NEver recieved an Electric/Gas Bill, now they say we have a £1500 debt?

[Reser]

Hi,

 

I am wondering if anyone could give me some advice.

 

What has happened is, about 9-10 months ago we got a letter from Eletric/gas compony (NPower) saying we had underpaid by about £300, rang them up and then they tell us we actually had a £1500 debt that was unpaid and we were supposed to be paying it off and that is how the £300 underpayment came about.

 

However this was the FIRST time we had heard about any 'debt'. After arguing with them on the phone for a while they said we would have been told in our 'Bill' however since moving in to this house we have never once had a 'Bill' from them however we do get letters now and again stating how much we should be paying every 2 weeks ( we pay in 2 week installments) and if we miss a payment, in all the time we have been with NPower we have paid exactly what they asked in these letters, we have missed a payment now and again but paid double the next fortnight to make up for it. They then informed us we were supposed to be getting Bills by post and on the system it says we are, we informed them we had 'not' got any bills at all just notifcations on payments.

 

They never sent us a bill or any notice of a debt, they only told us of the debt which was OVER a year old when we rang up to query a completley different matter based on an underpayment.

 

After further discussion they agreed to send every bill we should have had the past 3 years to us, after looking at the bills the debt was aquired in the first two years of living at this house, basically what happened is they had us on estimated billing for over a year and when they finally took a reading it was massivley over their estimate, however nothing was sent to us to tell us this. During the first year we had managed to missed the gas/electric reader a few times due to being out of the house and had given a few readings ourselves using the card instead.

 

I was outraged that we could aquire a debt and have our payments increased without ever even being told we had a debt, when our monthley fee had gradually increased we had just assumed it was due to increased usage or increase in gas/electric costs. We are now paying £96 every fortnight to cover this debt, and for the past 9-10 months we have put up with it.

 

After telling them we did not get any bills and having 3 years of bills sent to use and them telling us we would now get bills we are STILL not ever recieving any bills.

 

I have just found out about a policy called ' Code of Practice for Accurate Billing' which states that they cannot reclaim debt from over a year ago if it is their fault and most of this debt is from 2+ years ago.

 

Can anyone tell me if I am entitled to get this debt wiped due to the fact they never sent us any Bills and still are not sending us them after our phone call last year?

 

Also am I entitled to ask to be refunded for the money we have paid towards this debt the past year? We have been paying almost £200 a month for electric and gas this year when we have been very frugal and not using much at all.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Reser

[ihateyes]

.

 

Can anyone tell me if I am entitled to get this debt wiped due to the fact they never sent us any Bills and still are not sending us them after our phone call last year?

 

Also am I entitled to ask to be refunded for the money we have paid towards this debt the past year? We have been paying almost £200 a month for electric and gas this year when we have been very frugal and not using much at all.

 

Im not sure why you would think that because you didnt get a bill that means you shouldnt pay the bill (if course you dont owe it!)

 

But God does love a tryer or should i say chancer!

[ihateyes]

I have just found out about a policy called ' Code of Practice for Accurate Billing' which states that they cannot reclaim debt from over a year ago if it is their fault and most of this debt is from 2+ years ago.

 

 

I think this would only apply if you weren't paying them at all, and they never made contact to you.

[Reser]

Im not sure why you would think that because you didnt get a bill that means you shouldnt pay the bill (if course you dont owe it!)

 

But God does love a tryer or should i say chancer!

 

Maybe because of the fact they never once made us aware of the fact we had a debt? If I was made aware of the fact I had a £1500 debt or less I would have started to be more careful , however they did NOT make me aware, they did not send me a bill, they did NOT inform me I had a debt until over a year AFTER the fact. We from the start of our contract paid EXACTLY what they asked for. The only letters we got were updates on how much we had to pay them, e.g you should pay us £96 every 2 weeks. And we paid every single month off at the price they asked. Why should I have a debt if I am paying what they are asking of me and have never informed me of a debt until 2 years later? Why should that be fair in the slightest?

 

And maybe if you actually looked at what the practice entails.

 

 

Most big suppliers also signed up to a Code of Practice for Accurate Billing in July 06. It has rules saying when your supplier can't chase you for bills over a year old, meaning the debts are wiped. This includes...

 

• Bills based on estimated meter readings even when you've taken your own meter readings (if you've not given readings they can chase).

• If you're billed based on 4 digits when there is actually a 5 digit meter at the premises.

• If you've flagged up a query or fault in writing about the account and the supplier's done nothing. This is the one to use if you haven't had a bill and have asked for one.

• If you've told your supplier of a new address but it keeps sending bills to the old one.

How about before you start throwing insults you actually do your research?

 

I MADE them aware of the fact I was not recieiving bills and had no idea of any debt because of this, and they still are NOT sending me bills. They are chasing me for a debt that is over 2 years old and I did not know about because they did NOT send me a bill or any letter stating I had any sort of debt. The first time I heard about the debt was on the phone 2 years after the debt was apparently acquired. And the bill they finally sent us with the debt is 2 years old.

 

Forget it, can a mod delete this thread? I came here for advice, obviously was not a good idea. I will sort it myself.

Edited March 13, 2011 by Reser

[dx100uk]

you are not responsible for bills not sent past 12mts.

 

you need to sar them to find out where they were sending the previous bills to....

 

however one must ask the question.........

