Backbilling question - do i qualify

moneysavingmatt

Afternoon MSE,

Will try and make this as clear as possible.

Moved to EDF for electricity after comparing suppliers and seeing they were the cheapest and had a start date with them of 5th January 2011.. Everything was sorted with old supplier etc account was fine. Direct Debit was setup for old estimates all OK.

Coming from scottish gas we got a bill every 3 months so when April came round I logged into my account was unable to view a bill and had not been sent an email to submit meter readings so I emailled them. They advised me it was the norm and generally bill every year however I would receive periodic emails to submit meter readings and may get billed earlier, direct debit looked fine I am in credit (not sure how they could tell).

Jan 2012 rolls round.. I send them another email asking where the bill is .. account is sitting in alot of credit was advised I would be billed soon, advised them I still never had the chance to submit meter readings they advised it would come in an email.

April 2012 get a its time to submit your reading email, logon to my account type in reading.. get an error has occured please call us.. sit on hold for 40 minutes have to give up as doing other things. Forget about it again.

Aug 6th 2012 get our first physical meter reading and receive a bill for 20 months worth of electricity based on actual meter readings.. to its credit its only out by £187 from what is in our account balance. However I was under the impression that I could only be billed for 12 months.. Having read through the ERA document on backbilling I believe I have a right to complain and be refunded the period of Jan-Aug 2011..

Can anyone confirm if they have had similar dealings? I have fired off a letter to EDF and await their response but believe I have legislation on my side and wanted to know if anyone had succeeded in having a complaint upheld

http://www.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

This is the code I am referring to.

demystified

Not sure if I should start a separate thread for this but...

I'm in the same situation. nPower have sent me a long letter freely admitting they have been reading my meter the wrong way around(!) for years and they say I owe them nearly £500!!!!:eek:

Basically they're quadrupling my monthly bill!!!! I'm on a low income so its basically a nightmare.

Do I have any recourse other than moaning on the phone and will they take any notice? Is there any point in switching suppliers and will nPower still chase me for the amount?!

HappyMJ

You won't be refunded....If there were an outstanding amount then you could ask that they write off any amount more than 12 months old which would mean you would still owe them for the last 12 months of gas and electricity. That would be a bill of around £1,200 for most average households.

The point of the back billing code is so that you do not ever have more than 12 months outstanding on your account as you have paid a reasonable estimate towards your usage you are now in credit and there is no debt.

Wywth

moneysavingmatt wrote: »

Afternoon MSE,

Will try and make this as clear as possible.

Moved to EDF for electricity after comparing suppliers and seeing they were the cheapest and had a start date with them of 5th January 2011.. Everything was sorted with old supplier etc account was fine. Direct Debit was setup for old estimates all OK.

Coming from scottish gas we got a bill every 3 months so when April came round I logged into my account was unable to view a bill and had not been sent an email to submit meter readings so I emailled them. They advised me it was the norm and generally bill every year however I would receive periodic emails to submit meter readings and may get billed earlier, direct debit looked fine I am in credit (not sure how they could tell).

Jan 2012 rolls round.. I send them another email asking where the bill is .. account is sitting in alot of credit was advised I would be billed soon, advised them I still never had the chance to submit meter readings they advised it would come in an email.

April 2012 get a its time to submit your reading email, logon to my account type in reading.. get an error has occured please call us.. sit on hold for 40 minutes have to give up as doing other things. Forget about it again.

Aug 6th 2012 get our first physical meter reading and receive a bill for 20 months worth of electricity based on actual meter readings.. to its credit its only out by £187 from what is in our account balance. However I was under the impression that I could only be billed for 12 months.. Having read through the ERA document on backbilling I believe I have a right to complain and be refunded the period of Jan-Aug 2011..

Can anyone confirm if they have had similar dealings? I have fired off a letter to EDF and await their response but believe I have legislation on my side and wanted to know if anyone had succeeded in having a complaint upheld

http://www.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

This is the code I am referring to.

No, because you were paying EDF by direct debit

moneysavingmatt

HappyMJ wrote: »

You won't be refunded....If there were an outstanding amount then you could ask that they write off any amount more than 12 months old which would mean you would still owe them for the last 12 months of gas and electricity. That would be a bill of around £1,200 for most average households.

The point of the back billing code is so that you do not ever have more than 12 months outstanding on your account as you have paid a reasonable estimate towards your usage you are now in credit and there is no debt.

