Be Excellent To Each Other

I alluded to this in Bits n Bobs the other week, but it's still not sorted.

When I moved into my flat on 21st January I noted down the gas reading, and changed supplier. Due to cooling off periods and set up of direct debits etc it didn't get set up until March, when I gave them the reading from January 21st.

The previous company nPower sent me a bill for the gas used previous to that reading, which is £60ish. This is gas that must have been used between the previous tenants moving out, and me moving in, so it's not my responsibility. I forwarded the bill to the landlord, and he evidently didn't pay, as I've had a series of ever increasingly threatening letters demanding the money. All of which I've sent to the landlord.

The only problem I can see is that the final bill shows that an Actual reading was taken the day before for a much lower value, so it's my word against the landlord/previous tenant that my reading is correct. Unless of course all that gas was used in one day - ha!

How do I stop myself getting taken to court? If it helps, the letters come to Mr R Cod, not Mr R Codd.

Sounds a bit fishy to me. (sorry).

Have you actually contacted Npower and explained the situation regarding the previous tenant, and that the bill for this is not your concern? Since they've put it on your account, I think you will need to do this to get it resolved. It will take several long and frustrating phonecalls..

Ignore the bailiff-threatening stuff for now, it's basically automatic.

I wouldn't worry about it. Just say "Couldn't have been me, I moved in on this date" and then they'll say "Cool, yo" and hit up the landlord a bit harder like "Give me the fucking money bitch!" and so on. Or, if it does get to court, you can get your name chucked off sharpish by making an interim thingymabob to the judge by saying "ouldn't have been me, master, I wasn't living there then, you want to hit up the landlord" and he'll say "That's cool, yo!" unless he's Lurch from the Munsters in which case you've got to worry about Joe Pesci being your lawyer.

I had a similar situation with our old flat. After we moved out, the fucking scummer who moved in after us never bothered to set up his own supplier and it was left in my name. Bizzarely, when I rang to transfer my account to the new house, the suppliers thought it would be fine to continue supply at the flat too.

Two years pass. I get a number of threatening letters and phonecalls from a debt collection agency employed by the supplier chasing £1200 of unpaid bills. That was fun. Apparently, although it's easy to prove you live somewhere, it's hard to prove that you *don't* live somewhere.

Thanks for the reassurance all, yo.

I'm just getting a bit worried that if it all goes tits up the landlord will keep my deposit.

Is your deposit in an escrow scheme? It should be, and in that case he'll struggle to keep it for a gas bill that isn't your responsibility.

Yes, an approved scheme. But one of the conditions is that all bills are settled.

Yeah, but it's not your bill, right? They can't make it conditional on bills the landlord or previous tenants are responsible for.

Have you phoned the landlord to make sure he's noticing these bills you're sending on?

I'll have to try and find one. Sadly I'm away from home a lot again at the minute, so don't know where my tenancy agreement is that will have the number on it.

If I did get a CCJ against me would it be against me personally, or the address?

I had a similar problem when moving into my old place, and again with npower as losing supplier. They had estimated meter readings for me which were way off my real initial readings, but still insisted they were right and that I owed them about £100. I refused to pay. I had a solid case because I gave them the correct readings immediately when I moved in. They were supposed to send someone round to double-check my reading, but never did, and then tried to insist I owed them the money. To cut a long story short I demanded all of their records about me under the Data Protection Act, was able to completely demonstrate their incompetence from their own records, and they nullified the bill.

What'll work against you here chap is if you waited 2 months to give them your initial readings. If you haven't had an official read from a gas man in the meantime that makes your numbers credible, it comes down to your word against theirs as to what the real initial reading was, which will make it hard to argue away the bill.

It's a good tip EBG. Scottish Power (who I was not a customer of) once tried to insist I was responsible for standing charges on a derelict cottage near my house, which has been empty for some 20 years. Apparently just by sticking a pin in a map.
I argued against this for months, bailiffs were threatened, and then I pulled out the "OK, where the hell did you get my information and give me all of it, now, or else [name of act]" card. That shut them up immediately and I got a groveling apology.

Not sure it applies in this case Russ, you just been to be reasonable but firm with them, and ignore the automated threats unless it's actually been turned into a Court Thingy, which hopefully it hasn't.

With being away from home apart from at weekends I've not been able to respond to the letters, and I've now forwarded them all on to the landlord so I didn't take a note of the phone numbers - doh!

EBJ - I didn't want to wait 2 months to give them the reading - I took it down on day 0. That was the first day they asked for a reading, and I told them it was the reading taken on 21st Jan. I've spent bloody loads on gas since, which I don't object to paying, but that £60 ain't mine!!

Just phone here: http://www.npower.com/web/At_home/custo ... CMS_003291

And keep explaining, patiently, until they sort it out. You will probably have to repeat this more than once, as they won't get it right first time IME.

I hassled npower for 18 months to get my first bill. It was a big one. I got £100 knocked off as a good will gesture and then left them

Exactly this happened to me. When I called up to challenge the bill (12 months after I moved out, the bailiff letter arrived the same day) I pointed out that not only had I moved out, I had the agents sign off on the meter readings, and they (scottish power) had actually given me a refund.

What was intensely annoying though, was that although someone had given the company my forwarding address, spelt wrong, with my name spelt very wrong, and they had accepted that, and their readings without any question, when I asked for them to confirm to me that the position had been resolved (my job means that I can't have CCJs or any form of financial action against me) I was told that as I had said it wasn't my bill or responsibility, Data protection laws meant that they couldn't tell me when it was resolved.

While you're clearly right, they'd also probably say it was up to you to proactively ring them on Day 0 to log the reading somewhere on your account. These bastards tend not to believe you when you say 'this was the reading a while ago'.

nPower are a shower of shits. Had nothing but trouble when we first bought our house.

Fortunately the bill says "21 Jan - Reading Russell gave."

Unfortunately it also says "20 Jan - Reading given by someone else who was clearly lying about how high their figure really was."

That's pretty much what happened to me. npower told me I'd have to file a 'meter reading dispute', which I did and this froze the account while they followed it up. They then failed to action the dispute and never confirmed my readings. I found this out when I got my account notes after my DPA request.

Then, despite the fact they knew they hadn't actioned it, they removed the dispute from my account and tried to chase me with debt collectors as if none of it had ever happened. Setting them on fire would be a fate too gentle for those bastards.

Given you couldn't possibly know what number was given previously, you are hardly likely to have made up the reading the day after.

That's true. It would have looked dodgy if it had been lower!
Just wish I'd taken a photo of it.

I'm sure it'll all be alright. I'll bury my head in the sand now and let the landlord sort it out.