Southern electric claiming unpaid bill

[Robert86]

Hi all,

I'm having a pain with Southern Electric;

they're claiming an unpaid final bill from a property we left at the beginning of March, 2013, of £160.78,

which has now gone up to £184.90 as it's been taken over by their dept collectors "Past Due".

 

We paid the final bill of ninety-something pounds at the end of February,

and my mother (who's name the account is in) called them to give them the final reading a few days later

and advise them we were moving out.

 

The man my mother spoke to told her we'd be due a rebate of over seventy pounds because we'd been over paying,

and to send the reading in writing with a cancellation letter.

 

A month later after we'd long left the property

we received the bill for £160.78, which I queried and

 

after some back and forth (because we were moving out there was practically nothing electrical in the property, so this bill was ridiculous),

the case was moved to someone else

who, on the 2nd of August 2013, advised me they'd review the case and contact me soon when they had an update.

 

At the end of January (this year) I received a letter from PastDue saying this had been passed to them and we needed to pay £184.90.

 

I contacted SE. again, and they claim to have emailed me on the 8th of august,

though I have no record of this,

claiming they had decided I do owe this money based on the final reading with no further explanation.

 

I'm not currently in the country so cannot go to CAB (and my local one has removed their online support).

 

Please can anyone make any suggestions for what I can do?

 

I don't want to take a trip back to the UK to resolve this as that would cost more than they claim I owe,

but do not wish to pay a bill that is clearly a rip off.

 

Thanks for your time reading my wall of text!

[fkofilee]

Hi Robert

 

There isnt much that they can really do if youre not in the country... However you mentioned the account is in your mums name?

PDCS (PAst Due) in my view are just administrators of the debt and wont exactly be doing very much to enforce this.

 

Your complaint is with SEE and i would have an idea to refer this to OFGEM and see what they say

[Robert86]

Thank you, I've just contacted the ombudsman to try and deal with this matter.

[mattlamb]

I'm assuming your initial final bill was based on an estimated meter reading. Then your mother actually read the meter, and gave that reading to SSE, resulting in the amended final bill.

 

The electric won;t have been used between the time when you moved out and your mother reading the meter. It would have been a catch-up bill, based upon your previous bills having been under-estimated.

[Robert86]

Hi Mattlamb,

the issue with this was that we'd just recently had a meter reader come out (January), and a very recent reading had been given over the phone on which they advised us to expect a refund.