[Teddy]

My mother, who lived alone, sadly died last week. Her electricity supplier was Eon.
I phoned their Bereavement Team and was told the account was now with Eon Next. My call was transferred and I spoke to someone who said that nothing could be done with regard to the account without a Power of Attorney. I explained their was no Power of Attorney and that I just wanted to notify the death and place the account on hold until Probate was obtained.

The chap checked with his manager and came back to say that they need Power of Attorney. At that point, I gave up.
Is there someone at Eon Next that has dealt with the death of an account holder? (There is a FAQ on the website but the link isn't very helpful.)

By comparison, BT, British Gas, Anglian Water, Legal & General, and Saga Insurance have been very helpful and professional.

[Bennie_R97]

Hey @Teddy, I am really sorry to hear about your loss.
Losing a family member is never easy and it can be very overwhelming trying to sort out every single detail of that person’s life,even energy bills. I am sending you my deepest condolences. 🙏

Although I can see this is not a new post, I would like to expand on our bereavement process as I really hope this post can be helpful for the future members who are looking for answers or a little comfort around this topic.

Overall the process is really simple, usually the executor or family member will get in touch with us. After confirming details such as names on the Will and on the Power of Attorney papers, we will be able to close the account for you in a few clicks. One of our amazing teams will deal with outstanding or credit balance and they will be walking you through that every step of the way.
Until we don’t receive a notification from a family member or executor of the death of a loved one, the account will stay active. Even if the house is empty there is still a responsibility to cover the standing charges applied on that property.

Finally, I would like to break a myth of this process. The only time we need the Death certificate is when a refund needs to be issued.

Please feel free to reply to this post if you have any specific scenarios and would like some extra information.

Me and the rest of the team will be more than happy to assist you with it. 😊


Thinking of you,
Benedetta. 🌈

[Silverfox]

I found the Twitter people more help.

E.ON Next Help
@eon_next

Silverfox.

[Hatwildeman_EONNext]

Oh @Teddy, I'm so sorry to hear this.
If you haven't taken @silverfox advice (thank you by the way 😊) do you want to pop me the account details in a DM and I'll get you some help.

Hat

[Mart]

Not everyone has a will or power of attorney ,Say one partner dies and they are not married.
Step farther died last year never had to do any of that all transferred accounts into remaining partners name without any issues

[meldrewreborn]

A power of attorney is valid while the person is alive. The attorney can act as the though they were the person they are acting for.

I think the power of attorney is of no legal standing once the individual who issued it has died.

Once somebody has died the powers lie with the executor(s) if there is a will, otherwise a member of the family can apply for letters of administration but these will take some considerable time to get. From Eon next's point of view, i'm sure that they don't particularly care - so long as their bills are paid. Technically the deceased's account should be closed (including the loss of any fixed rate deal (!) and a new variable rate account opened in the name of whoever is dealing with the estate.

If a couple occupy the premises its best if both are named on the account. Thus if one of them dies the other continues the account as before on their own.

[Bennie_R97]

Hey @Mart, thank you for your scenario.

As I explained in my previous post, that was the most common scenario.In the case that you presented, it falls under the joint responsibility process, where one partner or spouse passing away,the remaining partner has the responsibility on receiving any monies.

Benedetta 😀

[Frustrated]

@Bennie_EONNext I’m sorry I have to disagree with your advice, like the OP I have the same issues. The account previously held with eon energy do not require any such evidence apart from normal security checks when an account holder dies, they find this to be a training issue with eon next. I myself have now escalated this with a complaint and via the feedback process with eon energy who I must stay have a far better handle on bereavement with a dedicated department. Although eon next seem to have these ridiculous requirements they address all letters to the executor of my late mum but won’t talk to me even when it states all they want is date of death and who is the executor on there web site, not that I have to prove I am. The net result will be non payment of outstanding bills maybe that will focus eon nexts attitude towards bereavement. In fact this is the worst company I had to deal with my late mothers affairs.

[Bennie_R97]

Hey @Frustrated, thank you for your reply.

I am really sorry to hear about your loss. Loosing a family member, especially a mother, is so hard. I am really sorry we didn't deliver a pleasant experience for you. I will definitely feed this back to my manager. Although, I can say that we do need to have procedures in place such as I explained on my post above when it comes to money refunds or other money related queries.

Stay safe,
Benedetta

[Frustrated]

@Bennie_EONNext
thank you for replying, and thank you for your condolences. in response my mothers account that was originally with eon energy and was transferred to the new company eon next. This was something that was not asked for to my knowledge, but that aside eon energy do not require such procedures and are happy with such checks as to mothers date of birth for example ect. Your agents were happy for me to pay any monies due no checks required, but the main issue here is that due to your records I’m not authorised to talk with your agents only those who are named on the account, but when bereavement is involved those authorities cease and bereavement process should kick in, this is the case with eon energy. But as an example this was the case with British telecom where I settled any monies due with no issues. With any bereavement a process settlement of monies owed by either party should be as smooth as possible and in many cases various members of family could be involved and let’s be honest would an individual call you to try and resolve a bill where on that bill it’s being demanded to settle within 7 days, not something that grieving relatives would enjoy receiving such a letter I believe. And in addition not all families would have such documentation that you want in those procedures you require. I first contacted you in February two days after my mothers death to outline the position as to direct debits and frozen bank accounts and was informed there was monies on credit to deal with any standing charges at no point was I asked for proof of who I was, was this a breach under your supposed procedures? So let’s look at the facts I call to give accurate readings and get balances and and pay any monies due to eon next but these supposed procedures have to be followed, but your happy to take my money but won’t talk to me. What do you think I’m going to do when I can’t query anything certainly not hand over my personal money, as it would of been the simplest solution but your procedures have made it not so, the net result will most likely now be that you will hand this to your probate team due to non payment at this time. As a side point probate can take up to 12 weeks if not more. I have as you have noted made a complaint on this and have gone back to eon energy on this matter to try and escalate the matter from there end and as I noted to your first agent I spoke too who I was very angry with who took my comments as a threat because I stated my intention that I would be going to the ombudsman because of this issue and I’m not certainly a person who takes things laying down. Why you ask do I consider going to the ombudsman because your own website states I need only do two things, date of death and there full name and address and who is the executor both of which I did in February and to make things easy which I have found far from so. And have never been informed of these procedures you have referred too. One further point you really should look at specialist team for bereavement and not use a general team to handle these matters an old saying comes to mind “jack of all trades mater of none”.