving. To prove the point I have a Freeview box in the front bedroom with a cheap areial I got mainly for the fm tuner on the stereo. Out on interest I tried it on the Freeview box, worked right away for most channels and after a bit of moving round can get ALL Freeview channels 90% of the time. Aerial cost?, £1 from poundland, meaning our total outlay to updrade for Freeview was £1. So would love to know where some of these jokers get some of the prices from for what is so essential that it costs the sort of money they are asking for. A suspicious person might say the OP's HA gets a percentage of the chargeable cost for the work and the HA is trying to get even more by trying to charge the tennants for the full cost. But I'd not be so suspicious to say that!.

Well after a load of hassles and crap with current providor NPower over 4 times cancelling an appoitment to install PAYG meters we were about to change providors anyway. Then by chance this afternoon Eon comes knocking on the door and does the usual sales patter, payg useless ripoff etc, tell them very limited income easier to manage with payg etc. Then tell them the reason we dont want the dd or quartely meters is due to limited income and not wanting the hassles of an estimated bill every 3 months taking double what we would use and having the hassles of going back and 2 having dissagrements over the you cant have used half the average per household even if you are hightly concious of energy costs and dont heat every room in the house just for the sake of it etc so pay us what we bill etc etc etc. So the Eon guy says well they can install the payg meters but what they can do insted is to leave the meters as they are and we get a card that we can make a payment on (both gas and electric by the way) on either a weekly, 2 weekly or a monthy basis to cover what we think we would use based on what we would have been using in the old house before we moved recently as we were on payg then. And as payg costs more that should be enough to cover the useage on the non payg meters. This was sounding quite a good deal as it would allow us to pay by card every week like we used to on payg and in theory would certainly prevent us getting a big bill every 3 months we'd not otherwise be able to afford. Seems to get better he says they send bills out every month and you can even go on line to submit the meter reading every month to make sure your paying the right amount based on what you put on the card every month against your meter readings and they come read the meter every 3 months. So the partner signs for it and job done if what he says it true. So is this true for an Eon system they have seemingly signed us up for or is it mis leading. As the ability to have the regular non prepayment meters giving cheaper energy but topup\make payment as if payg based on what we knew we spend on payg seems to be a pretty decent offer.

Well an update or not so to speak. The intention was go go direct to the CEO as suggested. But a friend said to wait and see what happens with this stage 2 of the process as it's possable they may realise there mistake and put it all right and that taking the matter to the CEO may not be a good idea if I don't allow the HA to respond in the time the complaints stage to complete this next step. The HA are alowed 10 working days to respond. This expired last Friday and we have given untill today to allow for a responds in the post. They have now failed to respond reguarding the matter at all during that time so now will be taking the matter as high as I can up the company as the HA have for the third time at least breached there complaints policy when they failed to respond. Now the issue I have is that the HA themselfs don't seem to have a CEO, just a board. There is a parent company that does seem to have a CEO but there does not seem to be an address to post on the complaint to the parent companies CEO. So am wandering if simply writing to the HA head office could be an option?.

To be honest it's not a housing benefit issue at all and that's not the issue between ourselfs or the housing at all as such. To be clear the housing benefit on the old place finished on the last of that tenancy and the housing benefit once sorted and transfered to the new place the next day once sorted. The issue is that while we paid a weeks rent (we are on benefits to by the way) while we waited for the housing benefit to be transfered. And that once the housing benefit was sorted the HA has now refused to return any of the weeks rent due on the new place because because it took us a minimum of 2 days to move house and return the keys for the old house. In other words it's a housing policy issue. We had a reply from them today (quick as well) but that only acknolaged a request for an escalation of the official complaint and like other key issues has ignored the request for the policy details as requested that was both not included or mentioned in the letter of escalation of complaint.

Hi and thanks, been to see them today and its now an escallation of a complaint as they took the calls before xmas was took as a complaint. Annoying thing is that the person I spoke to today deals with rent arrears but said they can't do anything as the person who has dealt with the complaint is above this persons authority and there hands are tied. And even this person when asking about policy and time to move said they don't know about an overlapping period when moving either. Asked for a copy of the policy reguarding this issue for which nobody seems to know the details of, to be told they have passed the request on to the person who is now dealing with the issue. Don't know what there responds will now be or if they will be able to locate this ellusive policy they have used yet nobody seems to know the datails of to provide it.

