Somebody please HELP!!! I am at a loss now :(

Cardew

My goodness there is a lot of supposition in some posts.

For a start prior to July 2006 there was no provision about back-billing. A gas/electricity debt was a civil debt and could be treated as such i.e. go back 6 years.

In July 2006 the Billing Code decreed that Utility companies could only back-bill 2 years if they were at fault.

In July 2007 this changed to 1 year.

From the OP's account(as far as I can gather) the problems started in mid 2005.(29/6/2005)
and if she didn't receive any bills(not clear) she at least received one at "the end of 2006, beginning of 2007"

So the back-billing code does not apply.

A DD was set up for £20 in April 2007, it was increased to £120 a month later and the OP objected. - The letter notifying her of this increase had got lost!

So, again from what I understand, the OP has paid nothing for electricity since 29/06/2005(apart from the single £20 payment in April 2007) as she has been trying "unsuccessfully to arrange payments that we could both agree but they just kept coming up with higher and higher figures."

So the £2000 reduction of the outstanding debt was a goodwill gesture because of all the problems.

It seems to me that the (understandable) sympathy for the plight of the OP has got in the way of common sense on this thread and once again a Utility company has become the whipping boy.

To suggest that is reasonable, for someone who has paid a total of £20 towards Utility bills in a period of 4 years 4 months, to repay a reduced debt of £2,514.58 at £5 a week(Taking 10 years) is madness.

duggo1

Well said Cardew.

Knowing she had an issue with the bills why wasn't something being put aside each week for when the issue was resolved.

fullstop

It is not only the OP's fault that she is in a mess, the ex must share the blame for the situation she finds herself in today, especially with the child support situation.

maxtweenie

duggo1 wrote: »

Well said Cardew.

Knowing she had an issue with the bills why wasn't something being put aside each week for when the issue was resolved.

I was just reading through the posts before saying the same thing myself. If no direct debits were being taken, what happened to the money that would have been used to pay for the energy that was used?

KimYeovil

It's not just that no money was being put aside. She is still using £2000 of fuel per year whilst knowing she has no way of paying for it (or will find it difficult.)

maxtweenie

KimYeovil wrote: »

It's not just that no money was being put aside. She is still using £2000 of fuel per year whilst knowing she has no way of paying for it (or will find it difficult.)

It's really hard to sort out all these facts and figures from the OP's post. I took it to mean that the £4500 debt was from FOUR years of having fuel without paying either the correct amount or anything at all. Given the high prices over the last three years or so, £1100 a year is not an unreasonable amount. I'd still be interested to see why nothing was put away to pay the bill once it became apparent no payments were being taken.

Woo1406

MattCanary. Thank you for your comments. I am not sure how they are expecting me to pay that amount, although according to Kim I apparently have at least £300 spare a month. I am trying to ignore her but I presume that, as pointed out by Miss Moppet, the lemon Kim was sucking on has got stuck somewhere.
I will attend the court as I do actually want to pay this debt off. Thank you for your advice on paying EDF regular payments and I have been told that I can just do this at a paypoint with just my reference number which I will start tomorrow with as much as I can actually afford.
EDF have told me the £4500 bill (before their goodwill gesture) was for 2 years. That works out to £187.50 every month, which I think is an unrealistic amount of electricity use when I am out all day at work and my children are at school. But that is just my opinion that it is an unrealistic amount.

Woo1406

dogshome. I agree and think their attitude is appalling. I have obviously not mentioned in my posts every single phone call I made to them since 2005 asking them to sort this out.
I had heard about the back billing rule that it was 12 months but the few times I have mentioned it I have come to a brick wall with them. I also asked them again last night and was told by the lady that she did not know anything about it! Hard to believe that somebody who works in that industry has not heard of it.
Thank you for your advice and I will write a letter as suggested by you.

Woo1406

Premier. If you had read my post and the comment I made properly about 'I thought this was a forum for advice' you would have noticed that I was actually talking about the rude sarcastic insulting bullying comments that were left by Kim.
Do not patronise me by sending me a link to the Samaritans!!!

Woo1406

Cardew. After over 3 years of asking for a bill, I did finally receive one late 2006 early 2007 as I stated earlier. Apparently they could not send me a bill any earlier as the computer could not generate a bill. This was to do with the computer not having an anniversary date.
Also your figures for what I have paid are wrong. In total I have paid £380 and not £20 (I know that is not a massive amount but I have tried to arrange payments with them) £240 was from 2004/2005 direct debits and two DD payments in 2007. One was for £20 and the other for £120. The DD was set up for the specific reason to pay for the electricity I was using from that date so that the debt did not get any higher. They were looking into what had gone wrong with the computer and try to sort out a way for me to pay the outstanding amount at a mutually agreed amount.