 

were you paying someone else for gas/electric during this period?

 

if you were not, one must ask why you have nor sort of 'questioned' why it was supposedly 'free' in you eyes....

 

dx

[Reser]

you are not responsible for bills not sent past 12mts.

 

you need to sar them to find out where they were sending the previous bills to....

 

however one must ask the question.........

 

were you paying someone else for gas/electric during this period?

 

if you were not, one must ask why you have nor sort of 'questioned' why it was supposedly 'free' in you eyes....

 

dx

 

It was not 'free' we had always been paying every 2 weeks. What happened is we paid a set amount every 2 weeks. They sent us notifcations of when this amount went up or down based on our readings. Basically every 6 months we got a letter which was set out in this way :

 

'Based on your most recent meter readings we have adjusted your fortnightley payments to the following for the next 6 months'

 

1/01/2011 - £96

15/01/2011 - £96

28/01/2011 - £96

 

and basically listed the next 6 months in 2 week segmants with the amount we had to pay for each, always the same standerd set amount for every 2 week period, each 6 months this would go up or down between £70 and £96.

 

We paid for the full 3 years exactly the amount they were telling us we needed to pay.

 

Then one day we got a letter through saying something like

 

'Thank you for paying your energy by regular payments. We need to remind you that your fortnightly payment is £96 and to let you know you have fallen behind by £300'

 

I then rang them and asked them how I had fallen behind by £300. It turned out the letter I had recieved was sent after I had paid them and I had apparently 'not' fallen behind, however they then told me we had a £1500 debt and this was why our regular payment had gradually been going up. Which is when I queried why on earth I had never been told of such a debt and then the bills got sent which were from over a year ago.

 

We were never NOT paying , we always paid regularly every 2 weeks, just seems they were not charging us enough for the first year then when they got a better reading the debt appeared, however this debt was never told to us, never sent in a bill, never came in written form what so ever. It was not untill 2 years later when we rang them up that they informed us of the debt and then sent us bills over a year old to proove the debt.

 

What also gets me, is the fact we got letters about how much we had to pay, we got letters when we missed a payment, yet they do not send us our bills. They cannot possibly claim they do not have our address or the wrong address as they are sending us letters, just not sending us our bills, and we have already queried it before and they are still not sending us them.

Edited March 13, 2011 by Reser

[dx100uk]

ok well we cant know these things if you do not tell us.....

 

ok

they cannot suddenly 'change' what they charge you and back date it - lets say a change in what they charge you per unit.

 

they must have proof that they sent you a unit increase charge change dating from when they first changed it.

 

they cant say for instance - we've discovered we've been charging the wrong rate for two year - we now want to back date that change.

 

they can only do it for 12mts.

 

dx

[Reser]

Well the debt was aquired because of being on an estimated rate and then when they checked our meter they found they had estimated wrong. Now as far as I am aware if they had been sending me bills this is fine for them to then ask for the money owed.

 

However we never recieved a bill or any written notice of this at all, and no notice of the debt until 1-2 years after the fact.

 

It seems what they have then done is incorperate a debt repayment scheme into our fortnightly payments without our permission and without even telling us that we had a debt, this repayment scheme caused our fortnightley payments to gradually get higher and higher which at first we thought was just due to the prices going up and us using more but it eventually hit a point where we questioned it over the phone, and they then told us of the debt.

 

From my own workings out since I have no bill to go on, I think they are now charging us about £100 a month to go towards the debt.

 

As far as I am aware though in circumstances where you aquire a debt they are supposed to make you aware of the debt and arrange a repayment scheme with the customer, not just automatically force a repayment scheme of their choosing on the customer and not even tell them they are paying a debt. Their excuse was always 'it is on the bill' and they refuse to accept the fact that we never recieved a bill.

Edited March 13, 2011 by Reser

[ihateyes]

This is the problem with energy companies.... they put people in debt.

 

When you pay by ddeb and pay a set amount its goes one of 2 ways... you go into debt or you go into credit. I do feel for the energy companies here, cos they get slated for peopl being in credit (and yes sometimes by hundreds), but id rather be in credit than being in debt to them.

 

My advice is once you pay them off, go on a tariff where you give a meter read once a month, and they will then take payment 15days later for the amount you have used.

 

Thats what im on and it works a treat.

[nottslad]

Have NPower offered any explanation why bills were not being received?

 

If they have for instance produced them and you haven't received them, this isn't their error and wouldn't fall under the billing code. For example have you registered for their self service website and therefore receive bills on line?

 

If no bills were produced at all, then the billing code would apply.

 

With regards to the estimated billing, if the meter readers attempted to read the meter (they only have to attempt to read once every 2 years by licence) and there was no access, Npower have fulfilled their obligation.

 

In calculating any billing code reduction, payments you have made are off-set against any historic charges, therefore be aware that what you have paid will go towards the oldest debt first.

[Reser]

We do have an online account but it is not set to recieve bills, when we try to view bills online it says their is no bills available. When we rang them they said it was set to send us bills by post. The bills were on their system. So they were produced just seems never sent by email, put online or posted to us. They gave no explanation why we would not be getting bills and said they would make sure we would get them from now on. Obviously they did not as we still get no bills..

 

All I want now is to be rid of this debt and change to another company, but this debt they have made us aquire is making me feel stuck with Npower and they are one of the most expensive in the area.