Help! Massive electricity bill!

pwig

Hi Folks,

Wondering if you can help me.

I moved into a 1 bedroom flat in november and moved out in the may. There was a meter reading taken before I moved in. But I couldn't get access to the meter so took what their word was.

Anyway, set up an account for £40 a month to come out direct debit.

Asked for two meter readings to be taken when I left the property, and nothing happened. They sent me an estimated bill for £967.80 for 6 months!

I rang them up and asked them about it, it seems the reading has been done since. They estimated my bill from a december reading that was taken. For the record the reading was 32142 when I moved in, and the closing figure was 38557.

They say since I have moved out the new tentant is using a third of what I was doing. It had electric central heating, which I used for an Average of an hour and a half a day along with the hot water. I had a Telly, fridge and freezer, lap top and a cooker using the electricity.

Has anyone else had a bill this high for 6 months?

What else can I do???

Please help before i have to find £750 from somehwere!

milliemonster

the difference between those 2 readings is 6415 units, which is just above our annual usage for a family of 4 in a 3 bed home, and there is usually someone at home all day everyday.

I take it the closing reading of 38557 is an actual reading and not an estimate? if this is the case then I'm afraid there will be no option but to pay it, as you didn't read the meter on moving in to the property and took the previous oocupants word for it then this may be where the problem lies but you can't prove what you have used as you didn't access the meter on entry to the property.

pwig

I guess so, it's a 1 bed flat though !

Vestra

How did you heat your flat?

pwig

With eletric central heating. I used to run it for about an hour and half a day tops. Some weeks I would only use the hot water though. Again on for about an hour.

Vestra

pwig wrote: »

With eletric central heating. I used to run it for about an hour and half a day tops. Some weeks I would only use the hot water though. Again on for about an hour.

Electric heating is very expensive.