We think we're about to get a huge electricity bill - need advice

rothers8080

Our house has 2 electricity supplies as we have no gas.

I've given them a semi-regular meter reading from the meter inside the house and all is fine there.

The other meter is in the garden and is one of those little boxes with a key hole, we have never had a key for it, however this didn't bother me as the meter man regularly comes and reads it, I've chatted to him as he has done this many times.

Now suddenly we have a letter saying there is an issue with our electricity usage, that's it looks like it's higher than the company (scottish power) thought - so I went to Jewsons and got a little key for the meter - it's about £2.5k out!

We're worried they are going to present us will a bill for this and want the whole lot at once - this does not seem fair, my bills have the 'actual reading' listed on lots of them, presumably when the meter man came and read the meter. This must be going back 6 years.

These readings seem to be totally wrong, we're starting to think he may have been mistaking our meter reading with someone elses, so 'our' readings were not right.

I need to plan for what to do here and what might happen, obviously it's not the best time of year to get a bill like this, and I'm wondering if they will charge us at the current unit rate, or average it out?

Can they really go back 6 years? Or are they going to try to claim we must have done this all since the meter was last read (according to the bills the meter was last read 6 months ago)?

spiro

Yes a supplier can go back 6 years if the bill was incorrect, they can only go back one year if they fail to bill you at all through their fault.

Your obvious mistake has not been to check the meter readings on your bill against the meter whenever you got a bill.

In terms of the meter in the garden, what does this power and what type of meter is it - oddometer type or dials? Dial meters can easily be misread.

Also post the reading on that meter today, the reading the reader took (and is on you bill) and if possible a reading or 2 from your previous bill indicating if they are actual or estimated readings.

macman

You should be able to negotiate a repayment plan matching the approx period that the debt has built up over. The rate charged will be at the various rates that applied during the biliing period-the usage will be estimated for each step.
But what sort of devices do you have running from a garden shed supply to clock up a usage of more than £2500?! Your comment 'we have two supplies as our house has no gas' makes no sense.
Assuming that you have a dual rate tariff with night storage eating, you should have a single supply and a dual rate meter-not 2 supplies.
But if the meter has been recently read (are the prior bills based on estimated or actual readings?) then my suspicion is that you have misread the meter or miscalculated the cost. Suggest you post the readings and your unit rate.

jalexa

craigix wrote: »

Now suddenly we have a letter saying there is an issue with our electricity usage, that's it looks like it's higher than the company (scottish power) thought - so I went to Jewsons and got a little key for the meter - it's about £2.5k out!

How did you make such a quick leap from the letter to seeing the meter was "£2.5k" out? Meters don't read "£££s" and that is the point. You need to get together all the previous billing information you have and meticulously scrutinise the bills for errors.

A regularly meter-reader read meter cannot result in a "£2.5k error" without industry and/or billing system "error". Research something called the "Code of Practice for Accurate Bills". My opinion is that it may well apply because, contrary to other advice, the relevant phrase is "accurate bills", not "no bills".

Scottish_Power

Hi craigix,

Sounds like something has gone seriously wrong along the way, can you e-mail me your details to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] and I will get to the bottom of it for you.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

Cardew

This is the latest version of 'The Billing Code' (The Code of Practice for Accurate Bills - Back Billing for Domestic Customers

http://docs.energy-uk.org.uk/publication/finish/43-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills/412-the-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills-back-billing-for-domestic-customers.html

From the OP's explanation this extract would appear to be relevant:

This would include circumstances where a supplier has failed to set up or maintain accurate
metering data, or where a supplier has ignored factual readings* and has continued to bill based
on estimated or inaccurate readings without investigation.

* the failure to utilise correct readings needs to be considered on a case by case basis taking all relevant factors
into account, especially whether the supplier had proper opportunity to recognise the error but did not investigate

further. The failure to use a single correct reading in itself does not necessarily mean the back-billing clause will apply.