No electricity bills since meter change

t25_2

Hello,
Sorry this post is rather long, but I have an unusual(?) problem with my electricity billing which will take some explaining:

I had my electricity meter moved a long time ago, when renovating my house. I was told that somebody would come to asses the job before I could get a quote for the work involved, which seemed reasonable. Two fitters from nPower turned up at the expected time, expecting to actually do the meter move job. I objected, as I only wanted a quote at that point, but their response was along the lines of, "we've been sent to move the meter, if you have not been quoted, you probably will not get charged". I couldn't believe my luck, and let then get on with it, and I never did get charged. They mentioned that my meter was out of date, so they would swap it for a new one while the were there. They made a label with the old and new meter readings on it for me, and left.
Shortly afterwards, I was visited by an nPower rep, who successfully persuaded me to switch my gas to nPower too. This was sold to me as a saving opportunity because I would only pay a single bill for both electricity and gas, which sounded good. For I long time I then never noticed that my bills are actually only for gas. I pay by direct debit, and have to admit that I hadn't payed too much attention to the bills. Now I've investigated it, I don't think I've had an electricity bill since the meter was swapped.
When I first realised, initially I thought great - 'free' electricity. However, I'm worried that I'm in for a massive bill. My now not so new meter has a few thousand kWh on it now. My guess is that because of the unusual circumstances in which my meter got moved for free, the old meter must have been taken off nPower's system, but the new one not registered as being mine. I have never been asked to read the new meter either - something which never occurred to me until I relaised my bills are just for gas.

I read with interest on here that under certain circumstances, electricity suppliers can only back charge you for up to 12 months. It seems that I have not paid for any electricity a lot longer than a year. You can probably guess my next question. Should I:

a) Confess that I am not paying for my electricity ASAP, to minimise the big bill which is probably due? Since I realised that I am not paying for electricity, I have started to put some money aside in case the big bill arrives, but it probably won't be enough.

or....

b) Keep quiet if this 12 month back pay limit applies to my case, then when that catch up with me, I may only have to pay for a year?

Option b) is unethical, but tempting. Does anyone know how I can find out whether this 12 month back pay limit applies in my case without speaking to nPower?

Thanks

Garz

You can only answer a or b as you have stated the reasoning the ball is entirely in your court.

Do you have an old mpan number for the site referencing a bill that you used to pay, or the meter serial of the new meter?

I may be able to check on either method to see if the response is 'meter not found' then chances are the installations team didnt register it or the admin side of things bodged up.

The error is not your fault at the end of the day, however it is a bit naughty to know this and plead ignorance. The last thing you want is revenue protection knocking on, however I feel that this would go undetected for some time until you raise the issue.

t25_2

Thanks for the reply. One thing that I forgot to mention is that the house was unoccupied for most of the time between the meter being swapped and now while I renovated it part time. I've only become aware of the problem since moving in (a couple of years ago), and using significant amounts of gas and electricity.

The new meter only has one number on it which looks like it could be a serial number. It's IOOG 12345 (the first four digits are right, but the last are not 12345) . I also noticed that the meter says MEB on it, and on just checking my old bills for this 'mpan' number (whatever one of those is), that they too are from MEB, before they became / were taken over by nPower. I have an MEB account number on a bill from before the meter was swapped, but that's about all.

kjsmith7

Whichever you decide, you have the 'card' which lists the old meter "off index"/closing read and new meter "on index"/starting read, so if you do decide to 'fess up/get caught, make sure you provide those details to your supplier, along with the new serial number, as they will need these details to bill you correctly in the future Hope that helps.

spiro

Even if Npower have not processed the meter exchange it seems strange they are not billing you even if estimated. It may be that they have classified the property as 'long term vacant' becuase you were not living there and they have realised you have moved in now. Technically the 12 month rules applies when its the suppliers fault but I suspect that your failure to advise them may count against you so I would contact them stating that you have moved back in and realsied you haven't been billed.

master_of_puppets

we haven't had a bill for nearly 3 years, dispite us phoning 3 times to get it sorted. we were told in the last conversation that it would be sorted as it was going to their technical dept. we then received a bill for £0.00p. fed up of chasing them to bill me.-just as well as OH made redundant, so a saving of £100 a month, and the money we put aside for it can be spent on mortgage repayments. result..