E-on debt

[outnumbered4]

Hi, I have just received a letter from a debt collection company in regards to an account with e-on for a property I moved out of 5 years ago.

The bill is around £1500. I had a prepayment meter for the duration of the time I lived at the property.

I have called the company that sent the letter and their explanation for this is that the meter should have been being recalibrated yearly and that would explain a £1500 bill 5 years later. According to them a final bill was sent to the old property 10 months after I moved out and I should have acted on it then. Slightly difficult to act on it when you don't live there to receive the bill.

I have no way of knowing if the meter was being recalibrated, they were accessing the meter to take readings regularly?

They also talked about possible unpaid emergency credit use. That didn't happen, I didn't go into the emergency credit often anyway and any debt from that was removed the next time I put credit on the meter.

I'm not sure how to proceed with this as they are adamant I owe the money but I don't understand how or why. And why 5 years later?!

Thank you for reading sorry for the long post

I would ring the citizens advice consumer helpline, it does sound like something you should challenge.
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/if-you-need-more-help-about-a-consumer-issue/

OP,

Recalibration of meters are normally activated following a suspicion they're faulty. For example, if a consumer was challenging their electricity usage. ThE general advice surrounding this would be to read the meter every day for 7 days then contact the provider on the 8th day.

The provider will then arrange an engineer to site visit and test the meter. If necessary they'll take the meter away and send for testing installing a replacement meter while the testing occurs.

If the removed meter needs recalibration or is found to be faulty, then once fault has been established, then a bill would be issued should there for example have been a meter tamper. (Looped)

So, the issue here is that you need to write to the company (not the DCA) the provider and tell them you're disputing the bill and ask for it be to placed on hold and cease all further action.

You want a statement of all charges relating to this bill. Dates and everything.

If you do nor recall asking for a meter check, then raise a further dispute.

Regarding the emergency use - I'd ask again for a statement.

£1500 is a lot of money. Dispute until, a) you asked for a meter check and you'd like proof.

B) A full statement regarding the charges including dates.

HTH.

Thank you very much that's made things clearer, I will get onto them tomorrow

Having done some digging through old paperwork it turns out I wasn't even with that company for the duration of the time I lived in the property, I had changed supplier twice in the 8 years.
Even more strange given that the dates i was given by the DCA were the day I moved in until the day I moved out.

I'm not really sure what is happening here as I have also just been issued a county court claim for a further debt with a different utility company for the same property. Different DCA.
I've sent them all of the bank statements showing payments and their email and postal contact stating balances and final statement stating no money owed. They have stopped replying to my emails and just tell me someone will phone me back if I phone and that my account is on hold.

I'm starting to feel quite stressed with all this. I haven't lived there for 5 years! And didn't as far as I was aware owe anything when I left.

Sounds as though there have been some shenanigans with the meters.

As hard as it is, try to put it to one side while the companies investigate.

It is okay to dispute an invoice with any provider and activate a deeper dive into the bill.

With the county court summons, you can dispute the debt and attend court.

I'm curious as to why you've had this, though.

I don't understand why it's happening all of a sudden at the same time. I've had no contact and therefore no knowledge of any of this until the last couple of months and now there's 2 from different companies.

I'm hoping that the county court one is being dealt with as I've provided the proof of full payment in every which way I could including letters and emails from the company themselves stating no debt. Although the fact my emails are now being ignored doesn't feel very reassuring.