Certain I was being ripped off I left a property about a year ago and have since found my electricity bill has gone down massively during my time at my new place. But I am certain my old landlord was profiteering from the electricity. I would like to make the following points for my case and would like an answer as to how legally he was operating. 1 The landlord never showed to any tenant regarding a license enabling him to resell electricity. 2 The Bill issued on a piece of waste card would look like this (see below) Flat 3 Electricity for March £35.00 Signature of landlord. 3 He never provided any evidence of what the bill actually was during my 9 year tenancy in my bedsit where I was living and only used a computer, a light, a kettle and a hairdryer. Bills like the above were typical and normal to say the least. They would randomly go up and down but since I have moved in to this new flat I pay only £20 a month and run much more electrical appliances now than previously. I never even knew who his electricity supplier was and no bills ever turned up at the house either. 4 Each room in his property had a separate old meter downstairs that no one ever got to see but him but he calculated each tenants use from those meters downstairs in the basement. 5 There was no stipulation regarding utility bills in the tenancy agreement or to the payment of it. This would typically go on in many of his properties, most of his tenants that I have conversed with are in agreement that he is 'fiddling' the electricity bill but have no proof and cannot ascertain proof from the landlord of what the bill actually should be. I am quite certain myself that I and other tenants were being ripped off. What can be done and is there anything else I should know? I left the property owing some £200 in electricity arrears to the landlord, but I am fairly sure it is the previous landlord that owes me money and that's why I never paid him.

Hi All I hope this is the appropriate place to post this subject/issue if not i apologise. I need some help and advice to a major problem. I have not received any electricity bills for over 5 years or so ever since i moved in to the property. When I moved in I tried to find out who my supplier was, but got nowhere as I was passed from pillar to post, some said that the address/ flat didn't exist etc etc. To this day I have not received any correspondence from the supplier who I am not sure on who it maybe I think it might be EON or npower or scottish power. Naturally I want to start paying as this is getting to me as I am terrified at the prospect of receiving a large bill for back dated one. Is there a law to safe guard the consumer on this is not my fault but the fault of the supplier not providing me a proper service?? Please can you answer this question as it is very concerning. Please can you help and let me know what my rights are. Any if anyone similar had problems with the above providing and how it was dealt and weather you had to pay all the backdated years too. Please let me know. Thanks in advance. Simon

hi all, i am hoping for some advice about a situation i have found myself in, here goes Since 2006 i have owned a property with electricity supplied by xy and z for the electric, for the first yr i paid the bills as they came , but then i started to pay more detail and realised that being as the property was not my main property the bills was high and upon further investigation discovered i was being billed for the wrong meter i raised the subject with my supplier. My supplier kept sending bills i called them again repeating previous calls eventually a bailiff turned up all angry and frightening my partner. iI explained the problem and after some DISCUSSION and after checking my meter agreed it was not my bill. Still the supplier did nothing but send me more bills ! After a about another two years after more calls by myself they sent out their own investigator, prior to that a meter reader who did not turn up. The investigator confirmed it was not my meter and that i would not have to pay and the supplier would contact me, guess what ... more bills and no call...! in 2012 i was selling the property and twice arranged to have my meter read at a certain time and date. Twice i sat at the property with the door open and waited and waited and waited.... when i called the response i got was the meter reader could not find my property even thou my mobile number was supplied It ended up with me selling the property giving my meter reading and asking for the issue to be settled i believe they are my supplier and have used electric and would like to pay a fair balance to bring a close to this situation. In turn they sent me a bill for £7000 lol which would be nowhere near what i should owe, as the property was not used for the first two years and was then used as a holiday let for 15 weeks of the year mainly during the summer months and then by my family on and off for a year. The last invoice with a recorded reading was 09/09 so they have not even read the meter for over 3 years. Any helpful idea's would be gratefully received (sorry about the length of post) lol

Hey There I have been in dispute with the energy company about missing payments I sent them with regards to my business premises, and have refused to send them any money till they sorted it out (they claim i have 9k arrears, but its acutally about 5 since i refused to pay anymore), I got a letter last week stating they were going to have the supply disconnected, and last week was just a bloody nightmare with the bank and bin suppliers etc so I forgot about it. I went to deal with it today, and they have already been in and changed the locks. Now they claim that they had a warrant, but I'm pretty sure I still have 7 days to reply and they never issued me with a warrant. Is this legal? P.s. I'm in Scotland. Cheers

