Legally, where do I stand on disputed energy bill?

[AudTheDeepMinded]

Very long story short(er).
Moved into a new house. Applied in advance to take existing supplier from old property with me. Supplier at new house raised an objection. When I rang to speak to them about this they explained that they needed me to complete a change of tenancy form for the objection to be dropped. I explained we were not tenants but owners and it was a domestic property. They said I still needed to complete this form and submit proof the house was now in my ownership for a swap to happen. Which I did.
I submitted meter readings on the day I moved in. I was then billed for nearly £2,000 for a month. I rang to dispute. They had charged me a commercial uncontracted rate for an estimated amount. I explained again it was a domestic property. I was rebilled for c£400, which I paid as they were still objecting to the swap and said the unpaid bill would keep this objection unresolved. The swap was made around 5 weeks after we moved in. I was then billed a further £127, which I have not yet paid. Company claims that in completing a change of tenancy form I agreed to become a customer with an account with them (I was most definitely not made aware of this at the time and was led to believe it was purely to allow swap to proceed) and that as they do not provide domestic tarifs they are allowed to charge me that rate.
My question is, are they allowed to make me their 'new' customer by stealth as part of an energy supplier swap during a house move? And are they allowed to charge a domestic customer over £500 for 5 weeks of gas (during which the heating was not even used). For comparison, our monthly dual fuel bill is £120. How can I dispute this further and legally where do I stand?

Brief reply as don't have much time....it all sounds like a real balls up.

I would submit an official complaint, and ask them to review their recordings of your calls - they will have these.

Once you have been through the complaints process, if this doesn't resolve it, you can complain to Ofgem who are the regulator.

Good luck!

I sent a recorded letter to their uk address (emails and phone calls go abroad and the responders do not have a fucking clue what I am on about and we go round in circles). I thought this was an official complaint, but a reply has come back via email and appears, yet again, to have come from the call centre located abroad). Think I will send another letter demanding some sort of reference number for the complaints procedure, I think this is a clever way of them stalling me so I am not yet on the appropriate pathway for the official complaint procedure,

Find out who the senior people are in the company, Chairman, CEO etc... Write one letter and then CC it to all of them (making it clear at bottom of letter who else is copied in). This is usually enough to ensure some one high up enough in the company is aware and has eyes on and can ensure response is appropriate. Can stir up quite a hornets' nest if they don't have a good contact management system!

Make sure you use the words 'I am making an official complaint'
If they still don't treat it like a complaint, go to the Ombudsman www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/making-complaint-about-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator

Good idea, use the Companies House address and send letter to a named director, or address it to "Director / Company Secretary" at the Companies House address.

are they allowed to make me their 'new' customer by stealth as part of an energy supplier swap during a house move?

This part - yes. You need the account for that address in your name for the change of supplier to take place and yes they can bill you for energy used prior to the swap.

The £500 charge needs to be thoroughly investigated.

Submit a complaint through resolver.co.uk

i recovered everything I was billed for when a tenant was responsible but they billed me.

I totally agree with this advice. I had an issue when my DD took over tenancy on a student flat. I was getting no where dealing with the energy supplier directly, so submitted a complaint via Resolver. The issue was quickly sorted. The difference is complaints via Resolver are submitted to a different team ( at least at our supplier) who have more autonomy in handling complaints.

Also, I think I'm right in remembering, if you then need to pursue the issue with OFGEM, Resolver can format all communication with the energy company into an easy to submit format.

Fucking Scottish Power pulled similar crap with us. Worst company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with.

Moved into rented flat. Called as a new customer. They gave me instructions to go to local shop to get new cards (prepayment meters already in)
Did the whole activating cards with codes crap. Every time I topped up they swiped £10 here £20 there for debts. I had no debts with them. Called them up, they said I needed another new card and codes and they'd refund if I just bought more credit. I did. By the end of the first week I'd paid £40 electric debt and £60 gas debt. What money they didn't take was used up in a day and I had to top up again. Clearly the machines were set to take debt at every transaction and I was at the point of tears and swearing on the phone at least once a day to get it dealt with. Promises of refunds if I'd just go get another card from the shop we're just BS. I called another company and after 23 days of Scottish Power I had a new supplier. Never got refunded.
I did get chased by debt collectors though for over a year for an unpaid £168 balance for just electricity for a pre-payment account for 23 days, despite "topping up" over £80. To add insult to injury, we didn't even use much electricity other than kettle boiling because we couldn't move in for a month due to it needing decorating and flooring putting in, it was the height of summer and we didn't need lights on as we left at days end!

Get on to citizens advice and speak to ofgem. I think Money saving expert has a big help section on fighting terrible energy suppliers too.

Good luck. I gave up in the end trying to get my refunds but yours is far too much to just write off.

I agree - submit an official complaint. They will issue you with a resolution. Say you don’t agree to it and will go to the Ombudsman. You’ll need a deadlock letter from the energy company though.

The Ombudsman were really quite wonderful in my case, but you need to submit as much as evidence as you can and be prepared to fight your corner. I had the most lovely woman on my case. She didn’t quite understand all the evidence I submitted, but she called me to talk through it. I explained my case in more detail, and she ruled in my favour, resulting in in 3k being wiped off my bill. I had to educate myself on the rules that were not applied correctly, and argue for those. You need to ask for the terms and conditions the company is using to decide how they are charging you. Keep asking for this.

CAB were useless in my case. As another poster mentions, Moneysaving forum is good.

Thank you. YGP seem unable to acknowledge that I have made a complaint, even though I sent a registered letter to their UK address with the heading 'Formal Complaint'...I keep getting formulaic 'computer says no' responses from their South African Call centre.