E.ON now have the details for their customer to enforce fuel direct without the customer's consent. If no agreement can be reached which takes into account consumption and at least £3.00 a week debt (the minimum OFGEM has set) then fuel direct can be enforced by any supplier of utilities as long as it leaves the person on benefits with at least £1.00 in their pocket after deductions. I think this is harsh and I work for the suppliers. The only other suggestion I have is that the flat is in the Eastern Electric Public Electric Supplier area (based off the 3 rate meter being Economy 10 and this exclusive to the area) a prepayment meter is not an option because of how it affects the water and heating supplies. I would also suggest completing a load test on the meter if it is a communal area (quite frequent with flats) and confirm if they are billing to the right meter. Frequently we are mis-informed by the builders which property the meter supplies and have to rebill entire flat blocks. This could be the reason behind this consumption being so high. A load test is done by turning the power completely off and looking for the meter which does not have a flashing light. This confirms the meter which is supplying your property

I see your logic, 7 day colling off period, day one new supplier is sent metering details and all current supplier contracts. day 2 new supplier sends its contracts to its MOp and DC and day 3 they return the confirmation back to us. The reguations are pretty outdated along with the systems that are used for the DTM flows between the parties involve. I feel that right now 28 days with an old supplier is at the bottom of the list of things that needs to be fixed, there is too much else wrong with the system. This is coming from an inside view

I don't work for EDF but I do work for one of the other suppliers and situations like this have occurred in calls I dealt with when working with the field agents. This information is supplied by the meter readers they have to give a reason as to why they could not obtain a meter reading. they are known as exceptions and there is occassions where an occupier may refuse to give access i.e. not appropriately dressed. Nothing to be worried about. as for the meter readings they could be armchair reads. Meter reader hasn't been and just stuck a reading that looks right in. I've been told of occassions where DCA's have called us from the pub and not been to the property its difficult to be certain that all jobs have been done correctly. If you have a read to date they can establish the true balance as far as the end reading goes. EDF is correct in what they state about the billing code as long as they have made all reasonable attempts to read the meter and there has been no assistance with information in regards to occupancy or the occupier is trying to avoid payment they can charge for the full balance. These are not accussations again you, just possible reasons. As for no record of contact, if they have migrated their account database from one system to another information can get lost. I've dealt with customer complaints along these lines before. I cannot say for certain that this is what has happened just a possibility. In regards to information on tenants yes they want copies of tenancy agreements, see if they will accept a condensed version (such as a single printed document) with tenant names, start and end dates plus any reads you have. If you choose to give last known forwarding addresses that is your discression. They may request the original agreements but if you are happy to accept the debt for any gaps which you cannot produce proof of tenancy they may be happy to accept the condensed version plus if required to smooth things over offer to include a statatory declaration from the solicitors. If they have the proof of tenancy which seperates you from the debt they cannot legally chase you for their debts. What I'm suggesting is that when Mergers have taken place details have been transfered from one database to another. With the 'reliability' of ICT systems in the world it could of been lost in transfer and not picked up. If so its unfortunate and at this point in time pretty much unrecovarable I'm afraid. See what you can get them to agree to to hold off action. I'm not aware of their collection proceedures but you do need to resolve this before they start making field visits. That is when you can start incurring costs. Disconnection is purely circumstantial. Where there is the means to install and activate a prepayment meter they will do so. Even if there is no-one in on the day of warrant for a gas supply they can still install a prepayment meter with what is known as a blanking disk if they have the contractual agreement with National Grid or Scotia. Sorry I shall clarify this. Where an account name is such as 'The Occupier' or 'New Customer' anyone can legally look at the contents of the account as long as they are responsible at the time. Information you need to ask for is the start date for the account (the first day you are being billed from), the date the account was made live (when they actually opened the account), the date the first bill was issued and when they started to send mail to the property. All this is factored into the billing code. Any post that was sent to the property does not have to of been sent on the live account, but also any historic accounts for the property which were active at any time during the billing period they are chasing (i.e opened 01/01/99 but was closed 01/01/10 to open this account). If that still doesn't make sense let me know which parts you want me to explain further

First call EDF and escalate this matter. If they are genuinely telling you 30 February then question it. There is only 28 days in a year. Also if you have paid and it has gone onto the gas account that EDF hold for you, take a meter reading plus the balance and get them to calculate a bill and work out the difference. If there is a genuine credit you are entitled to this and there is no expiry date. Regardless as to what they say this your money and they have to give it back.