Hello I have moved to the new property (flat) in sep 2008 and since that time I have note received electricity bill. Initially I contacted few times my supplier EON and every time was told that they have some issues with the data and will contact me when it's sorted but that never happened. When I called them for the last time about 3 years ago and said that I am still not receiving any bills she said it's nothing to worry because I can not be back billed for more then 12 months. Yesterday I received a letter from EON which is saying: We're going to fit a prepayment meter dear apartment 9, 161 cheap side rd We came to talk to you today because you have not paid for the energy you have used. if you don't pay your balance in 7 days we will install a prepayment meter. This will collect the amount you owe and pay for the energy you will use in the future. You don't need to be there when we change the meter. You now owe £3.849 which includes a £45 fee for our visit today. If you don't have 24 hour access to your electricity meter, it's important that you let us know. Please call our representative today to discuss your options. Simon *********** name contact number Obviously the £3.849 is not the amount for the last 12 months. I know I should not pay this after such a long time of not being billed. It looks like they expect me not to know about it. What is the best thing to do in this situation? Shall I just call them and tell them that or it's better to get in touch with the local Citizens Advice Bureau? Any advices very appreciated

I hope that anyone who needs this, finds it... After reading through various threads I was livid to see that the tricks used on me by BES are used over and over again and so many other people have fallen for it too. Much of what other people said happened to me... lots of urgent calls from the minute i moved into my new office, claims my meter wasnt registered and i was on an emergency rate, garauntee that BES would be cheapest blah blah blah. All strung across several phone calls where they only recorded the bits that made it sound like I'd agreed to things. Cutting a long story short, tied in to a three year contact with bills that were stupid, i found Rod. The lovely lovely Rod who helped me fight the little monkeys and eventually get out of my contract. Here are his details - rod at u-i-a dot org Rodney Sinden Operations Director Mob 07713 247393 Utilities Intermediaries Association Rock on Rod and i hope that he can help you too and we can bring BES, Commercial Energy or whatever name they decide to use today to their knees! Please give Rod my regards and tell him that Helen from Cornwall says hello. Good luck fellow BES fighters! Helen

We were paying on and off £40 a month electric and £40 gas, and the meter wasn't read by anybody including me between Jan 2009 and August 2012. During that period we missed some payments and they sent some guy round to talk us about debt, no appointment, we were out and we were charged Gas 2 visits x£40 Electric 2 visits x £40 He didn't look at the meters which were outside to get a reading. It occurred to me that they had taken this action on estimated debt. Finally I phoned in some actual readings and we got a huge refund £890 credit to our electricity account. But we owed the £ 800 on the gas so I asked them to transfer the balance across. They agreed and then a meter reader appeared as if by magic and read the meters. New bills arrived more or less the same as the earlier ones. then they contacted us and said the meter appeared to have slowed down or stopped. They immediately sent out a MASSIVE electricity bill based on guesswork. Later refered to as a "CATCH UP BILL" I objected. They fitted a new meter and after 30 days I phoned in the reading of 180 units. Then they said they had "METERED our useage for the time the meter had stopped, which was some time between 2009 and Aug 2012, they decided it had slowed down for all of that period and we owed them a few £hundred then a ping pong discussion by email ensued, me asking for my credit back and them eventually reducing the amount they claim I owe to £29. But they refuse to admit they are guessing when the meter stopped or slowed and what our useage was, they claim it is METERED but they have multiplied our use in September x 2 years, saying the CATCH UP bill and their charter allows them to do that. I asked for the unsolicited visits to be refunded, they refused saying our contract allowed them to do that. I asked to see the contract, they said it was verbal I asked to hear the contract, they said the tape was wiped. I asked if I could have information how to take this to the Ombudsman, they said they would reffer it to senior management, but would like to exhaust all avenues with me first. Thoughts? Advice?? Similar experiences?? I just think it's wrong that they cut corners by not reading the meter, knew we had a crumby old meter and didn't bother renewing it, and cannot know what our useage has been, I don't like paying for guesstimates!