Heard back from the HA in writing today and it certainly looks to me like they are dancing around the issue. The HA are suggesting as we first viewed the new place a little under 3 weeks before moving that WE had plenty of time to prepare for moving!. Yet we never made any preperations the HA did and the tenency start date for the new place was not confirmed untill about a week before it started and the removal date was not set untill 3 days before we moved and we could not access the new place untill the moving day\tenency start date afternoon at the earliest. Yet the HA are suggesting that it would still have been reasonable to have expected handover of the old place (keys) on the Tuesday morning to avoid being charged a weeks rent on the old place. This was still impossable as we could not have possably have arranged for the man and van to remove left items before the tuesday and we still had to go back to clean the place before handover. Added to that we had a child we still had to take to school during this time. Yet the housing is trying to say 1 afternoon is all the time we needed to move and hand the place back empty and reasonably clean. Can't wait to see there responce to asking for the policy reguarding all this.

Thanks for that I'll be fully sure to ask for that. 2 of the people I spoke to have said they have no overlapping period for moving where they don't charge for both places and 2 HA staff, 1 even being a manager in the finance section does not know if if they do or don't and are now trying to hide behind there policy for doing what they have done even if they may think the same about the witholding of rent overpayment being illigal like ourselfs. I even pointed out to them that the local council and another HA allow upto 4 weeks in normal circumstances which was confirmed as being true for moving from 1 place to another. Yet they would still not listen stating they would not look at the situation or process the payment untill the new year.

No, the 2 propaties in question and the only 2 are with the same AH. It was a transfer from 1 of there homes to another. They had total control of all the dates of the move and the tenency start & finish dates respectfully as well as set the dates for the actual move and informed us we would have to make sure after we move that we remove all left items (which cost us £30 for a man & van) and then give the place a reasonable clean or they will charge us for there workers to do it before we hand the keys back. This meant by the dates the HA made the arrangements for the removal lorry and tenenct start dates that there was always going to be an overlap period and we could never had done anything to change that seeing as we had no control over when the HA set the dates for. Had contact with the HA today and they have said they don't know why we have received no notification of an issue with the previous place which we left 5 weeks ago. They have also said the reason why they have not processed the rent overpayment to be payed back is because of this issue of an apparent rent due on the other place where the keys were delayed in getting back to them. And they won't process or authorise the payment untill the issue over the previous place is resolved!. so I tell them they are witholding a rent overpayment refund which is illigal untill we either agree to an issue we have not formally received or authorise them to take the money. They have said no, they just won't process the refund untill the matter or dispute is resolved. If that's not witholding the overpayment I'd like to know what is. Even though they were told 2 days ago we need the money back for Xmas and they have had 2 days, today and half of tomorrow to look into it and process payment that they now won't look at the issue untill the new year.

To add to my last post and after speaking to a family member a couple of more points have come to mind. First off the HA agreed 2 days ago to pay the full first weeks deposit back in full and either a cheque or Bank payment would be sorted then (2 days ago) for which they have so far not done. Also we have yet and not received any formal request or details reguarding this half a weeks rent that's apparently due on the previous propery due to not handing the keys back (because we had to clear and clean the place of everything) untill 2 days after the tenency for the new place started. Family member suggests what they are doing is keeping hold of a rent overpayment untill we agree to pay back rent due on a previous place and seperate tenency that they have not formally or officialy requested or detailed and borders on illigal to withold a rent overpayment on 1 tenency untill we agree part of that can be used to pay an apparent rent due on another tenency that they have yet to even request formally. Family member suggests they should pay back the weeks deposit while the HB got transfered right away without delay and then ask the housing to detail there request as a seperate issue. Anyone knows if this is correct as HA will be closed from tomorrow to the new year and we really want\need this sorting so the money can be payed or sent before there near 2 week shut down.

The tenency was always to start on the Monday and they stated this near 2 weeks before the start of the tenency for the new place. Yet at that point we were aware that work was actually still getting done on the new place and in fact there was still wet plaster,paint and unpainted\ minor cosmetic work that was not completed before we moved in. The only reason that we could not access the new house to move over the first weekend was because it was still alarmed and nothing do do with tenency start date as we were originally due to get the keys on the Thursday but something came up. They did say they would have had no problem moving over the weekend but for reasons they did not know to explain the alarm was still installed when it should have been removed earlyer in the week when any work was completed. Added to that it was even the housing who arranged the removal lorry and the date for the main removal. The weeks deposit paid at the point of signing for the keys was just to cover the period it would take to transfer the housing benefit to the new place. This has now been sorted and HB has been paid and backdated to cover the first week we were asked to pay while HB gets transfered. So yes there is now a rent over payment. But I can't for a single minute believe now council\HA does not allow an overlapping period to move without being liable for rent on both places. More so in that the time it took to get the keys back was to clean and remove left items in the old place that would need doing a d said so by the HA before we hand the keys for the old place back.

