EDF Energy - notice of legal action

[toshyboy]

Hi guys

 

Hope you can offer me some advice as my parents have got into a bit of a pickle with these guys

 

my mum signed up with them about a year ago after agreeing a £75 duel fuel tarriff with them to cover both electric and gas.

 

Everything was going along fine for the first 7/8 months months or so

the amount was taken out by dd no problems and

 

then my folks received a letter out of the blue stating they were over £1k in arrears.

 

My mum phoned them and was told that the £75 monthly payments were only going against the gas and not the electric hence the rather large bill.

 

My mum obviously complained as this was not what she was sold and she received a letter of apology along with a £40 "goodwill gesture" credit.

 

They then agreed the payments going forward would be £90 per month and that this would include payment against the arrears.

 

Again things were fine for 3/4 months the payments came out as agreed then

 

1 month an amount of £150 came out.

 

My mum never done anything about this and the following month an amount of over £300 came out.

 

My mum then did notice this and immediately cancelled the dd and reclaimed the money.

 

She phoned EDF and they claimed she is using a lot more electricity (heating in the winter).

 

They then arranged another plan of £140 per month and mum phoned once a month to pay by card.

 

She paid this for a couple of months and has now switched suppliers but the change doesnt come into effect until the end of next month

 

Edf still supplying until end of jan.

 

She has not paid this months bill and is a couple of weeks late making the payment this month.

 

She has tried to make the payment but EDF are demanding an amount of over £600 to clear arrears in full which she doesnt have.

 

This morning she has received a notice of legal action which states if she does not make payment in full by 20/12

they will visit the property to collect payment in full.

 

It goes on to say if they are unable to gain entry they will apply for a warrant (under gas and electricity boards act 1954) to disconnect the energy supply.

 

As I say she cant pay the £600 in full and is really worrying now.

 

Would they cut off the supply of a disabled woman)??

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

EDIT: The £600 is made up of £190 gas, £300 electric and and dont know what the remaining balance is i presume charges

Edited December 22, 2012 by toshyboy
update

[i hate bailiffs]

Are the bills the actual readings of energy used or estimates

 

if they do press ahead with things they will not simply disconnect the supply but install a pre payment/key meter

 

You are going to get no where talking to them on the phone as they will say there is no record of the call

 

Write to them keep a paper trail

[dx100uk]

somethings not right here

 

i know EDF are useless at the best of times

 

but they wouldn't of let someone switch with a +£500 debt.

 

HOW were EDF getting their readings?

 

dx

[toshyboy]

hi guys - they asked my mum to read the meter for a week and thats when they came up with the £90 payments

 

she requested the switch 2 weeks ago which is before she has had this demand. At that point she was 1 week late on the £140 plan

[Surfer01]

We are a couple in a bungalow and we only have electric for everything. We have air source heating and our cost in the winter months is £90 per month. When we had storage heaters, the cost was about the same. Do your parents have E7 tariff or standard as the bill for electric is very high. During the summer months with no heating our electric bill is only about £45 per month.

The first thing that they need to do is to compare the meter serial number on the meter and see if it corresponds with meter serial number on the bill. Quite often on a change over they will register the wrong meter to a property. This meter serial number is not the long number that normally starts with a "01" or "02".

How many units of electric do they use in a period of 24 hours as I can work out a very rough estimate of cost per month as I cannot see where they came up with the £1000 figure for electric. Our bill for the year which includes heating the home is just over £1000 per annum.

I can't really advise on gas at this point as I do not know whether gas is used for heating or electric.