No gas bills for 3 1/2 years

netwinkle

We have been trying to sort out our debts and so have been going through our finances with a fine tooth comb.
When doing this we had presumed our gas and electric were billed together as both are with edf. However, our bills are only showing for electric and the amounts on them are consistent with electric.
Yesterday we rang the number on our meter and were told they are not our gas transporter so they had no idea who our supplier is. Our neighbour have found out their gas transporter and we have aclled them and they have confirmed that our supplier is down as edf.
We moved into the house from new 3 1/2 years ago and haven't had a bill since then. We are terrified that now we are getting ourselves sorted in terms of our debts that a bill for 3 1/2 years woreth of gas to a quite large 3 storey house will be unmanageable.

Does anyone have any guidance as to what we can now do? Do we ring edf and let them know that we haven't been billed for gas or is there any other way around this?

Thanks in advance for any help

Cardew

If you have not received a bill of any sort, they can only back-bill you for 12 months!

Your case seems to be quite common and many companies just are not interested.

allan673

keep quiet if thats the case then???

netwinkle

Phew!!!

What do you mean in that the companies are not interested? Not interested in the fact that they haven't billed or not interested that they can only back-bill for 12 months?

Do you think we should give them a ring?

netwinkle

allan673 wrote: »

keep quiet if thats the case then???

Is that naughty?

If i wait a few months then the 12 months they could bill wouldn't include the points where I was at home all day on maternity leave so would save us a lot!!

dollarjon

Same thing happened to us but for 2 years, scottish power didnt send us a bill after numerous contacts. They had the wrong meter down for us. lucky for us we had put away £40 a month but they could only back date us 12 months which they did once it had been sorted out.

netwinkle

Just a thought - how can they backdate for 12 months if they haven't been taking meter readings? or if someone has read the meter (it is an outside meter so we wouldn't know if they had) can we get the readings?

Cardew

netwinkle wrote: »

Phew!!!

What do you mean in that the companies are not interested? Not interested in the fact that they haven't billed or not interested that they can only back-bill for 12 months?

Do you think we should give them a ring?

By not interested, I mean lots of people have tried, and failed, to get a company admit that they are supplying them with gas - particularly with new builds.

I suspect the reason is that it is 'all too difficult' for the call centre operators to deal with the case. If the meter serial No is not on their database they can't raise a bill.

When they eventually get around to dealing with the problem, they will assume that the meter for a new build was zero. If you have used, say, 80,000kWh in 4 years, they will estimate and bill you for 20,000kWh.

If you want to get it sorted, don't ring! Write EDF a letter and send it recorded delivery.

Of course it may well be that EDF are not your supplier.

If both your meters are outside, whoever has been reading your electricity meter will probably have read your gas meter at the same time.

It could even be that they have been sending bills to the developer of the estate - who has been paying them!!!!!

Months of fun ahead!

netwinkle

thanks for the advice - there are so many empty properties on the estate that have been empty since building 4 years ago that the bills could have been paid by accident but you'd think they would have noticed by now (hmm - or maybe not!)
I have just read the meter and it is showing as 04087.48
I have looked on Edf's website and the only price i can find for gas is 7.577p but this doesn't say if it is in metric or imperial and when I calculate based on our reading i get a cost of £310 since the meter began 3 1/2 years ago which doesn't seem correct does it?

Any ideas?

Cardew

netwinkle wrote: »

thanks for the advice - there are so many empty properties on the estate that have been empty since building 4 years ago that the bills could have been paid by accident but you'd think they would have noticed by now (hmm - or maybe not!)
I have just read the meter and it is showing as 04087.48
I have looked on Edf's website and the only price i can find for gas is 7.577p but this doesn't say if it is in metric or imperial and when I calculate based on our reading i get a cost of £310 since the meter began 3 1/2 years ago which doesn't seem correct does it?

Any ideas?

Yes.

If your meter reading is 4087 you have used approx 46,000kWh (a gas unit varies with the calorific value but is normally between 11kWh and 11.5kWh)

The gas price you quoted is for the Tier1 price(the first xxxx units per year - often 4,572kWh) the rest will be priced at around 4p per kWh.

So very roughly your bill will be around £2,400 for the 3.5. years at todays prices, but of course would have been less when you moved in.

Be interesting if the developer is paying - not certain of the position in law but I suppose he could claim against you!

Lee_Bag

I have the same problem with Electric, we've been in a new build for 4 years in may and never had a bill. I contacted them over and over again, still can't find me. Powergen have now been taken over so i contacted the new company and they told me they would look into this. They did tell me as long as they have record i've contacted them they would only back date it 12 months, still haven't heard anything from them.:eek: :eek: