[number1barber]

I moved out of a flat beginning of april last year and paid the final bill for march before i left. A year later LCS text me i owe £92. My online Eon account shows £0

Eventually I realized i was liable for the bills till the end of april due to my contract on the flat so i paid LCS. But then i realized i had not used anything during April so i contacted eon about this and they said they would revise it. I then get a statement for a ton of new reversed charges that i don't really understand and the balance changes to say i owe £19 no mention of the £92 i paid 4 days ago.
I never received a call text or email from eon about the debt i didnt know about for the last year. The balance on my account did not show -£92 so now im baffled. will eon get the £92 and will they add it to the account making it in credit by £70ish or has it vanished to some other account they hold?
Its been a nightmare

[meldrewreborn]

@number1barber

who are LCS? Have Eon Next billed LCS instead of you, because your account was closed? Technically Eon Next should have billed you, and if they had within 12 months of your tenancy ending you would have been liable to pay it, but if 12 months had elapsed then under the back billing rules you would not be liable.
if eon next have billed LCS, then they shouldn’t have done - they should have billed you. LCS only become liable after your tenancy expired, and only until another tenant takes on the property. LCS shouldn’t have paid up and you are not liable.

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

who are LCS?

LCS and LCS Debt Collectors are trading styles of 1st Locate (UK) Limited. They are a specialist debt collection firm that collect outstanding debts on behalf of UK’s largest companies in Utilities, Retail and Government.

[meldrewreborn]

@number1barber
so who are LCS collecting on behalf of? Eon next might have been advised that you were responsible for the additional period but been unable to contact you, although they might have had your email and telephone number, but not your address. In my view you do not and did not owe Eon next anything because of the back billing rules. You should make a formal complaint and be prepared to take it to the ombudsman if necessary. I don’t see LCS as having done anything wrong.

[number1barber]

@meldrewreborn Apparently they are acting for EON but when i made the final payment last year i told them i was moving so obviously they knew i wouldnt get letters but never called emailed or text me. What i assumed happened is they opened a new account and then that was left in debt as the account number LCS gave was not my account number on eon but the address and time period tallied up. My concern is that EON have sold the debt to LCS instead and so the payment i made may never get to EON but now EON appear to want the £19 for April which is probably the basic monthly charge. If EON do receive the money then looking at those back billing rules i will be asking for it back but if they dont im not sure if i can request LCS return the payment under the same rules. EON should never have passed my details to LCS without attempting to contact me so i will be having many words with them on monday if they say the money will come to them then i will be asking for it back if not then im pretty angry as i paid something that i didnt need to and may not get it back. thanks for the info about back billing

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by number1barber

Eventually I realized i was liable for the bills till the end of april due to my contract on the flat so i paid LCS. But then i realized i had not used anything during April so i contacted eon about this and they said they would revise it. I then get a statement for a ton of new reversed charges that i don't really understand and the balance changes to say i owe £19 no mention of the £92 i paid 4 days ago.
I never received a call text or email from eon about the debt i didnt know about for the last year. The balance on my account did not show -£92 so now im baffled. will eon get the £92 and will they add it to the account making it in credit by £70ish or has it vanished to some other account they hold?
Its been a nightmare

Did you ever download or receive a copy of your final statement? Did your rental contract specifically state about the energy costs in the eventuality of moving out before the end of your notice?

Others may have a view on this but here is my take if others might care to comment on the situation the OP finds themselves in.

The OP almost certainly had an obligation to pay rent on the flat until the end of the month because that was in your contract (4 weeks notice etc). However I'm not sure that the OP ever had an obligation to pay anything more to Eon Next once the final bill was raised via contacting them with your final read(s) and paid off once that final bill (due to change of tenancy) was generated. This is why I have asked if they received a final statement and downloaded it.

Surely the LL at that point in early April 2023 becomes the 'new tenant' and should have assumed responsibility for ANY and ALL energy costs incurred immediately upon you leaving (whatever the reason) and would continue to do so until a new tenant moved in. The LL should have contacted the incumbent energy supplier (Eon Next) at that point in early April and told them 'I am the new tenant here, are my start readings'. If no energy was used the LL is responsible for these costs (standing charges only if no energy used in the meantime) until the new tenant moves in and the whole process gets repeated. Getting the money back from this debt collection agency might prove problematic given that you have now paid them monies.

It would not surprise me if the LL neglected to ever tell Eon Next that they had effectively taken over the tenancy or, if they did, they told them mistakenly IMO at the end of April 2023, instead of when you actually moved out leaving a period of time between the early to the of end of April 2023 when Eon Next do not have a 'tenant' matched to your energy supply. Possibly the LL may have even originally told them that you are the tenant until the end of April 2023 which is why you suddenly got this bill demand for this period. Remember the new tenant would have created a new account start date and payment for the gap is what was being sought.

[number1barber]

@Mailman Yes i got it emailed to me as the final statement i told them i would be moving out at the end of march. There was some confusion at the time with the landlord as when we finally got confirmation of sale it was already a few days into a month and they told us we have to give 6 weeks i think and as we had already entered a month they insisted we pay until the end of april i think we gave notice a few days into January. I cant remember fully. so our mortgage started first of april but we was still liable for the old flat bills till the end of April despite having moved out on the 2nd of april.

we told eon we was leaving 1st of april and paid the final bill to that date. Because we was paying rent to the end of april the LL did not go in until after that date so LL maybe correctly so or not insisted to eon that i was liable. Because eon knew i moved out i assume they opened a new account starting 1st of april when the tenants moved in they probably said no that wasn't us and eon linked the account to mine but made zero effort to contact me to pay it. Instead they eventually passed the debt to LCS either to enforce or sold it to them. If it is a case of back billing and eon dropped the ball i assume that regardless of if i paid LCS or not the debt would not be valid and I hope LCS will have to refund me but we shall see once i speak with eon again

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by number1barber

@Mailman Yes i got it emailed to me as the final statement i told them i would be moving out at the end of march. There was some confusion at the time with the landlord as when we finally got confirmation of sale it was already a few days into a month and they told us we have to give 6 weeks i think and as we had already entered a month they insisted we pay until the end of april i think we gave notice a few days into January. I cant remember fully. so our mortgage started first of april but we was still liable for the old flat bills till the end of April despite having moved out on the 2nd of april.

we told eon we was leaving 1st of april and paid the final bill to that date. Because we was paying rent to the end of april the LL did not go in until after that date so LL maybe correctly so or not insisted to eon that i was liable. Because eon knew i moved out i assume they opened a new account starting 1st of april when the tenants moved in they probably said no that wasn't us and eon linked the account to mine but made zero effort to contact me to pay it. Instead they eventually passed the debt to LCS either to enforce or sold it to them. If it is a case of back billing and eon dropped the ball i assume that regardless of if i paid LCS or not the debt would not be valid and I hope LCS will have to refund me but we shall see once i speak with eon again

If you want to push it I'd really look at what you are obliged to pay for in the sequence of events you have described. As I think you have confirmed, the LL has taken on the interim 'change of tenancy' with Eon Next from end of April 23 rather than as soon as you left and handed the keys in.

Best of luck in trying to get your money back. 👍