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corkey6458

Hi all
We have recently received a electricity bill for over £8K!!! We have lived at my current address for nearly 11 years and when we first moved I brough with me a substantial amount of credit on my electricty so much so that I was told only to pay £11 per month until it was used up. I kept receiving a vat invoice every month showing my £11 and they kept estimating my reading. When I rang them to say that they had read my neighbours but not mine they said they would send someone out but never did. I contacted them over this bill and was told that I had been paying business rate and 17.5% vat so they would ammend it. It came down to over £5000K I asked why they hadn't responded to my request for reading the metre and when they lookied into it they said that the metre reader had logged down insufficient details for my address, yet they had read my neighbours!! and have been twice in 11 years to read mine. I just wonder is there anything I can do, as they now have me paying £400 a month and have made out they are doing me a favour by extending it over 2 years to help me pay.
Any advice will be much appreciated.

Cardew

I am not clear from your post if your account is/was a business account or has been a domestic account for 11 years.

Business accounts are not covered by the rules that apply to domestic accounts.

If a domestic account, you could contact Energywatch and see what they advise. There are rules that the meter should be read every 2 years. However it is not unknown for meter readers to say they have read a meter when they haven't.

Presumably your contacts with them have all been on the telephone and not in writing?

Also the terms and conditions are that you should contact them if you are not satisfied with your estimated readings.

If you were unhappy that they hadn't read your meter and contacted them about it, why didn't you read the meter yourself and give them the readings while on the phone?

If I understand your post correctly:

You have paid only £11 a month for 11 years.

Your £8,000 bill has been reduced to £5,000

You have been given 2 years to pay of your debt(interest free presumably)

If that is the case it seems to me that you have been treated pretty favourably.

space_rider

Sounds to me like it was a business account. On business each time you make a direct debit payment it triggers a vat invoice. Apart from the fact that vat is more expensive it is cheaper to have a business rate than a domestic rate. Looks to me like it has been in your favour as not only have you had your vat reduced you`ve also benefitted from the lower business price.

brysiewysie

No, it looks domestic. The op says it was changed from business with vat at 17.5% and it was then amended.

I think cardew is close to the point from the info we've got with 11 years of electricity paying at only £11pm.