Huge electricity bill help needed...

rule

Indeed the figures that you have provided are correct, this is the total consumption so they should use that and subtract the money already paid for the total bill cost .

I read that an average household will spent 4000kwh per year when supposedly I used 3842 for 5 months and 20 days without even using much electricity .....

SYNERGY

I hope you don't see this as getting at you, or harsh, however life sometimes doesn't run as smooth as we would wish.

1) You appear not to have given initial readings, therefore the company appear to have taken the only readings available to them at the time, the outgoing tenants final reading, as your start reading, the only figures available to them in the circumstances.

It is immaterial postulating if the previous tenant gave incorrect final readings accidentally or on purpose.

Likewise trying to blame the letting agent / landlord for not doing a final reading, a diligent one may do so to cover themselves in the event of being hit with a deemed account, however the majority appear not to.

2) You have said that the DD was set up with the expectation of approx. £35 per month, where did this assumption come from ?
I presume that you checked that the DD amount taken from your account every month tallied with your monthly bill ?
If you did so did you not query these two ?

29 Jul UTILITY WAREHOUSE 34.63
13 Jul UTILITY WAREHOUSE 35.73

10 May ( start date ) to 13 July ( two months ) £35.73 ! Only £35.73 for two months yet;

13 July to 29 July £34.63 for 16 days !

Alarm bells should have started ringing.

3) The company, having presumably the outgoing tenants figures as your start figure and your actual submitted final figures (the only ones available to them) the company have rightly calculated that you have used a total of £685.88 during your tenancy, less your estimated / approximated DD's of £229.09 leaving a balance of £456.79.


Unless and until you can provide and prove, substantive evidence of your actual opening figures, I'm afraid, sadly, you may be on a hiding to nothing, in trying to prove the account is wrong. The company and court, should it get that far, will only deal in actual figures, presumptions, guesses, saying I think it was this or the other won't wash.

I expect it will end up being a bite the bullet and steep learning curve for you.

Keep at it though, there may be a mistake in the meter readings, but I doubt it.

Let us know how it all eventually pans out.

HappyMJ

rule wrote: »

Indeed the figures that you have provided are correct, this is the total consumption so they should use that and subtract the money already paid for the total bill cost .

I read that an average household will spent 4000kwh per year when supposedly I used 3842 for 5 months and 20 days without even using much electricity .....

Do you have gas? The average household uses 16,500kWh of gas plus 3,300kWh of electricity. If you use electricity only then you will be using much more than 3,300kWh. There are no averages available for electricity only households due to people using alternative means of heating such as wood or coal as well as E7 or peak rate electric heating or possibly even oil or LPG so it is very hard to compare.

Cardew

rule wrote: »

Indeed the figures that you have provided are correct, this is the total consumption so they should use that and subtract the money already paid for the total bill cost .

I read that an average household will spent 4000kwh per year when supposedly I used 3842 for 5 months and 20 days without even using much electricity .....

I am sorry but you read my post incorrectly.

The average annual energy consumption for production of Hot water alone is over 4,000kWh per year - that is hot water for baths/showers/taps etc. In addition you have the normal electricity consumption for heating, lighting, cooking, appliances etc.

Anyway the important point is that you concede that 'my' consumption figures are correct.

As I read UW posts it is quite straightforward - For the 3,194 day units and 648 night units the total cost is £685.88. From this sum they have deducted the £229.09 that you have paid leaving an outstanding balance of £456.79

Our records show that the payments totalling £229.09 have been received for the account. The remaining balance of £456.79 is for the charges showing on the latest December invoice

The reason the bill is so high for that consumption is that you are on an(unsuitable!) Economy 7 tariff where the Day charges are very high(you state 17.018p/kWh + VAT) and some 83% of your consumption was at day rates.

In addition with UW you pay a monthly membership fee for UW club and almost certainly a monthly standing charge(UW have 3 tariffs, only high user has no standing charge)

Were you sent monthly on-line statements or were they paper statements(extra charge)?

rule

SYNERGY thanks for the points,

HappyMJ no gas

Cardew I was sent both paper and online bills...
I never opted in for the monthly membership.. don't know if is worth mentioning this on my email but probably too late...

Thanks very much for the feedback everyone!!
I Still don;t believe that I've used so much electricity although that I might have a hard time proving it ... ..
Will continue fighting and keep you all updated...

mattcanary

As I have already states, the readings may well have been given the wrong way round. What area of the country did you live in? - if it was East Anglia, parts of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire or North London (the old Eastern Electricity area) you will probably find that rate 1 is the night rate and rate 2 is the day rate. Most other parts of the country it is normally the other way round.

In addition, if you gave UW the total reading and one other reading as the final reading obviously the bill will have been hugely inflated.

I feel this point is thre crux of the matter and resiolving this may well reuslt in a correct, lower bill being produced.

jalexa

Cardew wrote: »

The average annual energy consumption for production of Hot water alone is over 4,000kWh per year -

If you say so. However the OP has posted infomation ('lives alone') that means that the "average" figure cannot reasonably be an accurate measure.

Cardew

jalexa wrote: »

If you say so. However the OP has posted infomation ('lives alone') that means that the "average" figure cannot reasonably be an accurate measure.

I wasn't implying it was an accurate measure, merely making the point that over and above 'normal' electrical consumption for lighting, appliances etc, hot water, some heating and cooking is an additional load to be considered.

It would be reasonable to estimate Hot water/showers might account for 1,000kWh in 6 months.

The bottom line is under 4,000kWh for 6 months in an all electric flat is IMO low. The very high price for that amount of electricity is a function of the unsuitable tariff and supplier.

Cardew

rule wrote: »

Cardew I was sent both paper and online bills...
I never opted in for the monthly membership.. don't know if is worth mentioning this on my email but probably too late...

You cannot opt in(or out) of the UW monthly membership - it is a condition for having any service from UW and is not optional.

grahamc2003

Fwiw, op, I don't think you have any valid complaint which will cause them to amend their bill.

You allowed estimated readings to be used for many months, and it looks like you can't have checked any bills you got to see whether based on actual or estimated readings, or if you did, you thought it advantageous at the time to let things carry on as they are on an estimated basis. For example, did you check the initial reading on the first bill matched the reading you think you phoned in as a start reading? If not, then the whole problem regarding the initial readings is due to your negligence, and if you did, then why didn't you ring them up to correct the reading? Whichever, it looks like from their pov, and reasonably so, you accepted the estimated first readings as valid. I expect you'd need some sort of hard evidence at this stage to correct those estimates you previously accepted, rather than just your feeling at this stage that they are wrong.

edit - btw, if you want to complain, forget all the waffle as previously suggested, imv, just have several short, concise bullet points which state your grounds for complaint - the direct salient points and nothing more.