Advice needed on wrong electric billing, now in debt!

blinking_confused

I pay my electricity bill with monthly direct debit. The company had made an error and had the wrong code down for my individual metre so for the longest time I was paying someone else's bill. They even reduced my monthly payments in the meantime as I'd been paying too much. The metre is placed up near the ceiling and, being disabled, I couldn't read it myself. I eventually DID get a reading, phoned it in to them and they found the mistake - thanks to me. I now find I wasn't paying enough and should have been paying double monthly to what I was actually paying (which is about 30% of my income). I've increased the payments to cover my monthly outgoings but there's still the debt looming. They've been helpful so far but I can't hold them off forever and am worried. Also, had I known how big the bills were I could have made more cutbacks in the meantime (Not that I heat all my home anyway, just a small part). Do I actually owe all this money as the fault was theirs? Would they take part of it? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance. I'm with Atlantic, btw.
~Blinking confused

undaunted

By for the longest time how long do you actually mean?

It may be worth a look at back billing guidelines http://www.energy-retail.org.uk/documents/BackBillingSept-Version8.pdf

but unless you can find something relevant to your case there I'm afraid if you used the energy you will likely have to pay for it. You should however be able to arrange to pay any money that is due over the same period it accrued.

You could also look into what help your supplier may offer for the disable, whether they operate energy trust grants - eg see http://www.charisgrants.com/ and

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Easy-ways-to-stop-wasting-energy/Energy-saving-grants-and-offers/Grants-and-Discounts-Database

blinking_confused

Thank you, Undaunted. I've been so sick it's hard to say how long the mistake has gone on for but at least 2 years. If I can pay what I can afford over a reasonable time that would be good. Those are EXCELLENT links and I appreciate them and am following them up.
Best wishes.....

inextinguishable

I know it's now 9 months later but maybe this will be of use even if you have paid some or all of the amount.

Back billing policy signed up to by many energy companies indicates they should only charge for the period up to 1 year before the date of the bill on which they notice the problem, provided that the problem is their fault. (More complicated than that but this is the general gist.)

I can't post link as newly signed up to this site, but google back billing rules energy uk and you should see a link to the pdf high in the results. Looks like Back Billing Final 10-11 version 9:Back Billing - Energy UK.

Personally I've just noticed that for 18 months my low and normal rate charging has been the wrong way round since they installed the meter. For some reason I hadn't read it myself till now (silly). At least 3 readings by meter reader and they hadn't noticed. So I reckon I've been undercharged about £800, but looks like the back billing rules apply so I shouldn't be charged for the whole amount - still going to get a pretty big bill soon though.