Thursday, August 11, 2011

E.ON insists we pay for stolen electricity

Our landlord connected two fridges to our electricity supply without our knowledge. Now E.ON says we must pay �964

E.ON is attempting to make us pay for electricity that has been stolen. We rent a flat over a coffee shop run by the landlord, who connected two commercial fridges to our electricity supply without our knowledge. We didn't notice for a year because our bills were all estimates.

When the meter was read it showed our energy use had spiked dramatically and E.ON sent an engineer to investigate. He found out what had happened and said we should switch off the landlord's supply immediately. But the landlord asked us to leave it on for the weekend as it was Friday and the fridges contained cafe stock. We agreed.

He took two weeks to fix this and we continued taking readings. We supplied these to E.ON and it compared them with our usage before the problem started and calculated how much the landlord owed. We have paid our share of the bill and the landlord has paid �350 but still owes �964. He has now left the shop, sold the lease and stopped returning our calls. We told the police. E.ON knows we did not use that electricity but says we are responsible for the �964 as our name is on the bill. We complained but were told we had until the end of July to pay. LW, Bedford

You were exceptionally kind-hearted to let your landlord keep tapping into your electricity after the way he behaved. Then he betrayed your trust.

When senior people at E.ON heard about this they agreed it was unfair to expect you to pay his bill. You will now not have to pay �964 for electricity you didn't use. E.ON will chase your landlord directly from the contact details you provided. It has also written to the police confirming the situation.

You can email Margaret Dibben at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Margaret Dibben, Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU and include a telephone number. Do not enclose SAEs or original documents. The newspaper accepts no legal responsibility for advice.


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/aug/06/eon-insisting-paid-electricity-stolen

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