I'm not disputing the fact I owe them for 12 months of electricity however I have been billed for 20 months.. this has been my first ever bill from EDF and the calcuations mean I still owe a further £187 on top of my account balance.

To my credit and what the ERA covers in its code is the fact I have asked on more than 3 seperate occasions for the bill and was fobbed with soon or "it's fine you are in credit"

HappyMJ

demystified wrote: »

Not sure if I should start a separate thread for this but...

I'm in the same situation. nPower have sent me a long letter freely admitting they have been reading my meter the wrong way around(!) for years and they say I owe them nearly £500!!!!:eek:

Basically they're quadrupling my monthly bill!!!! I'm on a low income so its basically a nightmare.

Do I have any recourse other than moaning on the phone and will they take any notice? Is there any point in switching suppliers and will nPower still chase me for the amount?!

You could use the back billing code. Not that you would be credited with much as you will still be expected to pay for the last 12 months of corrected readings. Any payments made over the last year would have gone towards previous bills.

What sort of usage are you talking about? Should your bill have been double what it was and now they are doubling it again to recover arrears over the next 12 months? If you can try posting meter readings here.

Switching may work but you should try and clear down most of the arrears first.

HappyMJ

moneysavingmatt wrote: »

I'm not disputing the fact I owe them for 12 months of electricity however I have been billed for 20 months.. this has been my first ever bill from EDF and the calcuations mean I still owe a further £187 on top of my account balance.

To my credit and what the ERA covers in its code is the fact I have asked on more than 3 seperate occasions for the bill and was fobbed with soon or "it's fine you are in credit"

I doubt £187 is more than 12 months of usage so you will be expected to pay that. You can ask that the amount be divided over the next 12 months.

moneysavingmatt

Now i'm questioning my sanity..

I've read this:

"Under the Code, from 1 July 2007, where the suppliers are at fault in not billing a domestic
customer, they will not send a bill which includes unbilled energy consumed more than 1 year
previous to the bill being issued.
This clause confirms the suppliers’ commitment to bill customers regularly and accurately, and
imposes limitations on the circumstances where customers can be billed for previously unbilled
energy that is more than 12 months old. Where suppliers issue a bill which has these principles
applied, they will credit the account with the value of the unbilled energy consumed over
12 months ago, taking into consideration any payments already made by the customer or credits
applied to the account, so that the customer is not required to pay any additional sums towards
this previously unbilled energy consumption."

Yet I am to accept that It took 20 months to receive a bill?

Wywth

demystified wrote: »

Not sure if I should start a separate thread for this but...

I'm in the same situation. nPower have sent me a long letter freely admitting they have been reading my meter the wrong way around(!) for years and they say I owe them nearly £500!!!!:eek:

Basically they're quadrupling my monthly bill!!!! I'm on a low income so its basically a nightmare.

Do I have any recourse other than moaning on the phone and will they take any notice? Is there any point in switching suppliers and will nPower still chase me for the amount?!

Not the same situation at all. Yours relates to transposing of meter registry readings.

The meters are on your property, it is up to you to check the billed amounts against those meters.

Unless you have previously informed the supplier (over a year ago) of the error they were making, then you will have to pay for the energy you have consumed.

Suppliers will usually allow a current customer, when asked, to repay a large, unexpected bill over the period it was originally accumulated.

You will almost certainly be restricted from switching supplier until the existing debt is cleared.

Wywth

moneysavingmatt wrote: »

Now i'm questioning my sanity..

I've read this:

"Under the Code, from 1 July 2007, where the suppliers are at fault in not billing a domestic
customer, they will not send a bill which includes unbilled energy consumed more than 1 year
previous to the bill being issued.
This clause confirms the suppliers’ commitment to bill customers regularly and accurately, and
imposes limitations on the circumstances where customers can be billed for previously unbilled
energy that is more than 12 months old. Where suppliers issue a bill which has these principles
applied, they will credit the account with the value of the unbilled energy consumed over
12 months ago, taking into consideration any payments already made by the customer or credits
applied to the account, so that the customer is not required to pay any additional sums towards
this previously unbilled energy consumption."

Yet I am to accept that It took 20 months to receive a bill?

As I said, you were paying the supplier by direct debit during this time, were you not?

moneysavingmatt

I was. But wether I was paying cash on delivery or direct debit I should be getting a bill at least every twelve months. Correct?