Ok I know they cant cut me off in winter if I have children. Can they however forcefully install a meter (via the courts and a lock smith) that I cant afford to use? (effectively cutting me off) Because they wont just instal a normal meter I will have to pay off part of my 4000 pound debt and pay for what I normally use and im on benefits at the moment and in serious financial difficulty/debt and I cant afford to eat let alone pay my bills! The electricity company is E-On they are on the verge of taking the case to court to apply for the rights to force me to install the meter/ to try and disconnect me.

This is complex: I have a house that was vacant for a few years, and then rented out for a few more. A family member handled the letting, as I was over 500 miles away for work purposes. During the vacant and letting periods, it seems that an electricity meter reading was *never* taken. When I resumed control of the house this summer, I submitted a meter reading -- I was told that this was the first reading in 6 years, and the bill of £13,000 would be payable by me. I rechecked the meter the following week, and found that the meter was running backwards! The electricity company came out, confirmed the fault and changed the meter for a new one. They say that adjusting for the meter fault, they estimate that I am liable for a bill of approx £9,000 Here are my issues with this: - Why should I have to pay any bill for the period when a family member had let out the house to tenants? Should the bill not be sent to the tenants (or the other family member who was acting as a landlord?) - I did propose that they allocate the bills more fairly, and they told me that if they did so, then the bill would have to be split evenly over the occupied and vacant periods. Can this be right? It should be obvious to anyone that a vacant house consumes less power than an occupied one. - How can they (or I) know *when* the meter started running backwards, and whether it was running at the same rate for the entire time? Is a meter even capable of giving a consistent/reliable reading when running backwards?

Whilst living in student accommodation, I had a dispute with the landlord after my passport was stolen (reported to police) and myself and house-mates moved out on 2/2/2007 back home with our parents. No house-mates name was ever on any bill as all bills were included in with the rental price and we all left with 2 weeks paid notice. Now I'm being pursued by Buchanan Clark and Wells on behalf of British Gas after an electricity bill was taken out in my name on 14/02/2007 until 17/07/2007. The ONLY proof I have that I moved from that address is a bank letter stating a change in address on the 2/2/2007. I rang both BC&W and British Gas telling them the debt wasn't mine and was told to prove it. (My bank letter is unacceptable apparently and I wasn't given a tenancy agreement). I asked for proof of debt, electric contract, etc and was refused by both companies. How can I get these companies to accept the debt is not mine and/or leave me alone? Any help will be much appreciated. Just to point it out again, it is NOT my bill. I WAS NOT living there, so my name was fraudulently added to the bill.

Hi, Just looking for some help. I am about to move home, the new house is currently empty, being sold by agent for bank, I believe it was repossessed. So not a huge amount of detail is known about who supplied the electricity. Can I just pick anyone as it will be a new contract, or do I need to find out who the "current" supplier is, and if so how do I go about it. Thanks

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/business-consumer/sse-increases-energy-prices-by-9-1274249

Hi all, Wonder if anyone can offer some advice. I moved into my property in 2007, i had Scottish Power as my electricity supplier and received my bills quarterly until they stopped arriving at the end of 2008. I contacted the electric board to see who my supplier had been changed to and was told N Power. I have since spoke to N Power regarding this and they have denied that they are my supplier. It has now been brought to light that the electric board had give me the supplier of another house with a similar address as my house was a new build. However they cant tell me who my supplier is as my address doesnt show up on their system but all my neighbours address show. Surely if Scottish Power were billing me my address should be there? N Power did however tell me that the meter number i gave them is showing up as being disconnected. I spoke to the Scottish Power Rep on the forums and he supplied me with the date of my last payment, my last meter reading and what i was being charged per unit. So how do i sort this? how do i find out who my supplier is? what happens with the bill from 2009 til now? Thanks.

Hi. We moved into a new home and, as part of the process, the builder wrote to Eastern Electricity to inform them of the activation and to provide meter readings. Since then we have not received a bill for years. I didn't relaly pay a lot of attention as I pay all bills/fees/etc by DD. We have had a visit from EON today who checked our meter and said that the serial number didn't relate to their records and so I did a bit of checking on our account. It transpires that the builders notified Southern Electricity, who installed the meter etc, but they don't bill us, EON had the wrong address, hence having incorrect serial numbers, so I think I need to call EDF to notify them and to see what they know of me. Before I do ths I want to make sure I know what the rules and regulations are. I still have the original builders' letter of activation.

