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I read with glee this morning on your forum that Npower have been fined £26 million by Ofgem. This makes me very happy.
My partner took over an unpaid debt (approx. £3000) from a previous tenant. The landlord was responsible for paying for utilities (a very unusual situation but the landlord had a deal going with the previous occupant to undertake some urgent repairs to the building) which, from memory, amounted to an unpaid debt from a previous occupant.
In fact, they sent court papers to THE OCCUPIER and she ended up in court paying someone else's debt. Anyway, putting the exact details aside for now because I would need to dig through her original file, the court told Npower and my partner to agree on a repayment and left it at that. Npower refused to enter into a payment plan and continued to push for the installation of a pre-payment meter.
Roll on possibly a year and they simply changed the amount of the direct debit without reference to her. This has happened several times over a period of time. They keep on claiming that she is in debt and wanting to increase the payment. We are not talking small amounts. Currently, she is paying £243 a month still (5 years on).
From memory, the last agreement she had with them was this latest increase of £210 a month for the main account and £33 a month for 2 years to clear a debt which had built up due to their constant and repeated failure to use actual meter readings. It got to the stage where she refused to let them in because they were taken meter readings and estimated bills were still being received.
As an example, in April 2009, the Dual Fuel Service Account stood at £1458.24 yet by October 2009, their estimates had increased the account to £2568.42
They are coming today to read the meter.
I have looked at it and their last bill from October 2015 matches what is currently on the meters within 1% approx. yet last week she took a phone call from Npower threatening court action and additional charges being added. I am looking through a file now and Meterplus applied for a warrant of entry as recent as October 2014.
The last increase they wanted to apply was from £243 a month to £482 a month. This is when she cancelled the direct debit and set up a standing order unilaterally. A friend has told her that legally she cannot ever cancel a standing order. I do not know if this is true.
Scanning through her file on this, it seems that Npower have passed the debt onto several credit agencies over the years and added £10.50 here and £23.50 there.
To bring the example up-to-date, they sent a bill on 30 October 2015, where their estimates were 59921 for the Electric and 0324 for the gas.
The meter reader from Meterplus has just been and readings are 59208 for the electricity and 0685 for the gas. He tells me that although he does his job, the actual readings are rarely ever used!
As of last week, they were phoning her up saying that there was an outstanding balance of £381.57 and that if she didn't pay another £10.50 and £23.50 will be added to the account.
This is outright harassment! How can she make it stop?
As you can see from the figures above, they are 3 month out of sync on the electricity.
According to her October 2014 Statement there was £3759.31 left to pay. I cannot find a more up-to-date bill in her file. I think she may have given up on them - unsurprisingly!
She has a bill for October 2015 but there is no total on it only for a quarter period and that states at the bottom that their cheapest overall tariff "Fixed Energy Online Dec 2016 DD" would save her £285.22 a year on Electricity and £539.48 a year on Gas. Why would they not automatically change her to this?
One final thing is that they arranged to fit a smart meter on 6th July but the meters were inaccessible so they left and said they would re-arrange. This never happened. She is concerned about pushing this as now she feels that with all the history and issues with Npower they could install one and just disconnect the service if they felt like it.
She doesn't know which way to turn which is why I am posting on here for advice.
My partner took over an unpaid debt (approx. £3000) from a previous tenant. The landlord was responsible for paying for utilities (a very unusual situation but the landlord had a deal going with the previous occupant to undertake some urgent repairs to the building) which, from memory, amounted to an unpaid debt from a previous occupant.
In fact, they sent court papers to THE OCCUPIER and she ended up in court paying someone else's debt. Anyway, putting the exact details aside for now because I would need to dig through her original file, the court told Npower and my partner to agree on a repayment and left it at that. Npower refused to enter into a payment plan and continued to push for the installation of a pre-payment meter.
Roll on possibly a year and they simply changed the amount of the direct debit without reference to her. This has happened several times over a period of time. They keep on claiming that she is in debt and wanting to increase the payment. We are not talking small amounts. Currently, she is paying £243 a month still (5 years on).
From memory, the last agreement she had with them was this latest increase of £210 a month for the main account and £33 a month for 2 years to clear a debt which had built up due to their constant and repeated failure to use actual meter readings. It got to the stage where she refused to let them in because they were taken meter readings and estimated bills were still being received.
As an example, in April 2009, the Dual Fuel Service Account stood at £1458.24 yet by October 2009, their estimates had increased the account to £2568.42
They are coming today to read the meter.
I have looked at it and their last bill from October 2015 matches what is currently on the meters within 1% approx. yet last week she took a phone call from Npower threatening court action and additional charges being added. I am looking through a file now and Meterplus applied for a warrant of entry as recent as October 2014.
The last increase they wanted to apply was from £243 a month to £482 a month. This is when she cancelled the direct debit and set up a standing order unilaterally. A friend has told her that legally she cannot ever cancel a standing order. I do not know if this is true.
Scanning through her file on this, it seems that Npower have passed the debt onto several credit agencies over the years and added £10.50 here and £23.50 there.
To bring the example up-to-date, they sent a bill on 30 October 2015, where their estimates were 59921 for the Electric and 0324 for the gas.
The meter reader from Meterplus has just been and readings are 59208 for the electricity and 0685 for the gas. He tells me that although he does his job, the actual readings are rarely ever used!
As of last week, they were phoning her up saying that there was an outstanding balance of £381.57 and that if she didn't pay another £10.50 and £23.50 will be added to the account.
This is outright harassment! How can she make it stop?
As you can see from the figures above, they are 3 month out of sync on the electricity.
According to her October 2014 Statement there was £3759.31 left to pay. I cannot find a more up-to-date bill in her file. I think she may have given up on them - unsurprisingly!
She has a bill for October 2015 but there is no total on it only for a quarter period and that states at the bottom that their cheapest overall tariff "Fixed Energy Online Dec 2016 DD" would save her £285.22 a year on Electricity and £539.48 a year on Gas. Why would they not automatically change her to this?
One final thing is that they arranged to fit a smart meter on 6th July but the meters were inaccessible so they left and said they would re-arrange. This never happened. She is concerned about pushing this as now she feels that with all the history and issues with Npower they could install one and just disconnect the service if they felt like it.
She doesn't know which way to turn which is why I am posting on here for advice.
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