hiya again

Ref sending in a fax please for your own benifit get the name and ext number of the advisor you speak to in the collections department, if you come up against any difficulties request to speak a Team Manager and ask for the complaint reference number as they have to log it and give it to you before they transfer you to a manager, Ref the courts you may come up against a rep of the company not the actual warrant officer but you will have to wait and see i suppose, ref the pre pay meters what i meant for having one of these fitted is if you have regular tenants in the property and some times some but not all dont pay the bills each time a tenenat leaves you call the energy company and give a reading and an engineer will come out and re-set the meter so you or future tenants are not responsible for any debt, the only way that you can ensure you or anyone else wont get dumped with there debt. Ref the over charge this is very far and few between that this occures. Hope this information is helpful.

ok thanks i can do that on monday.after the last couple of days its like talking to a brick wall with npower. am still going to court tho and face this warrant officer ,face to face and see what he has to say to me. i can afford to pay my bills .i wouldnt want a pre pay. have heard they overcharge customers

Hi

without going into to much detail this is what you need to do to move things forward and get this situation resolved.

You need to contact n-power on there free phone number 0800 551 555 nad request to speak to the collections department, once your transfered through you will need to send or if you can fax through a letter to advise your the owner of the property and the tennant moved out on such and such a date give them the reading, once you have sent in proof any further action will be cancelled and your ex-tennant will be traced and a new account will be opened for yourself, one other thing that hopefully may help in the future look into having pre-payment meters fitted to reduce the risk of this happening again.

Hope this helps from someone who deals with this on a reguar basis.

ok. so who is responsible for the bill. the person whos name is on it. or me the owner of the house .they have add access to the meter on the fourth of march .and took a reading . thanks

wody:hi . the tennant left in the first week of january. when i went in the house theres wos one letter from npower and the rest junk mail . i phoned them and told them they didnt live there anymore . the only other letter that came whas today. to say that they add applied for a warrant next week thursday .in court to apply for disconnection. in between the electric man called .first week in march took a reading asked me if i wos mr x .and i said no its no its mr wody. the most upseting thing is is the bloke from npower kept telling me i shouldnt open someone else post. with warrant written across the letter/ or right so il just sit in the chair wait till someone breaks me door down.to say are you mr x no im mr wody. if n power decide to come next week to my house and i dont let them in .and i ask for the police to be present. and show that i live there and own the house in my name mr wody. and they have a warrant for mr x .have they got the right to enter. or have i got the right to sue them for breaking and entering .without a such named person living there .thanks mr wody

I do also need to state that the warrant is for the property and access to (their) meter to which they own and not you.

You will need to fax a copy of the previous tennants tenancy agreement to them, along with proof that you actually own the house. Just showing a ctax bill etc isnt enough as these days its so easy to do.

just an update on the above .today saturday i recieve another letter. this time adressed to the occupier. warrant of entry. you have the right to attend court to exlain why you havent paid this bill. the first letter that came with mr x name on is dated 20 march. the envelope is stampted 26 march. todays letter with the ocupier is dated 20 march. the envelope is stamted 26 march . i shant bother phoning. il see you in court npower. to defend my name and my case .you set of idiots.

hi . the tennant left in the first week of january. when i went in the house theres wos one letter from npower and the rest junk mail . i phoned them and told them they didnt live there anymore . the only other letter that came whas today. to say that they add applied for a warrant next week thursday .in court to apply for disconnection. in between the electric man called .first week in march took a reading asked me if i wos mr x .and i said no its no its mr wody. the most upseting thing is is the bloke from npower kept telling me i shouldnt open someone else post. with warrant written across the letter/ or right so il just sit in the chair wait till someone breaks me door down.to say are you mr x no im mr wody. if n power decide to come next week to my house and i dont let them in .and i ask for the police to be present. and show that i live there and own the house in my name mr wody. and they have a warrant for mr x .have they got the right to enter. or have i got the right to sue them for breaking and entering .without a such named person living there .thanks mr wody

Hi Mr Wody

Sorry to hear about the troubles you have been having, but then again, Npower arnt the best when dealing with billing accounts. It seems from your post that you are the landlord of this property as you mention you own it and you rented this property out to a tnt which left early in january. You mention that you visited the house during the 2nd week of January to collect your mail, one letter, which clearly wasnt yours was the electricity bill in the former tnts name, which regrettably the npower agent advised you.

