High bill on moving in - anything I can do?

[RyanB96]

Hi, 

 

So I moved into my new house on the 16th March this year. The day of moving in, I immediately rang up ScottishPower to let them know I dont want to be with them for with electricity, and rang nPower to open an account with them. 

 

I switched my electricity over to nPower straight away, and the lady at nPower said all costs would be factored into my first nPower bill from that day, and would be £21/month. 

 

I recently got hit with a £40 electricity bill from ScottishPower from 16th March-17th April. I rang nPower questioning, and the 2nd person said this was correct as it takes a month to switch - and from the moving in date, costs are not filtered in, but stay with scottishpower (so the first npower person was wrong basically, hence this caught me completely by surprise). 

 

However, it means that I am hit with a £40 bill from a very high tariff (16.985p/kwh + 36p/day standing charge) that ScottishPower themselves must have set after the previous owner closed their account. 

 

Also, a meter reading was never requested of me for electricity upon moving in, which means that the number of kWh used is also entirely estimated, and estimated at 154kWh - since I was living alone for the first month (16th march-16th april), and the girlfriend has now moved in( since 17th april) and together we still use less than that.. there is no way the 154 kWh is correct either. 

 

So a high tariff we didnt get a choice on, and a well over-estimated usage, seems very unfair. 

 

Anything I can do about this? 

 

Thanks, 

Ryan

 

Edited May 28, 2019 by RyanB96

[AndyOrch]

Did you take a reading the day you moved in ?  If so give them the accurate reading and ask for it to be recalculated.

[ericsbrother]

so you didnt take a meter reading the moment you moved In?

they should have the last occupants last reading to use for the opening reading and you will have given them your closing reading.

£40 for a winter month isnt that high and the tariff will be their default on, which will be higher than any of the other 35000 tariffs the energy co's have at present becasue they have you by the short an curlys for the month