Electric Bill Mess

Ri_Nollaig

Hi,

Just wondering can anyone offer any advice on this, rather strange but of our own making situation.

My mother sold her house at the end of July/Aug 2015. She lives near by but moved out about 4 years previously and had rented it in between. The last tenant made a mess of the place and part of the clean up involved getting the electricity back on. To do this, my sister set the account to hers but with the direct debit pointing at my mothers account. All good.

Flash forward 18 months and we notice a €1,500 odd direct debit transaction on one of my mothers statements, rang up to question this and found out that it has only been the latest and there was actually close to €4,500 in electric bills clocked up since the new owners took over at the end of 2015.

Well, ...shít. Obviously question anyone would ask is
"why didn't you notice the previous charges?". To be honest, only noticed the last as it was a 4 digit ESB bill! but in short, my mother does not have the best health so we try and keep and an eye on things and the smaller bills just looked "normal" its only now we have realised we have been paying for someone elses (massive?) bill for the last year and a half. Bill was also paperless. Doesn't excuse this, I know but thats my excuse

In the meantime, have already rang Electric Ireland and while its not really their fault they can offer to refund the last bill atleast. Just wondering has anyone experienced anything like this and what would be the best way to go forward to recover the rest, if at all possible?

Also, have not spoken directly to the people who bought the house since, wanted to do a bit of homework on options first. But given the last bill was a reading [and the meter is inside the house!], I think its fairly obvious they noticed but choose to ignore this golden goose.

cml387

There's a bit missing in your account. The bit where you sold the house and never transferred the ESB to the new owners.

I would go to the new owners and ask them to pay what they seem to owe.

Ri_Nollaig

cml387 wrote: »

There's a bit missing in your account. The bit where you sold the house and never transferred the ESB to the new owners.

I would go to the new owners and ask them to pay what they seem to owe.

Short answer, this was never done ...fully. Electric Ireland were told the house was sold but a formal change of names was never done!

Will be going to them alright, but just checking options first. As I have a feeling they can tell us to sing for it and I don't think there is anything that can be done. I would be more than happy for someone to tell me I am wrong here.

cml387

Your mother is owed 4500 euro by these people. I wouldn't be inclined to write it off to experience.
I'm surprised the ESB waived any charges given that there was genuine usage. I presume the account is transferred now?

Have you had any contact with the new owners to get there side of the story?

Ri_Nollaig

cml387 wrote: »

Your mother is owed 4500 euro by these people. I wouldn't be inclined to write it off to experience.
I'm surprised the ESB waived any charges given that there was genuine usage. I presume the account is transferred now?

Have you had any contact with the new owners to get there side of the story?

I don't think the account is still not 100% transferred. Need to get the NPRN so will be talking to these people no matter what.
Also, I don't think the ESB are going to waive any charges! They will just officially chase them for that last bill but the previous bills are between them and us.

Mrs OBumble

Has someome got power of attorney for your mother? If so they've been seriously negligent to have not noticed that amount over such a short time and migjt be legally liable.

If not then you can appeal to the new owners finer senses re stealing from a sick old woman. It might work.

TheDoc

Be going to the new owners explain the mixup and that they owe your mother for paying their electricity.

Not even a total moron would be getting free electricity and thinking nothing of it. Either they are pure dribblers or they knew well they were getting away not paying.

mel123

Yeah the new owners have been pretty *ickish about it to be fair, like they know full well they are not paying for it and have been happy to keep using it without question (i assume). Id defiantly be straight on to them, along with Electric Ireland too.

Claw Hammer

Did you take a reading on the day of the handover? Did your estate agent take a reading? Ask the ESB to do the transfer from that reading. They new owner should pay the ESB for what has been used to date. You should be given a refund.

Ri_Nollaig

TheDoc wrote: »

Not even a total moron would be getting free electricity and thinking nothing of it. Either they are pure dribblers or they knew well they were getting away not paying.

Well, this is who you are dealing with...
Now, granted I can give them the benefit of the doubt here assume they will acknowledge the mix up and will happily repay but I have my doubts.

As of now, I am gonna ask Electric Ireland if they would re-issue all the bills for the time period as otherwise I would only be making up a number.

Ri_Nollaig

mel123 wrote: »

Yeah the new owners have been pretty *ickish about it to be fair, like they know full well they are not paying for it and have been happy to keep using it without question (i assume). Id defiantly be straight on to them, along with Electric Ireland too.

Not only that, but in 2 months manage to create a bill of €1,500?
wtf?

I like to keep a well lite house, have plenty of things plugged in, including a computer on most of the time, private well and a heating system powered by electric and still bills never go north of €350!

Do you they have a grow house in there or something

spaceHopper

Your mothers contract is with Electric Ireland not them. I would talk to a solicitor and get their opinion Also any DD in the last 90 days can be reversed by contacting the bank do that ASAP that should recover more of the money. There is more going on here than they are telling you.

jimmycrackcorm

Ri_Nollaig wrote:

Not only that, but in 2 months manage to create a bill of €1,500? wtf?

Obviously a grow house.... 4500 in a year and a half

Cheshire Cat

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Obviously a grow house.... 4500 in a year and a half

That's exactly what crossed my mind.

cml387

I doubt it. Any grow house organiser worth his salt would have bypassed the meter.

More likely its the consequence of the household believing it had free electricity.

Did you, or your mother or anyone have any contact with the purchasers of the house? I may be being unfair but you seem to have a very laissez faire attitude to your mother's affairs.

Ri_Nollaig

cml387 wrote: »

Did you, or your mother or anyone have any contact with the purchasers of the house? I may be being unfair but you seem to have a very laissez faire attitude to your mother's affairs.

Bit harsh ...but understandable, you aren't wrong. I have to put my hands up and take the blame for this. Will sort it out in some way.
It is a joke, and had this been noticed a lot sooner would be a lot easier to fix. As someone has already pointed out, SEPA can be used to reverse direct debits made in the previous 90 days. Electric Ireland have already offered this for the last payment that was made which was the biggest. But would still leave close to 3,000 outstanding which we probably have to chase them for ourselfs.

That payment was the key to all of this. My mothers actual ESB for her house is on the same account so "D/D Electric Ireland" payments didn't really stand out as unusual. It was only when it was as large as the last that it was noticed.

Jet Black

They could have switched electrical provider to say Bord Gais and be paying them but electric Ireland are also billing your mother for the same use. I remember moving into my place and changing the electrical and gas provider, I was getting notices in the door from Bord Gais addressed to the previous owner looking for payment for the current usage. Might be something to look into.

cml387

Jet Black wrote: »

They could have switched electrical provider to say Bord Gais and be paying them but electric Ireland are also billing your mother for the same use. I remember moving into my place and changing the electrical and gas provider, I was getting notices in the door from Bord Gais addressed to the previous owner looking for payment for the current usage. Might be something to look into.

That's a good point. Even more reason to have a word with the new owners.

kala85

Why don't you tell electric Ireland to turn off the electricity for a while and see what happens