I am a landlord and our tenant has just moved out.
The former tenant had racked up debts of £4000 on the electric and £7000 on the gas, which it transpires were being paid off weekly following installation of prepayment meters.
When tenant moved out, I contacted energy provider to have supply put in my name. They did this, but they did not remove the debts from the prepayment meters.
To cut a long story short, it transpires that my payments on the meters were paying off our tenant's debts, unbeknown to me.
Although I have eventually got this sorted and the money refunded, I just wonder how many people are tricked into paying debts for old customers by energy providers? The energy provider did not raise the issue that you have to go through all the screens on the prepayment when you take over supply to ensure there is no debt being collected for former occupant. I imagine îs in their interests to trick customers into paying debts which have been run up by previous occupants.
I feel that this has all the hallmarks of the big energy providers exploiting the vulnerable group in society who cannot get credit meters for fuel.
I literally only realised there was an issue when the Meters were swallowing up money even though no one was living at property. It would be easy never to realise that you are paying much more than you should be.
Can't help thinking it is a very deliberate strategy for energy providers to not ensure that prepayment meters are not cleared of debt when new customer takes over supply.