Southern Electricity Bill.

[kevsaints]

My partner and I was renting a 2 Bedroom Flat for a total of 16 months, this was in 2004 - 2006. Tenancy agreement was 18 months. 1 yr contract then 6 mnths.... but was there for 16.

Our Electricity Meter was in a locked cupboard where all meters for the entire block was kept.. hence locked, but our letting agent said she passes on all relevant info to southern electricity.

 

Basically when we left the property my partner thought we owed about £800 max.

 

In 2007 we started to pay the debt to a collection agency at £ 20.00 p/m. We have made 44 payments a total of £ 880.00

However just 2 months ago my partner found the letter stating we owed £ 880.00. which we still have....so stopped the payments. LUCKY YOU FOUND THAT I SAID.

 

A week ago now we received a further letter stating we still owe £ 540.51. so i phoned the agency and they stated the bill from SE was for a total of £ 1440.51

This covered just bills owing apparently no collection fee has been added at all from either company.

 

So I then phoned SE to asked how the hell we could owe that for that period for the property we was in . they said meter readings etc its correct .

So I asked for meter readings and rates per unit etc....... still was not happy as our first 2 bills was a total of £ 605.82

This covered 4 months . So demanded to speak to a supervisor as something was wrong ......

 

FIRST 4 MONTHS = 605.82 NEXT 14 MONTHS = 835.00 AND 2 PRICE INCREASES .

 

Hurray supervisor has noticed we have used 10,000 units off peak electricity on second bill that cant be right she says do you have a swimming pool . she actually said that.

 

so after our conversation she says she will adjust bill i agree but want a copy of every bill just to be certain.

 

On receiving the new and corrected bill total I then realize the first bill is also incorrect ie: Days charged and also £ 8.50 carried from previous bill .......before we moved in.

 

So she agreed to deduct £ 50.00 from first bill.

 

so £ 1440.51 minus £ 880.00 paid to collection agency minus £ 400.00 error on bill minus £ 50.00 deduction and then £ 8.50 error, and also £ 18.xx we already paid them = £ 84.01 owed to SE.

 

I paid it there and then over the phone so account was cleared and paid up. great I thought but wait now the fun begins.

 

My partner had a detailed look and found further errors so phoned straight back but they were closing speak to supervisor tomorrow.

 

next day spoke to another supervisor as the original one was off. went through bills we disagreed with and got them corrected and she said our total bills should have been £ 783.00 ....... Hold on I said you now owe us £ 200.00 approx.

 

We have added a charge of £ 26.00 for your home visit in January 2005.

Then a 15 percent charge for the collection agency fee which is £ 120. odd pound ........... What ?????

 

we owe you £ 41.xx pence sir.

 

so I have not accepted this if they got there billing right and had charged us originally fair enough but 7 yrs later.

as we explained to them we can not access the meter unless i broke in to it... illegal.

we have relied on meter readings they gave us.

We have also spoken to the debt agency in question and on a recorded line from my partners place of work and they stated

If you owed SE £ 100.00 NORMALLY they add 15 percent however on this occasion they did not.

 

So now they are going to double check every bill etc do a detailed breakdown

but what about these charges should we pay them or demand the full amount back £200.00 overpayment.

and legally can they charge us these after we settled bill.

 

sorry for going on many thanks all help well appreciated.