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e.oN

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  • e.oN

    I am being taken to court by Lowell for a historic electricity bill of £2572.
    This is for a billing period of June 2018 - Nov 2019 (17 months). The back gronnd briefly is I moved into a new build and at time of handover from developer the meter readings where taken and submitted by the developer.
    Gas bills where accurate and paid but the electricity bills where always estimates and very low values circa £12. i tried to call eon at the time to resolve this but they had lengthy call wait times - often over 60 minutes and someone would still not answer.
    eventually i moved supplier in the Nov 2019 and this then triggered eon to realise their was a mistake on the account. It transpired that they had no record of the meter and needed a serial number of the meter. I was at work at the time of the call and so did not have access to the meter and was told someone would phone back the following day. This call never happened and i heard nothing, until Lowell got in touch. I asked for a copy of the original bill which they duly sent and it was an estimated bill. I wrote back to lowell disputing the bill and under Ofgems back billing rules i was not liable as over 12 months had passed.
    I did not obstruct meter readings - The meter is accessible from the road (its on the front of the house) and it is a smart meter. The mistake is the fault of eon in that i tried to rectify it at the time but due to their crap customer service and incompetence was unable to rectify at the time.

    Of course Lowell ignored my response and continued to send computer generated letters and phone calls that i did not engage with and now i have a court letter. I have put in a subject access request with EON Next as they are now called for copies of all bills and data they hold about me but i dont hold out much hope for this as i tried calling them and they have no record of my account as the company has changed and they do not have any records of my account.

    Basically my defence is OFGEMs back billing rules but i have no physical evidence of call logs or the estimated bills i kept receiving as this all happened so long ago. The only evidence is the logic it is virtually impossible to run up a bill of 2500 at 2019 prices without their being some sort of mistake. can anyone offer any advice on this please ?
    Tags: None

  • #2
    Lovell are parasites and buy in debts at a fraction of there value . If you are in the same property , your average usage can be worked out from other periods . So if you have kept all your later bills and usage records, details can be sent as evidence to the court . Good luck .

    Comment


    • #3
      Meter readers and utility companies answering the phone has become a thing of the past.
      Communication with the companies by emails, webchat, facebook, twitter (now X) now seems to be the norm.
      The builder may have set you up with an Eon internet account which you should have registered online and provided the first meter readings
      You could have contacted Eon quicker on the internet. You will have difficulty proving your unanswered phone calls now
      You stated your electricity meter is a smart meter.
      You should contact your current utility company to arrange for the meter to work as a smart meter.
      The electricity and gas meters should communicate with each other over WAN and meter readings submitted automatically to the company.
      You should also have an IHD (in-home display) unit so you can monitor power consumed
      This will save you having to take monthly meter readings and submitting them on the company website
      In the past when I failed to submit meter readings I found the utility company to always under estimate the power I had consumed

      When you changed supplier in November 2019, did your new supplier not ask you for actual meter readings at the time?

      Comment


      • #4
        Hi Raffles

        Welcome to LB

        When you say 'Court Letter' you mean a Letter Before Action? or have you received a Court Claim?

        Regarding a Subject Access Request, EON has become EON Next, they are essentially the same company.

        I had a cheque issued by EON, but didn't cash it, then EON became Eon Next, thus hassle to get it reissued, but they did it.

        Write to EON Next remind them they have a duty to provide the information requested under your SAR, if they don't then you will lodge a complaint with the ICO.

        Update with what they say. Information is 'king'.

        Comment


        • #5
          It does sound as if you have a strong defence under Ofgem's back billing rules.
          Under the rules the utility company cannot charge you for a period over 12 months previous to the date of the bill provided the bill was not sent to the customer in time and the customer refused to pay it. The bill should be accurate and the customer must allow the company to read the meter. Your electricity meter is outside the property so the company had ample opportunity to read it within the billing time
          Could Eon have provided an accurate bill? Was the meter set to zero when you moved into the new property?

          Comment

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