excessive estimated bill!!!

caw47

Just been reading through many of your electricity forums and wondered if anyone had any advice on this one:
My electricity bill has arrived with an outstanding balace in excess of £3000!
The has mainly been estimated for the last 3 years despite it being read early last year (after which they still billed me for an estimated reading) and again last October, which is the reading this bill is based on despite it being 5 months ago.
The company in question originally set my monthly payment at £26 a month rising to £29 in the last 12 months.
I appreciate I should have been checking these estimated readings and that also I need to watch my usage!!
Do I have any rights as to why my previous reading was not used and as to why its taken them 5 months to contact me regarding this excessive usage and huge outstanding balance. !!

MrsBartolozzi

Take a reading today and then phone your elec company up (phone no should be on the bill). Say you want a corrected bill and give them your readings. Don't take no for an answer, but it shouldn't be a problem. They should be able to give you an idea of what the corrected bill will be on the phone, but you can use your readings and the cost per unit on the bill to work it out yourself.


ETA: just reread the OP and I see that this bill for £3000 is not estimated, but based on a reading taken last October - is this right? So you actually owe them £3k + Oct-Mar usage. I don't think there's anything you can do (based on what i've read on these forums) but if you've used the power then you owe the money so use the fact they've not dealt with it well to negotiate a decent repayment schedule.

macman

So the current bill is based on an actual opening reading from last October. But is is also based on an accurate closing reading from the last date of the billing cycle? Without knowing this, how do you know what you actually owe them even now?
Can't believe that in 3 years you haven't phoned up and given them more than one customer reading?

kjsmith7

Are you electric-only, or is your heating primarily electric? Do you have an immersion water heater or underfloor heating?

It's very likely that the following has happened:

1. There are lots of estimations on your electricity account
2. When the meter was then read, it was a lot higher than previous estimated meter readings.
3. The supplier's system will have a 'tolerance' level or 'threshold' which stops the bill from going out to stop an unnecessary bill going out. Imagine, for instance, if the meter reader read the meter wrong or something along those lines.
4. The meter reading (actual) would have then been passed to a back office or processing team. They may have also deemed the reading as incorrect, so generated an estimate and sent you an estimated account.
5. The bills kept coming each quarter, estimated, until again the meter was read in October, and this time they allowed it out (probably after comparing it to the other actual reading taken last year), sending you an account for £3000.

The reason it would have taken "5 months" is because it would have gone to the back office or processing team for further investigation. Also, you could have phoned them up to ask where your quarterly account was, so that argument is negated. As you yourself have pointed out, accurate and timely billing is a two-way dance, both your responsibility and the suppliers.

Couple of pointers:

• You were notified each and every quarter that your meter readings were estimated. You could have phoned or gone online at any time to submit an accurate meter reading and avoid all of this.
• Most suppliers have a 'freephone' automated meter reading/payments line, and they will likely ask you why you did not submit a reading.
• The meter reading agency only has an obligation to read your gas meter once every two years for safety. It is best practice for a meter reading agency to read the electricity meter once every two years also, but at the same time I do not believe there is a legal obligation to do so if the meter is not due for exchange due to age.
• You MAY be eligible for back billing if an accurate reading was taken, and not used.

Back billing is where everything except the last 1 or 2 years bill is written off. They will take your payments made into account, and only perform the 'write off' on the over-usage or amount outstanding. This is because they failed to use an accurate meter reading, whether to save you from getting what they deemed may be an incorrect bill or otherwise. I personally do not believe in back billing is situations like this, but there we go. If you have never queried the estimations, however, this might negate the actual meter reading, because you were perfectly content to pay a very small amount of £26 per month.

The best option now, either back billed or not, is to get on to a payment plan. Lets say your balance is exactly £3000. It is a bit hard to quickly work this out not knowing what tariff etc. you are on, and due to price rises. Let's say you underpaid by around £1000 a year (I know this isn't perfect but hear me out ) and you were paying in around £26 per month. So, you paid in £312 (£26 x 12 months) and used around £1300. You should have been paying around £108 per month. I know it's a bit of a generalisation, but it's just an example

Now, as a repayment, if you wanted/are able to clear the balance in a year, you'd have to pay around £100 for consumption and around £250 for debit, which would be a £350pm payment. It's likely they'll consider spreading the debt for over a year or you may wish to consider a prepayment meter.

I hope this reply is of some use to you!

spiro

As has been said, you have had 12 bills most of which have been estimates but you have failed to check the reading and notify your supplier that you have used more than they think.

The back billing code is only in relation to them not billing you it does not cover estimated and catch up bills.

I suspect you will only get 12 months to repay the debt unless you opt to have a prepayment meter installed but you will then the tied to your current supplier until the debt is repayed which could be years depending on the debt recovery rate (amount per week) that is agreed.

If you search this forum you will find tens possibly hundreds of threads with similar theme.

The golden rule is get your bill, check the reading type used, if it is an estimated reading read the meter and phone it through to your supplier. 5 minutes effort, years of debt avoided.