1st electricity bill in 3 years

funkaduck

I haven't had a bill sent in 3 years , even though they have been reading my meter regularly , and I have , some will say stupidly, and some will say intelligently kept quiet , but today is the day that I always knew will come :eek:, bill day, its just over £4000, there is no way I can pay this strait away as i am a disabled unemployed single parent. But a friend has told me that the general consensus is they can only bill you for the last year . and if there has been any price rises they have to charge you at the lowest rate. can anyone confirm this and tell me how to go about challenging this nasty bill .

spiro

The one year rule is if is the suppliers fault that they have not sent you a bill. To have used over £1333 per year I am guessing you are in an all elec property.

As has been said numerous times I hope you have been putting the money aside you should have paid each month.

Before you do anything you need to write down in detail all of yuor income and outgoings because it is almost certain that the supplier will insist on you having a prepayment meter so that debt recovery is automatic on top of what you use. To do this they wil need to know what you think you can repay per week but be warned they wont treat things like mobile phones or Sky as essentials so will probably discount them from your outgoings.

funkaduck

thanks spiro , yes it it is a all electric house but my bills used to be about £600 a year, they have defo got it wrong , I don't want a repayment meter , may be I should change my supplier today so they can't do that , . no I haven't put any money aside because I don't get enough money to do that . but do you have the details of the 1 year rule

lee5768

email energy watch about it see what advice they give or goto the CAB

lee5768

funkaduck wrote: »

thanks spiro , yes it it is a all electric house but my bills used to be about £600 a year, they have defo got it wrong , I don't want a repayment meter , may be I should change my supplier today so they can't do that , . no I haven't put any money aside because I don't get enough money to do that . but do you have the details of the 1 year rule

you can't change suppler due having a £4000 bill they would want you to pay it off first

Antispam

Why didnt you ring them?

"no I haven't put any money aside"

so how do you expect to get energy, it isnt free

NeverInDebt

Well if you dont have the money then you should have cut your cloth accordingly

You will end up on a meter thats for certain and most of the money you put in will go on paying that debt because you obviously have a problem managing your money and you cant move with that money owing, you do need help though managing your money

funkaduck

lee5768 wrote: »

email energy watch about it see what advice they give or goto the CAB

cab don't know anything about the 1 year rule , I am goona email energy watch now thanks,

savemoney

I dont understand why you just dug your head in the sand in the vain attempt it will go away, it will never go away

If you dont have the money, then either your spending it in things perhaps you cant afford too. Money is tight, but you normally have enough money to spend on housing, food, energy and a little left over for clothes and odd treat

Have you checked you are getting all benefits you are entitled too?

duggo1

funkaduck wrote: »

and I have , some will say stupidly, and some will say intelligently kept quiet , but today is the day that I always knew will come :eek:, bill day, its just over £4000, there is no way I can pay .

.....well you said it 'stupdily' - why do you think you deserve free electricity. Why didn't you put money aside

mattcanary

If it is the supplier's fault that they have not been billing you, then you should only have to pay back one year's worth of charges. That is what the utility guidelines state - however, they are only guidelines.
It sounds to me as if the fault here does rest primarily with the supplier. They (or the contracted firm) have been reading the meter regularly but still not been billing you. And it would appear they were previously billing you - I'm guessing the bills stopped arriving after your meter was changed? If that is the case, it opens up another can of worms.