I agree he does not need to give his current supplier 4 weeks notice. He may need to give some contract cancellation if he is in an agreed contract but MPAS deals with the change of supplier notification. The 4 week period is due to several factors, the current supplier requires an objection window incase there is an active contract or debt, the remainder is to transfer all the metering details and to allow the new supplier to assign their meter readers and engineers, there is a lot of contracts that go flying about.

Too many e.on staff here. The sort code is 60 80 09. Tell them you will be paying £65 and they wil agree as long as it doesn't extend too far and covers debt plus usage. If you really struggle Prepayment is the best way

Yes it is a deemed contract you are using the supply so therefore the service needs to be paid for if you are not willing to pay for a service regardless of what is then a business has a right to terminate that service. The deemed contract effectively states that you are responsible for paying for the supply at the property as the end user, which is in my eyes is fair to do. You wouldn't run a shop and let people just take stuff without paying, why should they let you use gas/electric. The 4 week notification period is the time it actually takes for the meter data and supply information to be handed over from one supplier to another. This arranged between then new and old supplier and you do not need to get involved. All you need to pay is the old suppliers final bill for the period (contact MPAS and find out who this is so you can tell them you moved in and don't end up having to pay someone else's bill or have the change over obected to because they didn't pay) and pay your new supplier for the new bill. Unless you agree a special contract with the new supplier all you have agreed to do is let them supply you and you will be on the new suppliers standard/deemed rates also.

first have you notifed Scottish Power of a change of Tennacy? Check the start date of the account and make sure it matches the date you moved in. This may of caused the problem with the switch over if the letting agents as you said were the previous account holders had not paid the bill and it was outstanding by over 28 days. If there was nothing to prevent the switch over, such as outstandingbill or a contract that was in place with the old customer contact MPAS and check if a request to change supplier was made by BG. If it was not then BG have failed to complete the transfer request and you can likely bring this to court or with the ombudsman. As for a refund from either supplier I don't know if this is possible but find out where the fault exactly lies and chase the failing party.

Looking at it the issue seems to be that information has not been passed over to them. EDF is formerly London Electric, South West Electric and South East Electric. I know from where I work that during mergers accounts and billing systems can go astray and we have been spending 2-3 years recovering lost electric and gas supplies. You have had tenants in the property so any post that was sent would be lost. Normally I would suggest confirming if they have been sending post in the name of "The customer". Under the codes of practise for accuratte billing if they have not read or attempted to read the meter or produced a bill for the last 15 months, unless with prior agreement not to bill, the supplier can only backdate bills for 12 months. This is only a brief view of the billing code of practice and doesn't cover all the circumstances but most billing code write offs are due to a failiure for this reason. Thed account is also in the name of the "The Customer" if EDF are going to state they cannot tell you any details due to data protection you have to ask them who they can speak to as legally anyone can open and read post in this name and obtain information. If they don't want to give you details then ask for the account start date, the date of the first bill and if correspondence has been sent to the property during the period of account. It does not have to of been sent on the current account it can of been sent on the historic account. I'm not 100% on this but has a visit prior to application to the court been made to try and resolve this been made and has a human rights (hr) letter been left at site? The hr letter is a must as it notifies you of your rights. If you are still not happy with the results you are getting request a formal complaint to be made and this will automatically place the account in dispute and any action they take which relates to the dispute that is counter productive to resolution i.e proceed to court and fit a prepayment meter or disconnect can be escalated to the ombudsman. If they have been billing for the last 6 years and no tenancy information has been provided and supporting evidence cannot be provided for the full age of the balance you can be deemed responsible as the owner as the information has not been provided and you have not been able to provide it. My recommendation is tro give them as many tenancy details as possible. If the property is currently occupied and you want to dispute the start reading then take 2 readings over 2 days and ask them to recalculate the read. You may find that if they have not read the meter this may be grossly under or over estimated.