never had an electricity bill!

ants99

Hi,

Just realised that since we changed from a prepay meter to a bill meter after moving in nearly 2 years ago we have never had an electricity bill!

The meter now reads 7247.2, so presuming it was 0 when installed, at 11p a unit I am guessing that we would owe about £800 :-(

Question is do I call them and tell them? How far back can they charge? If we start putting money away each month from now on but leave it a while, will it limit how far back they can go?

Or is it better to point out there error now and see if we can shop around for the best deal (but then presume they would want the £800 before allowing us to swiotch away).

Anyone been in this situation before?

Anthony

SiuLoong

Lived in a flat for one year at uni where we had no gas or elec bills, we were told by the landlord that previous years hadn't paid any so they were aware that it was going on. Funny thing was that the flat was above the agency who owned the flat, so they were clearly paying our bill.. we didn't even have a meter!

I would definitely be putting money away to cover it.. not sure what the best thing to do re: contacting them is.. I think you generally work out best with honesty.

ants99

I own the property, not just a tenent so no option of doing a runner ;-)

4$£&*(£$&*(!

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_world/consumer_affairs/electricity_supply.htm

States if they failed to send you out a bill they cannot force you to pay money dating beyond a year. It's your choice if you now pursue this or not (as presumably this situation could go on for a long time and you get free electricity), but that's a moral decision you'll have with yourself (personally I'd want this sorting straight away if I was in the situation).

anniecave

The meter may not have been at zero when it was installed.

Do you even know who your supplier is?

ants99

Yes, its British Gas, we had a keymeter from them already here when we first moved in, and I asked them to change it to a credit / billing type meter which they did, and I have the card from them confirming they did it with the meter number on etc, but never had a bill.

The meter is of the electrnoic type and look new so I just rpesumed it would be new, or atleast set to zero when installed, but no I never thought to check it when first installed.

notanothergreyhair

I am pretty sure that back billing by energy companies was limited to 1 year, last year...as per cityslicker's comments.

Energy companies ususally give you the same amount of time in which a debt was accrued to pay it off in the future, in addition to future usuage. Therefore you are likely to be able to negotiate paying off arrears in instalments over 12 months.

UK007BullDog

You better sort it out with them. Otherwise you might be hammered with a huge bill with a demand to pay right away. they might put you back on prepay which as you know costs more.

Sol00

They will only bill you for the last 12 months, but as you haven't had any bills, they will have to estimate what your consumption is over 12 months.

I would contact them about it, as they will catch up eventually and they may offer a discount on the balance as you contacted them.

barnaby-bear

Sol00 wrote: »

They will only bill you for the last 12 months, but as you haven't had any bills, they will have to estimate what your consumption is over 12 months.

I would contact them about it, as they will catch up eventually and they may offer a discount on the balance as you contacted them.

I think it's 12 months provided you make some attempt to pay - try using their call centre rahter than writing (they are so sh1te that when we did this they just ignored it and got 18 months free as we recorded times of calls) I think it was july 2007 the change in legislation. Apparently they had some IT issues about 2.5 years ago that wiped huge numbers of records.... if you have arrears it's pretty hard to change suppliers.

Networkguy

barnaby-bear wrote: »

if you have arrears it's pretty hard to change suppliers.

True but why would you want to change providers if the current provider is giving it to you for free?

Keep regular readings yourself so that when the time comes it is easy to work out what your consumption is remembering that they are not allowed under their own code of practice to back bill more than 12 months.

As for chasing it. Why bother? For each month that passes, that is another month of free power in your pocket.

It's not as if you are hiding from them or trying to avoid them is it? If they can't be bothered to bill you, fair game.