Electricity supplier has cocked up

1pinkpiggy

I would ring them or email them and ask them to provide all the readings they have been provided by the meter readers and not used on your account.

If they have some then you should be entitled to the 12mth backbilling ruling as yes the consumer does have some responsiblity to check estimated readings but they have a supplier license that they should read & check all meters every 2yrs so if they haven't they are also at fault.

Premier_2

1pinkpiggy wrote: »

I would ring them or email them and ask them to provide all the readings they have been provided by the meter readers and not used on your account.

If they have some then you should be entitled to the 12mth backbilling ruling as yes the consumer does have some responsiblity to check estimated readings but they have a supplier license that they should read & check all meters every 2yrs so if they haven't they are also at fault.

Erm. the OP says the bills have been based on estimated readings for the last 5 years!

I suspect therefore there are no actual readings as if there were, they would probably have used them.

All the supplier licence says regarding electricity meters is that the supplier makes reasonable efforts to obtain an accurate meter reading once every 2 years.
Reasonable, as ever, is not defined but that could be considered as a simple case of calling at the property once every 2 years, and if no access is granted to read the meter, leaving a card asking for a meter read to be supplied.

dogshome

Hi MickKnipfler - The figures in you in your 1st post are really strange - You say your heating is oil fired, ( It does the Hot water as well ?), and you have been paying a monthly D/D for Elect of £120.
Now with a new meter your supplier says you are using £70 a month in Summer, and on this basis want to back-charge you since 2005
1) £120 a month is £1,440 a year - This cost would be expected for someone with ECO7 heating who did not manage it very well - For a dwelling that has Oil Fired Heating & Hot Water it's off the scale - Unless that is you are indoor farming something illegal
2) So you are using £70 a month of Elec in summer on a new meter ? The rule of thumb is that in a dwelling with heating other than electric, the Elec bill will rise in winter by appx. 20%, which will make your summer bill of £70 a month, £84 in winter, which is £36 less than the £120 you have been paying
- So where do the back charges come from

It's seems that your supplier has totally lost control of the account, (By the way, who are they).
and to protect yourself from this point forward keep a weekly log of your meter readings
For the moment keep your D/Debits going - you will lose discount if you stop them - Write to them heading the letter Complaint, asking for a fully detailed account and explanation of your billing going back to 2005, and when you get it, CHECK IT.
I think it's fair bet that when all the dust has settled, the supplier will owe you money.
Good Luck

stop_the_panic

Premier wrote: »

Erm. the OP says the bills have been based on estimated readings for the last 5 years!

I suspect therefore there are no actual readings as if there were, they would probably have used them.

All the supplier licence says regarding electricity meters is that the supplier makes reasonable efforts to obtain an accurate meter reading once every 2 years.
Reasonable, as ever, is not defined but that could be considered as a simple case of calling at the property once every 2 years, and if no access is granted to read the meter, leaving a card asking for a meter read to be supplied.

To be fair, the supplier may have estimated the reads if the actuals they were receiving from the customer and/ or the meter reader didn't "tally up" based on their previous (apparently incorrect) metering history.

As someone further up there ^^^ said, the OP needs to know details of all meter reads collected against the account ... even if they were discarded and not used for billing ... as this may give the true consumption figure.

1pinkpiggy

They may have estimated the readings for 5yrs yes but somewhere along the time they must have also read the meter.

if they say took a reading from the meter they are denying all knowledge of then they will have used an estimated meter reading to bill the accounts. Somewhere on some database they will be the actual readings the meter reading took(if they did come) at this time the account will fall under the 12mth back billing ruling as they have had accurate readings but failed to bill correctly.

PhylPho

MickKnipfler wrote: »

I live in a very small detached bungalow and have been paying my electricity by DD. The company calculated my DD at £120/month which I have been merrily paying.

In April this year we had the meter changed. Now the company tell me that they had been underestimating the DD for 5 years (the last meter reading they reckon was 2005) and that I am £6000 in arrears! That means that they reckon I was using £220 worth of electricity a month. We have a very small 2 bed bungalow and have oil heating.

Mind-boggling: £120 A MONTH for a small bungalow which doesn't use electricity for heating is bizarre enough. But £220 a MONTH?

And I thought we were being screwed over by EDF at £85 a month (family of four, large-ish townhouse with lights, tellies, computers and Gawd knows wot else switched on seemingly day and night, but gas central heating and gas cooker. . .)

Good luck in sorting it out: perhaps EDF is powering you directly from one of its French plants.

And charging you mileage. . .

MickKnipfler

Guys,

My OH has tells me she has regularly taken readings and said that also EDF have been round with clipboards and have taken readings but ended up scratching their heads as the readings didn't tie up. Speaking again with EDF, they acknowledge that they did have some readings that were rejected.......

They have now refunded the £2,600 they took and have reset my DD to about £40. This doesn't explain though how I was paying £70 before and am not grossly in credit. Quite frankly, I have no faith that they actually know what my usage was so I have asked them to provide a full explanation as to how they have calculated the status of my account