EDF Back dating bills for five yrs!!! £2500!

jnorman

edf have recently sent out a bill asking for £2500 because they say the meter was not read correctly and are back dating it over five years. they have visited to read it every year (for 5 years!!)

the account is for a small business and i have heard of these cases on WatchDog for households, however: one, i cannot remember the outcomes for these imilar situations and two am wandering if we have different (less) rights because of the fact it is a small business..

Has anyone got any advice as far as how to deal with this.

thank you.

LeeSouthEast

They can only back date for a maximum of 2 years. Tell them to eff off for the rest

In 2006 energy suppliers had to comply with new rules that meant they could not backdate bills for customers for more than two years – but this limit is cut to a year when incorrect bills have been sent or where the supplier is at fault.

jnorman

is there any that more information can be found, a website for instance.

They are saying this occurred because a new meter was installed. That we didnt know of...

Thank you though as you have informed us of something we were not aware of as far the limit on back dating is concerned, thank you!

LeeSouthEast

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=21489887

Edit: Welcome to MSE. I didn't notice that was your first post. I'm not normally so terse with new MSE'ers The link above contains links to source documents you can quote to your energy supplier.

KimYeovil

Since when did the backbilling guidelines apply to business accounts?

jnorman

yes this what i was concerned about, the same guidelines not applying. I am researching on behalf of parents, but they did just say our on house is included in the bill inclusively.

LeeSouthEast

KimYeovil wrote: »

Since when did the backbilling guidelines apply to business accounts?

Yikes.. I missed that sentence entirely. Sorry folks.. guess my advice is irrelevant.

[Deleted User]

If you are having unresolved issues contact the Energy Ombudsman: info can be found here: http://www.energy-ombudsman.org.uk/

asbokid

Domino9 wrote: »

If you are having unresolved issues contact the Energy Ombudsman: info can be found here: http://www.energy-ombudsman.org.uk/

I wouldn't expect any help from them. Or at least, we never got any.. For much the same problem, too. The regulator is just a puppet of the industry itself..

IMO, all of the utility regulators are a hindrance to Jo Public who would be served better by the Courts.

energyknowitall

This happens quite a bit where a supplier sends out a bill backdating any outstanding balances.

Different suppliers have different policy's but in my experience 9 out of 10 times we are able to reduce the bills.

Have EDF been billing you for that meter
What rate are they charging the units at per kWh, of they are out of contract rates then straight away you can challenge them on that basis, 5 year business contracts were around 5p p/kWh so you can argue that if you had know about the meter you would have acted accordingly.

worrieduser

Similar thread - I've just checked my office elec meter and there's about 70000 KWHs that haven't been paid for. I rang up the supplier as shown on the meter and they said it has been disconnected for over a decade (I couldn't see an electric bill in any of the previous year's accounts and that's why the budget was underspent so much!). I must I admit I said "no" when asked if we were getting a supply.

How do you work how much of those 70K kwh's relates to what year and at what rate? I've checked and there is no f"ailure to bill proviso" for businesses. (We aren't a business as such though)