Scottish Power - No Correspondence for 2 Years...now a £2,000 bill!

[nodrick18]

Hi, first time poster looking for advice from fellow poster or Scottish Power rep.

 

We (my partner and I) have lived in our Edinburgh flat for nearly 2 years now - may '09 until March '11 and we (until now) have had no bill for electricity or gas. When we first moved we were given a direct debit form by Utilities Warehouse (I think it was called) and were told the direct debit would come out after completion of the form. After a few months we still had no direct debit either set up or taken out. So we contacted them and were told an application was sent but not completed.

 

During this time we had no meter readings from anyone until a Scottish Power person came and took a reading, we thought this was strange as we didn't know they were our suppliers. After some time we still had no bills from Scottish Power despite them taking our readings. We contacted Scottish Power to say that we had no bills from them but when they checked the MPAN number it was registered to another flat in the building. We tried to change the address of this to ourselves but this never happened.

 

About 6 to 8 months ago Scottish Hydro Electric tried to change the flat's suppliers to them. We read the information, filled in the form and send it away. We heard back form them that there was a problem with our MPAN number, that it was still registered to this other flat. We contacted both Scottish Hydro and Power to try and sort this problem but again nothing was sorted, still no bills sent out.

 

Yesterday I got a phone call from Colin from Scottish Power saying they were taking a warrant against our flat for an unpaid £275 gas bill. This was news to us as we had never received anything to say we had this bill to pay. He said he was sending us a letter to arrange payment, we are awaiting delivery on this letter.

 

This morning, another call from Scottish Power, this time to say that there was an unpaid gas bill of over £1000 and an unpaid electricity bill of £900 and they tried to set us up with a direct debit to pay it off or a pay meter to be installed. I panicked at this point and said I would take the pay meter. I spoke to my partner and she said that I should phone them back to see why we haven't been getting billed in the last 2 years and also to quote the Code of Practice for Accurate Bills which says companies can't bill you more than 12 months if the problem is their fault.

 

When I phoned back the lady, Claire, said she would pass on or information for further investigation and we can expect to hear from them again around Tuesday.

 

I am just wondering if there is anything else we can do to get this sorted. Of course we have been expected something for months now but the problem is not our fault. We had nothing through our letter box at all in the two years from anyone and can't see why we should be forced to pay so much when it is clearly not our fault. As we are both final year university students we don't have this kind of money to pay this bill in one go but the meter plan we discussed was to pay £3.40 a week (which we worked out would mean we would be paying off this bill for 20 years!!)

 

If anyone can help we would be grateful as we have no idea what our next step should be!

 

Thanks

 

Roddy Graham

[Reser]

Hi, I am currently having the same problem. A link that might help is here ht tp://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1684407. There is something called ' Code of Practice for Accurate Billing' which states they cannot claim back debt from over a year ago if it was their fault. In this case this seems to be the case.

 

I only just found out about this myself and have been paying off a debt I really should not be paying. I will be attempting to rectify my own situation this week.

[ScottishPower Company Rep]

Hi nodrick18

 

I am sorry to hear about your situation. This can be a very complicated situation for any supplier as the original supply details for your electricity meter will be addressed incorrectly. The supplier is then normally required to find out the details of all the meters within the block (as this is normally the case with a number of flats within a block) so that all records can be updated accordingly.

 

If you contacted ScottishPower and provided details of your meter (meter serial number) and we still did not create an account for you, then we will only be required to back bill your account for 12-month prior to the date that we create an accurate account for you. For example, if we correct the supply details and create an account in your name, for the correct address and with the correct supply details for your meter, we can send a statement on 14th March 2011 billing you correctly from 14th March 2010. If no statements were sent to the property at all, then all charges prior to 14th March 2010 will need to be removed.

 

If you would like me to review the account details to see whether you qualify for the back billing adjustment or to confirm why this has not been applied, just send me a PM and I'll investigate this for you.

 

Kind Regards

 

Colin @ ScottishPower

Edited March 15, 2011 by ScottishPower Company Rep

[nodrick18]

Thanks for the responses

[nodrick18]

I'm trying to send you a DM now Colin

[Surfer01]

If Scottish Power only recently tried to regioster the MPAN to themselves, how can they try and back bil you for two years usage. They should be able to determine the MPAN number if they are supplied with teh meter serial number. Make sure that you give them the meter serial number for the meter that is supplying your flat and not oen for some other flat.

[ScottishPower Company Rep]

Hi nodrick18

 

Thanks for the PM. I'll get the account reviewed in details and confirm exactly what has happened and what can be done to resolve this matter for you.

 

Kind Regards

 

Colin @ ScottishPower