Nicor Gas shut off! Filed June 6th. Advice please!

[RNmomtofour]

So, I go to use my stove this afternoon and the gas is shut off! We filed on June 6th. I call Nicor and they say that they never received the paperwork and there is nothing they can do and to fax the paperwork to a certain number. It is illegal what they did right? My attorney insists they were notified. They even badgered me on the phone for the past due amount. They are closed now, but will I have to pay to get it back on? Any Advice appreciated. I have 4 children and we have no dryer, stove or hot water!

[LadyInTheRed]

Call first thing in the morning and ask to speak to a manager. Tell that person that you filed bankruptcy on June 6th and that by turning off yoru gas they are in violation of the automatic stay. Tell them that if service is not restored immediately, you will file a complaint for violation of the automatic stay. Get the name of everybody you talk to. Ask for a fax number and fax them a letter with a copy of your BK notice, repeating what you said on the phone. If none of that works, you may need to get your attorney involved.

[RNmomtofour]

My lawyers assistant left me a voicemail saying she faxed a letter and a copy of my 341 information/paperwork to them asking them to re-state my service. The attorney said they may say they need a deposit to turn it back on! WTF? We do not have any extra money right now for that! I am so furious. Can they legally do that? From what I've read online, it can take 5 business days for them to come out and turn it back on! I was home all day and didn't even see them here turning it off! They didn't come to the door or anything. Sneaky bastards!

[AngelinaCat]

Unfortunately, they CAN do it. It isn't right, but apparently it is legal.

We had not yet filed, but had fallen behind in making our electrical payment. We kept making $100.00 a week payments--as the money came in--but eventually it wasn't good enough. We had a near 20 year perfect record. The electric company issued a demand that we make a $790.00 deposit, or they were going to cut off our service.

We didn't have that kind of money in one lump sum--wasn't there a reason that we were trying to make weekly payments???? I am not sure now how we scraped up the money, but we did and paid it.

We had to declare the deposit on our BK forms as an Asset. Since we were ruled an Asset case, we also got to buy back our non-exempt things from the BK Estate--one of which was this deposit.

Rant is over, but I wanted to let you know that I understand what you are going through.

[despritfreya]

More than 20 days has elapsed since you filed. If you did not comply with 11 USC 366(b) the utility company was within its rights to shut off the service. However, most utitlites do not understand the below provision and therefore do not follow it. As a result, in all likelihood the turning off of your service was done by mistake. Your attny is correct in warning you that a deposit may be required if you want the service restored.

Edt. . . on the other hand, maybe the utility does understand this provision as it appears the service was terminated on the 20th day, just after the close of business??????????

Des.

11 USC 366:

a) Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c) of this section, a utility may not alter, refuse, or discontinue service to, or discriminate against, the trustee or the debtor solely on the basis of the commencement of a case under this title or that a debt owed by the debtor to such utility for service rendered before the order for relief was not paid when due.

(b) Such utility may alter, refuse, or discontinue service if neither the trustee nor the debtor, within 20 days after the date of the order for relief, furnishes adequate assurance of payment, in the form of a deposit or other security, for service after such date. On request of a party in interest and after notice and a hearing, the court may order reasonable modification of the amount of the deposit or other security necessary to provide adequate assurance of payment.

(c) (1) (A) For purposes of this subsection, the term “assurance of payment” means—
(i) a cash deposit;
(ii) a letter of credit;
(iii) a certificate of deposit;
(iv) a surety bond;
(v) a prepayment of utility consumption; or
(vi) another form of security that is mutually agreed on between the utility and the debtor or the trustee.

[tobee43]

i was just wondering if ill has a dept of pubic utilities where you could file a complaint. i know once i had a situation with my garbage in nj and i called them in that state and they made the garbage company come all the way back to pick up our garbage. although, that situation had nothing to do with non payment or our filing.

i know we always stayed current during our process where ever we were in nj or here in fl only because we were concerned about what would happen if we moved and needed service restored from a new company.

do you use the gas for cooling as well as your stove?

if i were you, other than your atty working on this, i would seek out any state information that may be helpful to you in your area, there are advocates in my states or counties that may be able to push for you.

best of luck!

[Pizza]

Here, utilities can request a deposit based on credit, whether behind on payments or not. We got a year-long contract with our electric provider for this reason.

[tobee43]

Here, utilities can request a deposit based on credit, whether behind on payments or not. We got a year-long contract with our electric provider for this reason.

yes they did that to us here in florida as well as though we had the exact same company!!! (although progress just sold i think nc and florida to duke). but we had to come up with deposit based they said on our credit. so i find out they are only allowed to keep the credit for so long and i just got back the credit on our account. so they can only keep it so long at least here in florida. also they have something the the PUC (public utilities commission) who i had called to ask them about my deposit and right while i was on the phone they called progress energy and told them to credit my deposit asap as they were already over their limit. PLUS interest. cool.

we don't have any "time" sensitive" contract with our electric company? how does that work pizza?

[Pizza]

Electricity is deregulated, so we are able to pick any of the dozens of companies @ 3mo/6mo/1yr/2yr. The price per kwh stays the same over the length of the contract.

Unfortunately, most of them do not send a paper bill and only take recurring payments, and check your credit each term to determine if they will want a deposit or not. So there's good and bad.

[tobee43]

Electricity is deregulated, so we are able to pick any of the dozens of companies @ 3mo/6mo/1yr/2yr. The price per kwh stays the same over the length of the contract.

Unfortunately, most of them do not send a paper bill and only take recurring payments, and check your credit each term to determine if they will want a deposit or not. So there's good and bad.

well that's somewhat interesting and excellent for competition, one would think that would drive the costs of electricity down? i really can't see the bad, only because here in florida where you need air almost all year round, the costs just continues to rise. i would LOVE to lock in 5 years 2 years years ago when we moved into this house. although, my neighbors, when the subject came up asked me about my bill because i have one of the only pools here. it was surprising to find out many of them had higher bills that we did.

but we did all sorts of types of things to save on our bill. we insulated the attic which had none when we moved in. the garden design is green and helps keep sun from the windows. tiled almost all flooring to hold the cool. keep the thermostat constant and people don't understand it's better to do that than to completely turn it off and get home from work and run it so hard to get it back to where they want it. we keep it at the same daily and then at night it's down to 73, that way it doesn't have to kick on so much. we also change the filter monthly, we have it cleaned twice a year. we do what we can to keep the costs down as much as possible.

[df04527]

Wow...i would love to see Fla do this also. No choice for us....sigh

[tobee43]

Wow...i would love to see Fla do this also. No choice for us....sigh

oh! me too!

[AngelinaCat]

Me three!

[AngelinaCat]

Also it seems that the power companies have the state divided up into territories that the customer is not allowed to cross the line to go to the other company. Here where we are, we have Florida Power & Light, and Clay Electric Cooperative. We have FP&L, while on the other side of the road, the neighbor might have Clay Electric. We would love to have Clay Electric as our service, [they have better rates] but we cannot do it.

[AngelinaCat]

i find out they are only allowed to keep the credit for so long and i just got back the credit on our account. so they can only keep it so long at least here in florida. also they have something the the PUC (public utilities commission) who i had called to ask them about my deposit and right while i was on the phone they called progress energy and told them to credit my deposit asap as they were already over their limit. PLUS interest. cool.

So THAT is why we got a credit at the beginning of 2009 for nearly 1K. They were returning the deposit we paid in 2007 plus interest. I had never understood that.