£1000 electric bill with meter reading

upsetwithmybill

Hi im new here and hoping for some advise. My wife and I have been paying our electricity bill by direct debit for 3 years now based upon the estimated amount we would use. The estimate was done by our supplier Southern Electric and so we trusted that they wouldnt be to far out and we wouldnt be lumbered with a high bill. Unfortunately we were wrong and have now recieved an accurate bill based on a meter reading I gave to them. The reading is correct and it appears that we have used the electricity in question over the last 3 years but our direct debit amount was only about half what it should have been paying. I find this very frustrating as we would have happily paid more on a monthly basis had we been asked to. Now we are faced with a accumulated bill for electric we used up to 3 years ago. Do we have to pay this bill in full?:(

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

I am afraid you are liable for the bill.

Your bills for the last 3 years will have been based on estimated meter readings and you should have checked each bill and informed Southern of the correct meter reading.

You should be able to spread the repayments over the 3 years it took for the debit balance to build up.

If you negotiate with them and offer to pay a lump sum, they might reduce the bill substantially as a goodwill gesture.