Help, shock £1202 gas bil!!!!!

Cardew

wineoclock36 wrote: »

Hi

Hoping someone can give me some advice.
We moved into our property in Nov 2003, usually when you move you recieve a letter/bill from the current supplier. Nothing.
I had to phone round all companies and all told me they were not my supplier. I was advised to call the main database to find out who our supplier was ( cant remember the name of it), and they informed me it was scottish power. Numerous calls to scottish power and they still told me they didnt supply us? We did eventually just give up trying, knowing that one day we would recieve a bill.
That day came today....................................infact they have given us 2! one for period 27/05/07 - 30/11/08 for £1,645.52
and the other for period 01/12/08 - 28/05/09 for £2,547.55.............................................................GULP.
Both estimates, even though regularly throughout our time here meter readers for SCOTTISH POWER have come and read the meter?
So, can anyone tell me what I should now be doing? Does the 1 yr rule apply here? They always told us on the telephone they didnt supply us? I really really really need some help please?

thankyou in advance
Jo

Generally the 1 year rule does not apply for new occupants as unless they tell the supplier they are in occupation, the company do not know the house is occupied.

When you move in and use gas and electricity, you have entered a legally binding deemed contract with that supplier.

The meter readers are not normally employed by Scottish Power.

If you knew Scottish Power(SP) were your suppliers and had sent a recorded delivery letter, you might have had a better case.

To have gas and electricity for five and a half years without payment and hope that you only have to pay for 1 years is a little hopeful IMO!!

That said, there is obviously some fault with SP in not picking this up so you will obviously get some reduction on the total; but I doubt if they will concede the 12 month back-billing issue.

Gerrard_8_lfc

Surely any bills over a year off have to be wrote off by SP...

But also did you not think to call and just check everything was up to date with meter readings ect?

See what happens when people leave BG :P lol just kidding

wineoclock36

It was only elec with scottish power, but as i said they constantly said they were not our supplier? British gas supply gas and they made sure we knew they were supplying when we moved in.

Cardew

Gerrard_8_lfc wrote: »

Surely any bills over a year off have to be wrote off by SP...

But also did you not think to call and just check everything was up to date with meter readings ect?

No! Bills do not have to be written off after a year. The relevant part of the billing code is here;

Under what circumstances will suppliers agree not to charge customers for energy used?

Energy Suppliers have a responsibility to ensure Customers are accurately billed for energy consumed. Likewise, Customers have a responsibility to pay for the energy they consume.

The Supplier is completely within its rights to bill in full for any energy consumed where it can demonstrate that;
a) use of supply has been made by a Customer but that no attempt has been made by a Customer to contact a Supplier to make or arrange payment, or
b) the Customer is wilfully avoiding payment, or
c) the Customer has not co-operated with attempts to obtain meter readings or resolve asset queries required to facilitate accurate bill production.

To have not paid for electricity for five and a half years and rely on the fact that they made(unproven) phone calls, I suggest will not be taken as evidence in case (a) above.

I am not suggesting in any way phone calls were not made, but after a few months surely a letter should have been sent. In fact IMO case (b) applies.

If new occupants could get away without paying bills for years simply by saying "I made a phone call" - then it would rapidly become standard practice!!! i.e. move in, ignore any letter addressed to 'The Occupier' and hope you get away without paying; when 'caught' claim to have made a phone call.

wineoclock36

Just to clarify, we didnt ever recieve any bills addressed to the occupier so therefor didnt " avoid " paying.

Magentasue

wineoclock36 wrote: »

Just to clarify, we didnt ever recieve any bills addressed to the occupier so therefor didnt " avoid " paying.

But do you have evidence that you have attempted to pay for the energy you have used/

Cardew

wineoclock36 wrote: »

Just to clarify, we didnt ever recieve any bills addressed to the occupier so therefor didnt " avoid " paying.

I wasn't suggesting you had.

I was making the point that if a phone call(that a company takes no action on) was sufficient to absolve the account holder from any blame for not paying bills, then the word would soon get around and everyone would ignore letters addressed to 'The Occupier' and when eventually caught, say 'I made a phone call'

The issue resolves around whether, under the billing code, it is reasonable expect to have free electricity for Five and half years and count on phone calls to absolve you for paying for four and half years of that total.

I am not making any moral judgement on the issue, just giving an opinion that I don't think the '12 month rule' would apply in this case as your grounds are weak.

The only advice I would give is to get the matter sorted asap as these days the debt is passed to a Debt Collection Agency very quickly.

wineoclock36

Its all sorted, I phoned scottish power re the bill and they immediately said it needs to be sent for recalculation as should only be for 12 months, so I guess they know they are in the wrong and not me!

I will now await a new bill for 12 months

We were not " avoiding " paying for our services, the only proof would of been copies of phone bills from years ago, scottish power know they never sent any letter/bill/communication.

Cardew

wineoclock36 wrote: »

Its all sorted, I phoned scottish power re the bill and they immediately said it needs to be sent for recalculation as should only be for 12 months, so I guess they know they are in the wrong and not me!

I will now await a new bill for 12 months

We were not " avoiding " paying for our services, the only proof would of been copies of phone bills from years ago, scottish power know they never sent any letter/bill/communication.

I wouldn't count your chickens yet!

Wait till you have it in writing.

P.S. your definition of 'avoiding' is different to mine! Ditto - the definition of 'in the wrong'

wineoclock36

What is your definition of avoiding?

Do you think they will change their mind then? and re send the bill for 2 yrs after just speaking to them?

Also, I didnt even mention the billing code or only paying 12 months, all i asked was why they had never sent correspondance. They mentioned the 12 yr billing code/rule.