EDF BACK BILLING--electricity

STDK

NEED HELP...
I bought a flat back in 2007 june and got connected to EDF for electricity, they took an actual reading then but since then all the readings each quarter have been estimated for two and half years, Just last week they sent me a bill for £4000 which they have told me has come from an actual reading taken in november also they have told me i was being billed as a business instead of a residental premises i cant get my head around this.......i really need some advice of what to do as i have just given birth to my second child only 2 weeks ago and cant deal with all this stress!!!!!

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Is the £4,000 bill for a business account? A business account will have VAT at 15%(17.5% when the bill started) a domestic account will have VAT at 5%.

Can you give some more details? KWh charged, rates per kWh and how much you have paid.

In essence with every bill based on an estimated reading you should have checked and sent in a corrected reading.

It is perfectly lawful to base bills on estimated readings, but there is every chance the bill can be reduced and you get a long period to pay off the arrears.

STDK

thank you for your reply....
I have checked my bills they told they were billing as an business but have charged me 5% vat on all the bills dating back to 2007. The kwh 0.441 in 2007, the kwh 0.456kwh in 2008 to now. I have paid about £450 since 2007. Please you advise how i should handle this situation.

gemstars

Do you have the first actual reading? Can you post it and your most recent reading? What tarriff are you on?

STDK

70034 .....now 96771.... tariff is i think 14.490

Premier_2

Business or residential .... that's probably a bit of a red herring as far as the bill is concerned, although it should be corrected if inappropriate.
You've only been charged 5% VAT anyway.

14.49p per kWh is not abnormal. The amount of energy recorded as being consumed would be almost £4k at that rate.

But that is total cost! I thought you said you had some intermediate, estimated bills during the last 2.5 years. I presume you paid them (and that they weren't for £0.00)

Edit: you paid £450 for 2.5 years supply - that means you should only owe about £3.5k now.
Not sure how you thought you could get away with paying about £200 a year leccy (£50 per quarter) which is way below average usage when you appear to be using almost 10x that (above average usage)

dogshome

Hiya STDK - From your posts it appears that with the new bill and money you have paid, your billing works out to £153.00 a month over 29 months, which for an all Electric flat is some 25% over the top - Depending on how big the flat is and how well you manage the power - If you have Gas heating, it's massively excessive.

This "Business Billing" is worrying. It would appear that some previous occupier of your flat opted for business billing, which is priced annually on a fixed contract and as shown on other threads on this site, if the customer isn't really on the ball at contract renewal time, the price for the next year will go up into the stratosphere
.
On your Post No 3, I get the impression that your price per Kw in 2007 was 0.441pence, which rose to 0.456pence in 2008 - if this is correct you were paying tariff rates that are hugely more expensive than a Domestic tariff - The fact that you were being charged 5% VAT does not mean you were not on a Business tariff, as these tariffs are charged at 5% if the consumption in a Quarter falls below a certain threshholds

We really need more info. to help you - If you are on Standard Elec we need to know the Day Charge or Prime Rate cost, and the unit cost of the rest. If you are on ECO7 we need the Day Charge or Prime Rate cost, the unit cost of the rest and the Night rate cost
Take heart - If we can help you, we will

STDK

I really was naive this was my first property and also im from canada ....i did not realize that i was not paying the correct amount ...also how do i give the above info that you need on ECO7 andthe charge rates etc...also looking at the bill for £4000 they have charged me 15% vat

STDK

Just got off the phone to EDF im on Standard Elec.... day rate is 14.20 and Unit cost is 14.49.

Premier_2

Well the daily standing charge would account for about another £130 assuming there has been no change in prices over the last 2.5 years, but that still leaves £370 unaccounted for.

Could you please itemise the entire demand for £4k as per the bill here please if you need more help.

Edit: are the above prices excluding vat? and therefore 15% vat has been added? That would come to about £4k.

If that's the case then you have 2 issues to resolve with the supplier:
1. why are you being charged vat @ 15%
2. why has the bill not taken account the price changes that occurred over the last 2.5 years? The bill should ideally be completely recalculated from the initial meter reading taking into account monies already paid

dogshome

Hi again SDTK - So you are paying 15% VAT, and therefore you are being charged on a Business tariff
Business tariffs are negotiated with each individual customer and become a binding contract between that individual business and the supplier, be it a Sole Trader, Partnership or Limited company

The point is that you are not the business with whom EDF agreed a Business Contract.and cannot be held to the Terms & Conditions of that contract
When you first advised EDF that you had moved into the flat, they should have offered you a new business contract if they considered them to be business premises, at which point your Domestic status would have become apparent, but they did not and went on to charge you the tariff in the previous occupiers contract

Business contacts are such a minefield that the regulator, Ofgem, is currently investigating them - Small businesses have been sold them over the phone on the basis of low prices, but in the T&C's they have not seen, there is a Roll-over clause that in the following year the supplier can charge what they like - No wonder you were paying 45.6 pence a unit

OK - Write to EDF, heading the letter Complaint Just lke that in bold. Pointing out that you are an ordinary domestic customer and asking why they put you on Business contract tariff, that was agreed with an entirely different 3rd party without any consultation when you first advised them that you had moved into flat.
You require that they send you new billings for the whole period that you have been in residence, that are individually detailed with the periods charged and DOMESTIC tariffs prevailing at those times

Checking all those bills is going to be a lot of homework, but take heart as I think there is a good chance that EDF will end up owing you money
All the best