Am new to the Forum, so hope i have posted in the right place:?: Have a 'key' pre payment meter for my electricity, as i have an 'outstanding' balance with them, and just wondering if anyone knows the day they take the 'debt' off the meter, and if the debt can be taken off the emergency credit? Thanks for any advice

Hi, Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I moved in to a rented property, which has got two pay as you go meters (gas and elec). These were installed by Southern Electric because the previous tenant got in to substantial arrears. However, I am stuck with the meters or limited to a few suppliers that use meters, consequently any sort of choice regarding who supplies my elec and/or gas is severely limited....[edit] If I want to be able to have a 'choice', I HAVE TO PAY to have the meters removed. ME !!!! Not the previous tenant who run up the debt in the first place..... the landlord isn't expected to pay for the removal either. From the website of Southern Electric Our credit meters give you more choice with the different tariffs that are available. And you can get our biggest discount when you pay your bills my monthly Direct Debit and choose paperless billing If you’d like us to remove your pay as you go meter, we’ll charge you £52 for the work involved. No BIG DISCOUNT for people in my position though, through no fault of their own, only a cost of £104 (2 meters) to have them taken out Any ideas anyone ?

I'm trying to help a friend with a case. He has been taken to court by the electricity company who supplied his property. They are suing him personally and at his home address. The property they supplied is a shop which he tenanted out. The tenant did a runner and left rent and bills to pay, one of which was for the electricity. He has supplied the tenancy agreement to the power company but they don't care. The balance they're suing for is around £5,500 plus interest plus fixed sum, all at business rates. Their particulars of claim stated that the defendant (my friend) had an agreement with them for the supply of the electricity. We asked for documentation of this in our defence plus other paperwork but they seem unable to supply this (obviously because there is nothing). They've now asked for permission to amend the particulars and their case is now based on a "deemed" contract with my friend, as owner of the property. We haven't yet given this permission and are thinking of denying. If they do change it, we will have to submit a new defence as well. They've provided a planning application as proof that my friend owns the property and all the invoices are now in his name. I'm assuming all invoices were previously in the tenant's name and have been changed for this case. Having looked at the terms and conditions, they seem unfair in that the deemed contract can be used even when the defendant has not received the services or agreed to them or anything else that they choose. I'm assuming there will be a good defence to this case because otherwise it would mean all landlords are liable for their tenant's bills and this cannot be fair. Also, we're not sure if they're suing him as a consumer (which he is) or a business but they seem to be using business terminology as if this was a business to business contract. My friend has a main job and this is just a property he owns and rented out. Being a landlord is not his main job and he cannot afford to pay for bills like these. Any advice?

Hi, I have a problem with ScottishPower. I lived in a small 1 bedroom flat by myself from Oct 09- Sept-10, and I didn't get any bills whilst I was there. When I moved into the property, the Landlord did not mention anything about the bills, he just said I was responsible for the council tax, and looking back, I probably should have asked him then, but nevermind. When it came to about 4 weeks from me moving out, a bill finally arrived, for the sum of £950-ish (not entirely sure). I was obviously gobsmacked, that after nearly a year they had finally sent me a bill, and a bill that no where near reflects my usage. So I contacted Scottish Power, and I remember giving them some meter readings of sorts but before anything could be sorted out I was in the middle of a stressful move from my flat to another one. I did make sure to send a letter to Scottish Power with my new forwarding address, also left one for my landlord. I moved to my new place, and didn't hear from Scottish Power until a year later of moving into my new flat. I didn't hear from Scottish Power though, it was a debt collection company Buchanan Wells & Clark requesting payment for Scottish Power for over £1500!! I was annoyed to say the least, so I have contacted Scottish Power and opened a complaint with them, not expecting the complaint to go far, because who are they going to side with? Themselves. Scottish Power have now sent me a final account bill of £1112.42 for the time I was at the property, after trying to bill me from 0ctober 2009 to january 2011. They have offered me a 18 month payment plan of £61 pounds a month, which to be honest if far to high for me, I earn a pitiful income as I am on apprentice wage and get paid £95 a week. Also, this bill is an Estimated Bill, and its nearly £200 more than the bill I remember getting just before I moved. Surely there is something wrong here? Scottish Power want my tenancy agreement or meter reading, both of which I do not have, its been more than a year since I lived there, and I have no contact details for the landlord. This has been a really bad experience for me, and to be honest I am not happy at the way I've been treated. Is there anything I can do to get this stupidly infalted bill reduced?? There is no way 1 person can use that much electricity in a small 1 bedroom flat, especially as I am careful with wasting energy, I lived in my parents 8 bedroom house with my 5 brothers and sisters and we had a pre pay meter, and we never got through more than £10 a week! If anybody has any advice, or previous experience I would really appreciate some help, thank you for taking the time to read this very long post.

