Billed after 3 years from EDF. Can they do this??

kel_saun

Hey,

We have just recently received a letter from a debt recovery agency saying that we have failed to pay a bill to EDF costing over £300 from a previous address which we lived in over 3 years ago.
I called EDF straight away to ask them what was going on. They explained that when we left and gave our final meter reading we missed a digit of our reading and they have only recently realised as somebody had been out to read the meter. I explained to them that I gave them the numbers I read on the meter and if there was a digit missing they should have told me there and then on the phone instead of waiting over 3 years!
I have worked for npower myself and know that when a customer gives you a reading it must follow on from the previous reading given and be a certain amount of numbers. So surely this is a fault on EDF's side??
When I moved out of this address I gave them my forwarding address and never heard anything from them like I say until 3 years later!
EDF failed to get in touch with us and explain that there was a mistake and a digit was missing and have just sent it straight to a debt recovery agency.
What I need to know is, can EDF bill us after 3 years with an excuse of "you missed a digit off your reading" surely they should have told us this when we actually gave our final read!
Any advice would be great.

Thanks : )

cbrpaul

thats scary, :eek:

I just thought , when we moved and sold to tennants , did i actually transfer the energy bills over to the new tennants , or are they still in my name ???
that was 3 years ago now too !!

GULP !!! :eek:

dogshome

Hi kel_saun - Yes I'm afraid they can do this and can go back as far 6 six years to correct billing errors.

However, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME with phone calls. You must write to n'power asking for copies of not only their Final Bill, but also the 2 preceding one's so that you can check there was indeed an error in the stated meter readings
The Debt Collection Agency will keep hounding you on this unless stopped by n'power, so send them a copy of your letter to n'power

Ken68

It would never stand up in court Kel.
A well argued letter to EDF would be read by the Registrar, and he would consider the EDF case i as wasting court time.
You would probably be able to recover your costs too.
It would have to be exceptional circumstances otherwise.

kel_saun

Thanks for the advice.
I did request the final bill from EDF and when I received it they hadn't even used the reading I gave, the whole bill was estimated!