Hi would like some advice or confirmation on an issue. We recently moved via our housing assosiation for a couple of reasons. As we are on housing benefit they asked us to pay the first week ourselfs untill the housing benefit is sorted which was not to much hassle. Except now we are asking for that deposit back as the housing benefit is sorted and could do with that money for Xmas they have decided they want and we are due to pay about half a weeks rent for the previous property. This has happened because we signed for and received the keys for the new place on a Friday with the intention of moving over the weekend and was expected to hand the keys back for the previous place on the Monday for which when the tenency on the new place started and assumingly the old 1 finished. But the housing then said on the Friday after we signed for the keys that we would now have to wait untill the Monday to start moving as the new house still had the alarm installed and they were not getting it removed untill the Monday (when the tenency on new house started) and we were not alowed to start moving or try to access the new place untill then as if we activate the alarm there would be a charge to have it switched offonce activated. The result is it took 2 days to fully move and remove and clean the old house (which we were told we had to do or we would be charged for removal of left items and cleaning). But because the keys for the old place were handed back 2 days later than orignaly requested assuming we were moving over the weekend they have refused to give the full first weeks deposit back saying we have to pay half a weeks rent due on the old place because the keys were handed back a couple of days late!. Anyone advice on if we are liable or not seeing as we were refused access to move over the weekend as originally planed?.

Thanks for the reply, guess we can threaten to move pro idor if they won't do the original date?. Either way we can't afford to wait and get a big bill as we don't work and can't pay a big estimated bill at once for gas and electric.

Just a little advice after just moving house. Npower, the current providor currently have quarterly Meyers and we want payg meters . Only Npower says they can't sort it untill 9th Dec and now they say they can't do that date and want us to wait till the new year for an install date as they can't arrange sooner. Are Npower taking the p or is payg meters really taking that long to install?

But your appeal would refer to a point BEFORE you'd have started work so I'd have thought you would be fine to take a job and still do the appeal. If you do take a job they cant bring that into it because it has nothing to do with the period you are appealing about. I might be wrong but pretty sure you'd be fine to work and still appeal over a period you did'nt.

I'm not to sure, but I'd assume things like that would be on her record anyway as it's something that would affect any past or possable future employment options.

My partner is to have an interview at the JC tomorrow by what seems to be a compliance officer reguarding an issue with the benefits (a joint benefits claim by the way) she gets. She has never had 1 of these before or been called in for such an interview so I did a little googling. Seems they are more likely to be doing an interview with reguards to an accusation of benefit fraud than something completly random or innocent?. That in itself is not worrying her as she has done no benefit fraud, no working, fake claims or anything (if that is what they are calling her in over) and done nothing wrong that she can be accused of. But what is concerning her is that this is happening close to xmas and 3 years ago for 2 years running all the bnefits were stopped just before xmas because of those ATOS medicals that found her fit for work when she was not. And she is worried no matter what she says reguardles of what she is being called in for that may just result is a suspended benefit claim because her letter indicates that they have the right to stop her, well our benefits if she does not completly comply with the person at the interview tomorrow. Now the benefit fraud accusation as being a likely reason after researching, we have had issues recently with a neighbour recently where for no reason than we stood upto them have threatened to do whatever it takes to make our lives a misery. So I'd certainly not put it past this person to have made a fake accusation like this just going into xmas just to cause trouble for us. Now assuming this is the reason for her being called in can I assume if thats all it is, an accusation of benefit fraud that they wont freeze or stop the benefits without any proof?. My partners issue is that she is also dyslexic and does not have the best use of grammer or the ability to answer detailed questions as well as most people can. On top of this she is also suffering from stress (pecause of other personal issues) and is concerned about being asked long questions she might not fully understand. Am I right in thinking my partner has the right to have me sit in the interview with her to help keep her calm and ensure she is not going to have her words taken out of context due to not having the ability to propperly answer detailed questions she might not properly understand?. Am I even alowed to help her with answers or information or would I have to stay silent throughout?.

Well here is a funny 1 which may or may not be something to be concerned about. But last thursday we had a pin number for a barclaycard in the post yet we never applied for a new card (apart from 1 5-6 weeks ago which was declined at the time), asked for a replacement card for the current 1 or asked for a new pin number. So we call barclaycard up yesterday and they dont seem to sure either as there system does not show a new card has been ordered or applied for and neither does it show that we have asked for a new pin number. The system it seems does show that a pin number for a barclaycard has been sent out but they dont seem to know why it was sent out. All they said is that because the system does not show anything about a new card that the pin number must therefor be for the current card?. We have only had that card 10 months and used it only once. Has this happened to any other barclaycard customer as we are baffled but concerned at the same time it might be something more than nothing.

