Powegen

[naughtydruid]

Hi,

 

I was hoping someone would be able to offer some advice on the following matter...

 

I lived in a student house between 2001 and 2004 and had all the bills in my name. I had a few different house mates over the period but always just kept control of the bills. In 2004 we had our meter read (for the first time since I had moved in) and got a massive bill from Powergen going back to 2002. We had been paying estimated charges for almost 3 years and they suddenly wanted to add over £2000 to our bill. I went to CAB at the time and they helped me out with a payment plan (we had a meter fitted which took £10 per week extra). At the time they said it was worth taking it further as there may be grounds to reduce the bill because they had failed to come and read the meter and grossly under estimated their earlier bills. For various reasons I didn't take it any further.

 

I left the property in 2003 and I guess just thought I would walk away from the debt as it was all on meter and not my problem. Also I was somewhat annoyed that I ended up footing the bill myself when there had been various other housemates who were jointly liable.

 

Before Christmas I recieved a couple of letters from LCS Civil Enforcement requesting payment of £1200 which I presume is what was left of the debt when I left the property 3 years ago.

 

The last letter I recieved said if payment is not made soon it will be passed over to either Solicitors or a local rep who may call at your home to secure payment.

 

I realise that because the bills were in my name I am probably liable for the debt but really can't afford that much at the moment as we have just had a baby and are already ending up £100 short each month.

 

I was thinking it might be worth offering them a set amount, maybe half the debt, to settle it in one lump sum. Is this wise and would I be better off offering it to Powergen direclty or to LCS?

 

I rang LCS to ask if they could send me a breakdown of the debt and they just gave me a number for Powergen.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[lookinforinfo]

It is a pity you didn't take up CABs suggestion at the time. What these

companies do is to underestimate,underestimate and underestimate your bill. And then when there is a price increase they read your meter and everything

is then charged at the higher price.

It is rough on you as the named bill payer,and I can understand that you didn't bother too much about keeping tabs on the bill.

 

As LCS have suggested you contact Powergen, then that may be the best course. Point out the difficulty you had back then as the £2000 bill was a shock, the more so as many others who were contributing to the bill had

already moved out. And point out that because the meter was read so infrequently, and vastly under estimated, you feel that as you have already

paid so much, and you have now no way of recovering any of the amount

from the other sharers, that they take that in to account and see if they

could find a way to come to an agreement for a lesser amount. Things are

already financially tight and whilst you would like to resolve it, at the present price you feel that your best recourse would be to go to Court and put your

case to them for a more equitable result in view of the factors involved.

 

Not sure your times are right though, since you say you got the big bill in 2004

but you left in 2003.

If they don't budge on that figure come back and then you can send them

an sar to get a picture of how the price increases coincided with meter readings, and what charges have been added since the bill was sent.

[sequenci]

do they have to check the meters at regular intervals?

 

spoken to energywatch?

[SHERLOCK]

will try to find info - I believe I read somewhere that they were writing these debts off, not 100% sure of details??? - ofgem (or something like that).

 

Don't get your hopes up, but I thought the government intervened, check back later.

 

energywatch: Billing Basics

 

'energywatch therefore submitted a super-complaint to Ofgem on billing. When it made its decision Ofgem set out three requirements on energy suppliers:

1. By July 2006 they have to set up and fund an independent body to resolve disputes between individual companies and consumers. This body will have the power to award compensation to consumers who have received particularly poor service.
   
2. From July 2006 they should no longer seek payment from consumers where they have not billed a customer for two years. From July 2007 this period should reduce to one year.
   
3. By July 2006 they should have reviewed the terms and conditions of the contracts they offer to consumers to make sure they are as simple as possible, comply with consumer rights’ legislation and are not biased in suppliers’ favour.

does 2. apply??

 

SHERLOCK

[naughtydruid]

Thanks getting back, this forum is great.

 

I have just had a better look at the last demand from LCS and it actually says: "Regarding Electricity Consumption at 149 xxxxxxx between 06/11/2002 and 09/03/2004" which is only about 16 months. I think I moved in there late 2000\2001 so it may be that some of the underestimation is from before 06/11/2002 but for some reason they are using that as the start date for the money they are chasing.

 

Clearly the problem here is I am dreadfully unorganised and have a really poor memory! I could do with getting Powergen to send me a really clear breakdown of how they come to that amount, what dates are involved and details of the other payments I made for the earlier bills.

 

Is this something they are obliged to send me?

[pjdudley69]

do they have to check the meters at regular intervals?

 

spoken to energywatch?

 

 

From what I remember from my days as a CSA for a gas/electricity company, meters have to be read at least once every two years [this was back in 2000/2001 - whether this has been changed to more frequently since then, I don't know].

 

The best advice for anyone tho is to check the meter reading when you receive your bill, and inform the utility company of the correct reading - yes, it may generate a slightly higher bill [if you do it every time you get a bill] but it helps prevent a massive bill when they eventually do read the meter.

 

PJ

[naughtydruid]

Yep, I would certainly second that advice! I think the problem at that property was that the only hot water was from an electic storage heater that had to be turned on manually and because the bills did not seem over expensive we just kept it switched on too much. It wasn't until we got the meter fitted that we realised just how much money it was costing. Also student priorities tend to lay elsewhere when it comes to spending money!

 

Ho-hum.

 

If anybody has any advice on how to request the information from Powergen it would be appreciated. Is the SAR relevant in this case? (I must admit I don't really understand what the SAR actually is!)

 

Cheers