So we live at a property that consists of 2 floors. The bottom floor is a pub, and the top floor contains 9 bedrooms which I rent out along with 8 of my other housemates. The pub bills and upstairs bills are totally separate, however the meters are in the pub downstairs.
We have been with Tru Energy for the past 5 years (Recently changed their name to Energy Australia). We have been receiving and paying bills every 3 months, however most recently we didn't receive a bill until about 5 months into our bill. When we received this bill there was a notice with it apologising for the delay, but it wasnt too high so we just paid it and thought the delay was because of the merger of Tru Energy and Energy Australia.
Now I am about to move out of this house so I called Energy Australia to remove my name and put my housemates name onto the bill. After about 60 mins we discovered that we have not been connected with Energy Australia since Oct 2012 and have ben switched to AGL Electricity.
I am the only one who could have authorised this so I was really confused on the phone insisting we were still with Energy Australia. But when I got out our latest bill from March 2013 which had the apology about the late bill, it actually says that the bill was for the billing period up until Oct 2012 (at which point we had somehow been swiched to AGL).
So after talking with AGL it seems that the pub have tried to switch to AGL, but AGL have messed up and switched us to AGL and changed the bill into someone else's name. They said that there is an outstanding amount of $2500 for our meter which will need to be paid by May 15 or else our electricity will be disconnected!
My Question is, what exactly are our rights here? They messed up. The bill is for the meter we had been paying happily for 5 years, but the address is to the pub and not our address, and the bill isn't actually in my (or any of my housemates) names. I dont actually know who's name it is in, as they wouldn't tell me for privacy concerns (which is ridiculous).
If I dont pay this and just switch back to Energy Australia there shouldn't be anything they can do about it to pin it on us, or me right?? We were under the impression we had just paid an electricity bill in March and not expecting one until around late June, and it would be no where near $2500 (our average quarterly is between 900 and 1200).
Sorry, this is prob pretty confusing! Thoughts?
It sounds like the pub connected with AGL to your meter and then cancelled it. The billing rights to the meter were never sent back to Tru Energy. If AGL own the billing rights to the meter you are using, they are legally allowed to charge you for it. That's the legal side of it.
Here's what to do. Wait for a disconnection letter in the mail or a bill. If you don't receive by May 14 call AGL and demand one in writing/demand they repost it (they legally have to post these prior to disconnecting).
1) If they are in a persons name, awesome. Not your problem. Call Tru Energy and set up a new account and get a fresh meter reading. You won't get charged for the usage prior as it's the persons name on the bill problem. This will get rid of AGL and you won't have to pay them anything.
2) If the are addressed "to the occupant" or "to the customer" etc, then this is what those companies call an "Unknown customer" and this is more difficult. Calling another company to connect 90% won't work. AGL will just reject the transfer. You can either -
a) Set up an account with AGL, you will only pay for the time period you were there and can transfer to Tru Energy or whomever afterwards. At the end of the day you used that power. If it's the large bill amount that is the issue, they will give you plenty of time to pay it. (ie. bill is for 6 months usage, they usually give you 6 months to pay for it in installments)
b) Go to the ombudsman, which will delay things and give you heaps of time, but at the end of the day you will owe that money and have to pay it, it may just be a Tru Energy logo on the top of the bill instead of AGL.
c) Let them disconnect the power. The following day call a different company to connect it again. You'll be without power 24-48 hrs but 99% won't have to pay that bill.
If you post your postcode and state would help as well.
Hope this helps.