However common sense dictates that this is usually how any prospective new tnt or owner of a property establishes who the supplier is to that property.

Anyway as your post doesnt seem to suggest I presume this tnt paid other bills promptly and did no damage to the property and therefore I also presume you returned a security deposit, as this would allow you to provide the tnts forwarding address.

In essence any electricity or utility company has the right to chase up unpaid bills, as realistically their product has been used and not paid for, however, there is only so much a supplier can do, which usually ends up in the supplier applying for a warrant & either fitting a prepayment meter with a debt setting applied or disconnection. What I find strange is that usually their is a mass of mail which would normally arrive before this, which would have indicated that your first call, in early january, wasnt acted upon.

My advice would be to contact them again, state simply that they must act on the information you can provide, as the former landlord of the property, now actually living back in it, that Mr X left on a said date, with a meter reading, and moved to xxxxx this will provide them with an alternative address to send their mail too. Advise them that you are going to contact the ombudsman about this, and do it, just google them you will find their contact details and give them the scenario.

Finally i would be prepared to go to court, with your documentation as companies dont expect to get these things interupted by us little people, if all your evidence is sound, no warrant should be passed, but be prepared, as they might quickly act upon your information, close the tnt's acct down, open one for you and send you a bill for your true usage faster than they can say disconnection

Let us know what happens, hopefully, common sense will prevail !

Oh the joys of Renting your house out!

wody,

I have been in this situation before but not had the same amount of hassle before from some snotty-nosed, jobsworth, head-up-his-own-a***, power crazy, customer services chap on a mission.

It is getting too late to write to them bow but to get something in writing I suggest you fax a letter to them today, explaining the whole situation and if possible have some documents ready to prove that you did not live at this address during the period of the disputed bills. Maybe bank statements or utility bills would do, and also did you have a tenancy agreement for the rented house in the tenant's name?. All this is evidence that would help stop this disconnection.

You cannot rely on Phone calls as evidence as not all calls are recorded. The county court judge will look more favourably on your side of the case if you can bring as much evidence as you can to the court.

I don't know if you can be legally held responsible for your tenants electric bill as my case did not reach the court stage, it was settled when the energy company actually cancelled the amount owing.

Also do you know if your tenant has other bills due like gas, mobile phones, loans etc?

Tenants who are bad debtors can make unwanted problems for you for years after they leave the property.

hi i wonder if someone can awnswer a query. i own a house and rent this property out. the electric bill was in the former tennant who left in early january. in the second week in january i visited the house and collect my mail. only to find one from n power requesting a bill for over 1300.00 pound i phoned n power and told them this person did not live there anymore .and made a note of the call and also took a meter reading. gave them my name ,and didnt hear anything until the begining of march when a knock on the door. it whas the electric man . are you mr x. no i replied im mr wody . can i take a meter reading. sure you can the meters on the wall there. he took the reading and off he went . today 27/03/2009 i recieve a letter in mr x name scrawled across the front warrant, i opened the letter and read it . it says n power have applied for a warrant for disconnection on the 2/04/2009 for an unpaid eletricity bill .if you wish to attend court and explain why you havent paid. i phoned n power straight away gave them the referance number on top of the bill .are you mr x no im mr wody . the reply whas you should not open other peoples mail . so i tried to explain it says across the envelope warrant . i havent done anthing wrong .am i supposed to let n power go to court get a warrant .come to my door ask me again if im mr x. and stil keep telling them no im mr wody. this chap from n power whas nasty all he would say to me you shouldnt have opened that letter its not in you name. this really put me back.i told him ok i shall go to court next week with my id and council tax bill thats just come to prove who i am. am i eligible for this bill . this is the third time i have phoned n power and recorded the date and told them there is no mr x living there anymore . any ideas thanks