can Npower send me a bill backdated 2 years

clairih

Hi everyone,
I'm new here and hope someone can offer some advice. here is the story in brief.

I moved into my current address in October 2008. My letting agency told me the electricity was supplied by Scottish Power and I rang them and set the account up in my name which was all fine. I then continued to pay Scottish Power. I had fallen into arrears lately and as I plan to move shortly want to get everything up to date so called them today. Today they have informed me my account is in credit. I was astonished and they have gone on to tell me I never should have been paying them as the electric supply to my flat is owned by Npower since Nov 2007 so they have now discovered this and credited my account.

They gave me various details and i rang Npower who have set me up as living here and took the meter reading from when I moved in. As I am going to be moving out really soon they are just going to wait for a final reading and then I will get a lump sum bill for the whole time i have been here.

Here comes the problem. my SP account is in credit by about £150 and they originally (last week) thought i owed them about £250 so that makes £400. N Power are saying as it stands i owe them approx £750 but I won't get an exact bill until i move out. That makes a huge difference. I was so stunned I just got off the phone but I am now wondering are they charging me it all at 2010 prices and can they do that? I see some mention of ofgem rules about back billing and I am wondering if anyone knows where i stand as I was prepared for clearing arrears of about £250 and now it is looking a lot lot more scary.

I have had absolutely no correspondence from n power up to today so they have never read my meter. to be honest Im not sure if Scottish power ever have read it either, I couldn't swear on it. N power are saying they thought my property was vacant.

Can anyone offer any advice please as I am all of a muddle!!

thanks so much in advance

robpw2

yes they can ... sorry

clairih

so when do the ofgem rules about backdating bills apply, I was hoping mine might be one of those occasions?!

Cardew

What bills were you getting from Scottish power?

Poosmate

I'd have thought the easiest thing would be for Scottish Power to repay you every penny you paid to them in error, then you can pay NPower with that refund.

If NPower are saying their electric for 2 years is £750 I'd say that's quite good - my electric for a 2 bed semi is about £350pa but I am really quite frugal with it.

I would get Scottish Power to give you a complete refund and submit a meter reading to NPower so they can give you an accurate and up to date bill.

Do you know how much in total you have paid to Scottish Power?

Poo

Scottish_Power

Hi Clairih

Sorry to hear about your situation. I would suggest doing a little homework first so that you have all the information to help you resolve this as quickly as possible. I would suggest collecting this information:

1. What electricity meter serial number were ScottishPower billing you for? (Found on second page of invoice)
2. Does this meter serial number match the meter in your property?
3. What electricity supply number were ScottishPower billing you for? (Found on the front page of the invoice in the top right - 18 digits)
4. Does this electricity supply number match with NPower's supply number for you?
5. How much have you paid ScottishPower since your account was created?
6. Does the last meter reading on your ScottishPower bill match what is currently showing on your meter?
7. Have NPower been sending statements to the property (possibly even in the name of the Owner / Occupier)?

It is possible that we have been billing you for electricity that does not relate to your property. If NPower have always been the supplier of electricity to your address while you were there, then you will be required to pay them. ScottishPower will be required to return all payments that you have made.

You will need to check with NPower when they do send you a bill, but I would expect that they cannot back bill your account more than 12-months if they have not sent any invoices or correspondence to the property before this first invoice.

I can certainly check your account for you to confirm exactly what has happened with your supply, and what action will be taken going forward. Let me know if you want me to investigate for you.

If you or anyone else has any questions regarding this situation please let me know and I will do my best to answer them.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

clairih

Thanks for this. I'm at work so don't ahve all the details in front of me.
Unfortunately the refund I will be getting from SP is going to be nowhere near enough to pay N power I only wish it was that simple.

The supply numbers etc all match up to my meter number etc - a really helpful girl at SP checked all that on the phone last night. The SP bills have definitely been for my property but have all been estimated i think. they have also checken my Mpan number etc so there is no chance that I have been being billed for someone elses. SP are indeed going to refund all of my payments in full.

N Power have been supplying the elctricity since 2007 but for some reason the database (ecos?) let SP set up the account in my name with them and did not tell them back in Oct 2008 that they weren't supplying it any more.

I really do not have a problem paying for the electricity I have used and have my start reading but the issue I have is whether they can charge me the whole 2 years at todays price which seems really unfair, it is in no way my fault i have not been paying them. I'm not sure if this means maybe they can only backdate it a year?

N power have said they thought the property was empty so I am guessing they will say its not their fault but neither is it mine so I am just a bit unsure where I stand. The have 100% definitely sent NO correspondence to the address either to myself or the owner/occupier.

Colin, the girl I spoke to at SP did suggest that maybe they couldn't back bill more than a year so i really don't know, maybe you could shed some light on this rule?

clairih

oh and also I'm just in a wee one bed flat and also frugal with the electric (I have gas heating etc).

Premier_2

clairih wrote: »

so when do the ofgem rules about backdating bills apply, I was hoping mine might be one of those occasions?!

Details of the 12 month back billing rule which is actually a code of practise most suppliers voluntairly agree to abide by was introduced by the ERA (not Ofgem) and is available here:

http://www.energy-retail.org.uk/customerbilling.html

Essentially it applies only where a supplier has been responsible entirely for not billing you correctly.

As you failed to register an account with the supplier, the supplier is not entirely responsible for failing to bill someone they didn't even know was taking their supplies.

Premier_2

clairih wrote: »

oh and also I'm just in a wee one bed flat and also frugal with the electric (I have gas heating etc).

The meter will have recorded your consumption, and will be used as the basis of the calculation of what you owe.

Premier_2

clairih wrote: »

...I really do not have a problem paying for the electricity I have used and have my start reading but the issue I have is whether they can charge me the whole 2 years at todays price which seems really unfair, it is in no way my fault i have not been paying them. ...

That would seem unfair.

What they should do is estimate your readings at the various times of price changes and so only charge you (the best they can estimate) at the prices that applied at the times you probably consumed the energy.
(Remember the last general price change was actually a reduction in price, so you may have to pay more for the energy you used some time ago compared to todays rates)

Unfortunately they will probably bill you for the entire period, and they will probably bill you based on their standard (expensive) tariff unless you can negotiate something better with them