Huge electricity bill - Estimated readings

carlos_t_jackal

We run a small business in premises over a shop in the Town where we live. Our electricity meter is siuated in a cupboard within the premises below with the ground floor occupants meters ( I believe that the premises used to be in the same occupation). We have been paying the electricity bill by direct debit with no problems. However, (out of the blue) we received a letter last week from British Gas Electricity informing us that there was a large bill coming. When we rang to find out what was going on we were informed that there was an underpayment of c.£5000 which had accrued since 2005!! As we had not been contacted, we had assumed that the meter had been read regularly when the ground floor occupants meter had been read and, therefore, the monthly payment levels were correct. As we had received no contact to ask for correct meter readings, this would seem reasonable? It appears that they have been using estimated readings since 2005! Surely there must be a duty of care which means that they can only use estimated readings for a certain period of time without then asking for a actual reading? What also makes me suspicious is that without any real argument, they have reduced the bill by over £2000 but with a marked increase in DD payments over the next 3-4 years. Surely there must be some recourse? Can anyone help please?

KimYeovil

Surely there must be a duty of care in running a business whereby one keeps track of one's running costs?

You are running a business but have not once read your meters and correlated them with your bills in over four years? If you are that careless and think your supplier is conning you wait until you find out what your accountants/business partners/employees have been up to!

nsabournemouth

KimYeovil wrote: »

Surely there must be a duty of care in running a business whereby one keeps track of one's running costs?

You are running a business but have not once read your meters and correlated them with your bills in over four years? If you are that careless and think your supplier is conning you wait until you find out what your accountants/business partners/employees have been up to!

If you haven't got anything constructive to say......shhhhhhh

Antispam

Have to agree with Kim the presumption that meters should be read regularly by your supplier is just that a presumption, they dont have to read it regularly at all.

Its your responsibility to keep your supplier notified of readings so that you dont get into long term debt and or credit

neas

I thought they could only correct for 2 years worth? Have you confirmed and read the new meter reading? or are you still relying on others to do it?

amtrakuk

Im not sure about businesses but resedential they should come round about once a year.

If you have got a whapping bill, I'm sure if you phone up your supplier you will be able to come to some sort of arrangement to clear it.

rahl101

Kim's response is not exactly constructive, but it is correct. If BGas have been sending you bills that clrealy state that they are estimates and have proof that they have "made every attempt" to read your meter once every two years the fact that they haven't actually managed to do this is somewhat irrelevant, they just have to have tried.

Lube

I think different rules apply to business

Cardew

neas wrote: »

I thought they could only correct for 2 years worth? Have you confirmed and read the new meter reading? or are you still relying on others to do it?

For domestic accounts, they can only back-bill for 1 year(used to be 2 years) if they haven't sent any bill and it is their(the company's) fault.

With estimated bills there is no time limit and domestic customers must pay.

For a business account there is no protection at all, it is a straight supplier/customer arrangement.


They have probably reduced the bill by £2,000 to account for the fact that electricity prices were cheaper in 2005/6/7/8 and it is easier to reduce the bill by 40% to account for this factor.

The bottom line is that you should have checked their 'invoice'(bill) to check that the estimated readings were the same as the actual readings.

On the bright side, you have effectively had an interest free loan for 4 years and will be getting another for the 3 or 4 years it takes to pay back the debt.:T

DVardysShadow

nsabournemouth wrote: »

If you haven't got anything constructive to say......shhhhhhh

Actually, Kim has a fair point on this one. So many of the problems which arise on the gas lectricity and water forums arise because people do not take interest in their meter readings - and it goes on and on for years until there is a huge problem.

People - read your meters!