Solar energy - Feed-in Tariff payment delays - your experiences?

orrery

Reading submitted 2nd September, payment received 25th September.

23 days - much worse than recent performances from EDF.

I suppose that just over 3 weeks is "acceptable".

Yorksport

EDF have the 90 day payment terms in the contract to fall back on whenever they want to delay (although I think it would cause a storm of protest if they took that long and I'm not sure it's even legal to have such a long term). They've been so good recently too. I've just submitted my latest reading so we'll see when that is paid.

orrery

Yorksport wrote: »

EDF have the 90 day payment terms in the contract to fall back on whenever they want to delay (although I think it would cause a storm of protest if they took that long....

Precisely. In fact, it is 90 days after the month end and they ask you to submit early in the month. If you submit on the 1st, then it could be 120 days to payment which is outrageous.

Can you imagine what they'd say if you took 120 days to pay your electric bill?

zeupater

Hi All

This is a pretty interesting point to debate. Effectively the FiT payments are made as a result of a contract to supply with payments being made and accounted for as purchases. In order to simplify the scheme's administration, invoices are raised on a 'self-billing' basis by the energy companies (which is common in many other industry sectors - automotive etc), therefore I see no reason why 'FiT scheme' suppliers should be treated any differently to any other supplier, effectively bringing protections which are available to any Large to Small business relationships into play.

Okay, having set the scene, I see no reason why the following, and related legislation regarding supply contracts, wouldn't be considered as being relevant .... https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/138129/bis-13-705-a-users-guide-to-the-recast-late-payment-directive.pdf ....

HTH
Z

Nikki

orrery wrote: »

Reading submitted 2nd September, payment received 25th September.

23 days - much worse than recent performances from EDF.

I suppose that just over 3 weeks is "acceptable".

same for us, but this is our first FIT payment. I suppose the time it takes to pay will fluctuate depending on their mood! Funny because I submitted my other meter reading on the same day - that was sorted out (payments reduced as we are in credit by quite a bit) in 24 hours!!

John_Pierpoint

zeupater wrote: »

Hi All

This is a pretty interesting point to debate. Effectively the FiT payments are made as a result of a contract to supply with payments being made and accounted for as purchases. In order to simplify the scheme's administration, invoices are raised on a 'self-billing' basis by the energy companies (which is common in many other industry sectors - automotive etc), therefore I see no reason why 'FiT scheme' suppliers should be treated any differently to any other supplier, effectively bringing protections which are available to any Large to Small business relationships into play.

Okay, having set the scene, I see no reason why the following, and related legislation regarding supply contracts, wouldn't be considered as being relevant .... https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/138129/bis-13-705-a-users-guide-to-the-recast-late-payment-directive.pdf ....

HTH
Z

Perhaps we should demand "right of offset";):D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set-off_%28law%29

Martyn1981

orrery wrote: »

Reading submitted 2nd September, payment received 25th September.

23 days - much worse than recent performances from EDF.

I suppose that just over 3 weeks is "acceptable".

Hiya, payment on mine received this morning, with the claim submitted on the 23rd in the evening.

Not sure why they would deal with claims so differently, let's hope they were just having a bad start to the month.

Mart.

orrery

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Hiya, payment on mine received this morning, with the claim submitted on the 23rd in the evening.
Not sure why they would deal with claims so differently, let's hope they were just having a bad start to the month.Mart.

Probably a big rush of claims on the 1st when the "It's time to submit your reading!" mails go out.

EricMears

Finally received the payment I claimed on 15th August today :beer:

SP are now claiming that their 'standard conditions' require them to pay out at the end of the month after the month in which claim is received. That's in spite of me having had an email nearly every quarter for the last two years telling me that payment would be made within 28days of claim and of course in spite of six of the eight payments being made within a fortnight !

Until now I've been scrupulously claiming on the 15th of each month and ignoring SP suggestions that I should be claiming a day or two earlier each time. Their latest suggestion was that I ought to claim again on 10th November but I've pretty well decided that if they're not going to pay me till 31st December I might as well delay my claim until 28th. November which ought to guarantee a 4 weeks and 3 days payment under the alleged new rules.

KevinG

EricMears wrote: »

SP are now claiming that their 'standard conditions' require them to pay out at the end of the month after the month in which claim is received.

Sounds like they are making it up as they go along. My claim goes in to SP tonight and I shall be jolly unhappy if it takes over a month to come through.