How can I dispute their direct debit increase without changing supplier? I have argued that what they are trying to charge me will incure me financial problems and that it is estimated not actual, so how can they charge me something that I have havent had yet? My gas bill for May to August £174 they want me to pay £96 per month over the quater? My electricity same period £125 they want me to pay £59 per month over the quarter? Advice please!

I would be grateful if anyone could give me any help in dealing with a bizarre situation in regard to Eon. I own a rental flat which is handled for me by a professional lettings and management company. There was an eight month rental void in the flat from the beginning of August 2009 until the start of a new tenancy on the 15th April 2010. During this period the flat was untenanted and empty. The first six months of the void period showed normal meter readings for an empty flat, according to Eon. However, they claim that from February 2010 until the start of the new tenancy on 15th April 2010, the meter reading jumped by 10,000 units from a reading of 71,705 on 16th February, to one of 81,725 on 15th April. This is totally impossible. Eon are attempting to charge me over £1000 for this. The meter is an old fashioned mechanical one; not a dial type, but one where the numbers go round separately on wheels. I first became aware that there was a major problem with Eon last week -early July- when the lettings agents, who had been dealing with Eon over this, contacted me to say they had learnt that my details had been passed by Eon to an external debt collection agency in May. Horrified, I rang Eon, but they were completely unhelpful. I have not had any replies to my email queries and requests for information from Eon. I put in an official complaint to them on 4th July. In addition to this, Eon do not even have the correct address for the flat; the address they have been using is for a nearby block of flats, so it is surprising that any correspondence has arrived at all. The letting agents dealt with this until recently. They are a local firm, they are impartial, and belong to a professional body. They tell me that they have repeatedly explained to Eon that the flat was totally empty over the period in question, and that this normally satisfies the other utilities when this situation arises. However, they say, Eon was different. From the beginning they were totally intransigent, and seemed intent on collecting the money, whether it was owed or not. The facts are as follows: 1.The flat was empty from August 2009 - April 2010; there is confirmation of this from myself, the letting agents, and the man who lives in the flat directly beneath. 2. We can provide copies of rental agreements with dates, and confirmation from the council tax office that the flat was empty. 3. No other utility has claimed there was any usage at all during this period, only Eon. 4. The previous tenant, who vacated in August 2009, did not leave any electricity on. This would have shown up in the meter readings. It does not. 5. Letting agents had been conducting viewings at the flat. They confirm it was unoccupied. The flat was immaculate after the first tenant left in August 2009, and it remained so throughout. I know that the flat was empty over the period in question. I know that the claimed electrical usage did not take place in that flat. Ten thousand units/ a thousand pounds' worth of electricity used in a small empty flat, suddenly, within two months is ridiculous. I know that I am receiving demands for money I do not owe. The latest stage in this is that Eon have stated that they now think that the meter may be faulty, and would I agree to it being tested by an external body. I understand from a consumer group that the meter examination is a last resort when all else fails, and more or less covers the company with the ombudsman. I am supposed to sign a document in which there is a clause which I believe signs away my rights to further investigation, should the meter be found not to be at fault. In addition, Eon have told me that the meter examination is likely to take six months. All this is beyond the pale. Already it has been a stressful, time consuming ordeal. I have had to take time off from my own work to research this, and try and get information from Eon (almost impossible). I have no intention of letting them string this ordeal out for a further six months. Can anyone give me any sound advice on this? Is the meter examination a good idea, and if it determines the meter is not faulty, what is the position then? My feeling is that I should finish dealing with Eon, whom, on the evidence of the letting agents and my own experience, have no interest in listening to reasonable argument and evidence, but are intent on their own agenda. Rather than wasting any more time, I should perhaps wait for the statutory eight weeks to complete, and take it straight to the ombudsman, who hopefully will be able to make some sense of what has happened. Is the ombudsman able to carry out tests on meters and electrical supplies, if necessary? I would appreciate any advice at all on this.