Something that has come to mind might be usefull if anyone knows with reguards to a flood risk report. In this case as said the permission was refused mainly (and this was appartently the only reason used for refused permission) on the flood risk to the land. But how would a flood risk report be compiled to the level that would be needed for the inspector?. The Enviroment Agency apparently gave the flood risk report the the inspector?. But looking at the Enviroment Agency website the flood maps dont give anything like the level of detail or information that would be needed for an inspector?. So to get a much more detailed report thats upto date for an inspector to make a development decision on, where does that detail on a local level come from?. I'd assume that information would be compiled on a local level by a floods partnership sub committee via the local council?. Anyone know if this is the case?.

I'm asking about this on here as a stab in the dark for a friend. Either someone will know or be able to offer advice or a better educated opinion than I can figure out. Just going to give the basics because I dont want to complicate matter to do with planning. A friend has been telling me about a planning issue they have had issues over with the local council. He thinks the council are being petty over granting permission simply because he has personal issues with some of the locals that are "well in" with the local councilors who make these decisions and thus dont want him doing this development in the area he wants to do it. Because there are ongoing legal issues with the appeal I cant really mention the area or the person except it is near where I used to live in North Wales and I still have family there. There are several minor objections the council have tried to object on, all of which can be sorted to even the councils satisfaction fairly easy but were passed as ok by the inspector. But what the stalling point is now is that the council and the inspector have objected on the land in the area he wants to develop because it's seemingly prone to flooding and that any new development in that area wont be granted due to there apparently being a significant risk to life if flooding occured in the councils opinion. This seems very strange to me. The Enviroment Agency flood maps does show that the development would just be inside a flood risk area, but that area has a less than 1% chance of any level of flooding let alone major flooding. Plus recently (in the last couple of years) flood defences have been completed to reduce any flooding risk yet it seems like the flood risk map may not yet have been updated to reflect this recent flood protection. Yet accross the road from the proposed development thare has recently been another development that seems to have been built in the last 10 years as well as a number of developments in the area in the last 10 years. And public records from council meetings I've obtained shows proposed new developmens and house extensions etc have been passed with NO OBJECTIONS at council meetings. Yet a lot of the developments & extensions getting passed with no objections are also in the same flood risk areas. Meaning the councils objections of no new developments in that flood risk area is an invalid reason because they have been passing them for years and are still doing so now. Anyone got any advice because it sure looks like my friend wants to be kept from building a development by some locals for the same reason that gets overlooked by those who are more "familiar" with the council?.

Had a reply of sorts of Virgin Trains, even if semi automated. They are trying to refer us to the FAQ's which the nearest item suggests a 5% compensation if someone has to stand for at least 15 mins. Hardly answers the question on what the policy is and what happens for a long journey where a family wants or needs to sit together. Sent a reply back to ask for a propper personal responce to my original questions.

I wander how likely this would be if your looking at a group of people who deliberatly sat in reserved seats simply because they wanted to sit together and there was no other seats on the train where they could all sit together?. I'll bet there is a greater than 50/50 chance if they fealt there is no empty group of seats together then they would refuse to budge. And possably the conductor citing resivation problems in other carrages like I've heard in the past has to get around having to deal with reserved seats being taken when the system is fine and they refuse to budge. Hopefully wont happen 3 years running but will sure have a sitting protest in 1st class if it does, which in fairness if seating issues cant be resolved then a free upgrade to 1st class seems a reasonable expectation in such circumstances does it not?. That reminds me, I never did get an official responce from Virgin Trains on the resivation policy and the conductors responsability to enforce it. I think I'll be asking them again later on tonight.

In the meantime Best Buys fourm staff have suggested that the charge is only a pre authorisation and that nothing has been tasken off the credit card account and wont untill such point the order can be complerted confirmed and dispatched!. Yet we have a transaction number from the credit card company and a balance to say yes they have taken the money. But there forum staff says if thats the case then that will need closer looking into, basicvally they want more time than we are fairly willing to give to sort the transaction. Remember we urgently need a new washing machine as we are a family with mounting washing so cant affored to give an unreasonable amount of waiting time. Besides the original order and aggrement was for it to be delivered on monday if they then complete today and say sorry, not before the end of next week do we still have the right to cancell?. As we can order elsewere today and get it delivered tomorrow.