EDF made a mistake and now want me to pay

Lindy9

I wonder if anyone can give me some advice?

I received a letter this morning from EDF saying that when I exchanged my quarterley payment meter in April 2008 there was an outstanding balance of £211.71.

I had a gas meter fit at the same time and they added the oustanding balance to that, so I wasn't aware that they hadn't added it to my electric meter!

They apologise that the amount wasn't added to my meter at that time and as a gesture of their goodwill they intend to reduce that amount by 10% leaving a balance of £190.54 which they will collect via my meter at £5 per week and tell me I now need to ensure that money is in my meter for them collect weekly!

They've just realised 2 years and 3 months that this wasn't added on to my meter??

I only put in around £20 a month during the summer anyway, so that means I will have to double my meter payment to cover a mistake they made?

Can they do this after this amount of time, and can they demand £5 a week back?

Thanks for any advice ..

robchap_2

yes they can they have 6 years to claim money you owe them
and if your on benifits i think they can low the amount taken to 3.50 a week

Premier_2

Lindy9 wrote: »

...I received a letter this morning from EDF saying that when I exchanged my quarterley payment meter in April 2008 there was an outstanding balance of £211.71...

What was this debt from? An earlier debt that had been applied to the meter or becuase the meter hadn't been correctly calibrated correctly meaning the debt accrued as a result of the meter not charging enough?

If it was an existing debt, you still owe it ... but have just benefitted from another 2+ years interest free loan with the misguided hope you'd gotten away with it completely. Debts rarely disappear if you just ignore them and I'm not convinced you didn't realise you were not paying back a debt on the meter after it was replaced.

If it was a calibration error that produced the debt, you could propbably have it significantly reduced or waived completely. (Edit: It appears EDF's policy under such event is not to back bill more than 12 months)

Cardew

Am I correct in thinking you did have a credit meter for both gas and electricity, that you paid quarterly, but switched to pre-payment meters for both?

If that is the case, a debt is a debt and so they are entitled to add the full amount to the pre-pay meter - it seems like they did this with gas.

Lindy9

Thanks for thereplies.

Yes I got changed over from a credit meter to repayment at the same time and they, both Gas and Electric, and assumed that they had correctly readjusted the repayments to take into account what was owned on both.

They did this on the gas meter but apparently not on the electric.

I didn't receive anything to tell me otherwise, neither did they give me an account of what was outstanding before fitting the meter.

I will question the amount of £211 and insist on a breakdown of that amount prior to having the prepayment meter fit as I only have an electric oven and a small heater and was paying a direct debit for the amount they assessed me to pay - hopefully they have made another mistake!!