How has she racked up £3k of gas debt??

[BrassCandlestick]

Just moved into a new property, it had/has pre-payment meters for gas and electric. I want to go to credit meters and also change from the supplier Eon to my usual supplier (Ecotricity, who I have been with for 25 years and they are good).
I managed to get the electric meter changed by Ecotricity last week when I couldn't activate new credit and it became an emergency. All good there now.

However, I've been chasing Eon about releasing me as my gas supplier but they have refused. I spoke to someone there today and it turns out that the previous tenant has somehow managed to go into debt by more than three thousand pounds!

I just don't understand how that can have happened - and if she was on pay as you go, were Eon recouping the debt by charging a higher rate? Because I've been adding credit to it for a month now to keep the heating running.
I now have to prove that I'm not her, and that it's a new tenancy.

Also I'm very pissed off at her, she knew what she was doing. She was a bad tenant by all accounts and we are having to fix lots of things in the house and garden. I've been faithfully forwarding her post, well she can forget that now.
Eon weren't bothered about getting her new address, I expect they will just write it off.

Why are they discussing someone else's account with you?

They don't write it off. Also she probably got the pre payment metres in as she wasn't pay her bill.

Don't be so quick to judge! She may not have been able to afford her bills.

Why are you fixing anything? Your landlord should be doing that.
It's really not your business

Something odd here, were you and the previous person living in the house together before you took on the tenancy? Otherwise the landlord should have sorted all this for you.

Eon customer service is lovely. You just have to keep plugging away at them.

Their invoice department is entertaining. If they improved the invoicing, then they could probably get rid of half the customer service department.

I can totally understand how she may not have paid. At one point we owed Eon quite a lot, but could we persuade them to issue an invoice and take the money?

Eventually I suggested that as they thought they owed us a similar number to what I knew we owed them that maybe we could do a gentleman's handshake and call it quits. They managed to get the (correct) invoice to us at that point.

They are a never ending source of entertainment with their invoicing. I love them. 😂

Thats a serious data protection issue aa Eon should not hace discussed the previous tennants credit balance with you.

However, the unpaid debt is not your problem so speak to the supplier you want to supply your property, give them the metre numbers and they will start the supply right away. They just need meter reference numbers and readings fron when you moved in.

Eon once tried charging me 500 pound for one month of usage - and then tried saying I wracked up 3000 pound in a couple of months. It's still in dispute. Maybe I'm the previous tenant actually I hope I am because it just shows you don't know what anyone is going through.

How is it a data breach? They explained to me how I can read the balance myself, when I came home I pressed the right buttons and there it was, £3015.69 in debt.

Don't forget the previous tenant is the "ex" I'd take all complaints with a pinch of salt.

Absolutely not! As I said, she was a bad tenant. Why would the landlord be responsible for her debt?

Ah well at least you can pass on her new address to Eon so they can sort it out with her. People not paying their bills makes it more expensive for the rest of us.

Sorry, do you mean that you think I was in a relationship with the previous tenant?

Because they supply the gas to this property and her debt is why they won't release me to another supplier. You can press a button on the meter and see the debt (I now know).

Landlords I work with notify the utility company when the tenant leave. They do generally have void periods though and utilities revert to the LL until the property is let again.

Maybe time to log an official complaint as i would worry you are paying for the last tenant.

I tried, they weren't interested. They said 'oh, we'll get it back somehow'. I said it would be a whole lot easier if they would take her address from me but they didn't want it.

Nope it was empty for less than 48 hrs. The landlord (local authority) will do absolutely nothing.

If you have a forwarding address for ex tenant give that, if not eon need to deal with LA.

When I moved into my house there were prepayment meters with a couple of hundred pounds of debt on them. It just took a phone call to sort out and have the debt removed and for them to recredit what they'd taken off me as payment for the debt. Then I changed providers and got the meters changed to normal ones.

The only problem was that the original provider kept sending debt collection letters to the previous residents (with their name on) at my address, which seemed a bit daft when they knew they didn't live there anymore. Another phone call and that was quickly sorted out.

Give it to who? If you read the thread I've stated twice that Eon won't accept it from me.

Hoho. You can tell who here has never seen let alone used a prepayment meter in their life!

Eon will drop it quite easily, your being a new tenant is easy to prove.

I'm never shocked by this type of behaviour. Somewhere I lived, the previous tenant put all the bills in the LL's name, racked up debt over 2yrs, and fucked off!

You need to prove you are not the tenant they have named on the account - you can do this easily by sending them a copy/photo/scan of your tenancy agreement. Without this they will leave everything as it is as people often try to get out of their date by pretending to be someone else etc.

The LA isnt allowed under GDPR rules to pass on the old tenants new address to any company, regardless of if they owe money.

I would make sure that when you prove you are not the original tenant and get the account in your name, you also include the ex tenants new address as they may not be able to get it any other way (they arent interested in taking the new address now as as far as they are concerned the ex tenant hasnt actually moved out and is actually you).

Good luck

Thanks. I know how to take the next step. I'm just flabbergasted that she was allowed to go into so much debt.

Oh god sorry- no, I mean it's like hearing about an ex of a new partner, take the complaints with a pinch of salt. According to the people who bought our house we're complete charlatans who did all sorts. So I'd take complaints from the Landlord with a pinch of salt. And you've bo idea how the debt was accrued, could be that they're dishonest could be admin errors that they tried to sort before they left. The previous occupant of our house died but had bills coming to the house and I subsequently found out his family had done everything to communicate with the companies that he was dead and they just kept sending the bills out.

@BrassCandlestick

Its much easier than you think. She probably wracked up most of it before the prepayment meter was put in & then just hasn't paid much after that. It can take long time to get a prepayment meter in, especially if she is what is considered vulnerable (parent of young children, medical conditions, living in poverty etc) as charges for prepayment meters are higher than credit ones.

They may have fitted prepayment meters AFTER the previous tenant ran up de t.

Even 48 hours between tenants would mean the landlord was responsible for the bills for a day

I used to work in prepayment meters, they're often fitted to recoup debt so it's not surprising - energy companies aren't allowed to let people go off supply so they just keep them as customers and take back the debt weekly
You can see it on the meter back screens when you insert card and press the round button
Will be a charge for debt screen and a debt screen
You should be fine being took over once you send over tenancy agreements
No stress
People used to call up for emergency credit and wind ons and just get more and more gas debt
It is what it is lol