HELP EDF complaint :(

Pharmacist

Hello, I wonder if you can help....

We are currently in dispute with EDF Energy over a bill of £1000+.

The bill is related to a small business electricity policy for a rented storage unit which we occupied for 1 and a half years.

On moving into the unit, our landlord provided EDF with our details.

We have never signed any agreement/contract with EDF our names just appeared on the bills from our landlord informing them.

We paid whatever amount was on the quarterly bill to our landlord who paid EDF ( note we didn't realise at the time that every bill was estimated at 0 units of usage! and all we were paying was the standing charge).

On leaving the premises at the end of last year and informing EDF of this we asked for a final invoice.
It was then not until the end of May 2012 (5 months later) that we received a bill for thousands of pounds . However the bill didn't have our usual account number on it - we actually thought we'd been sent someone elses bill.

After disputing this with EDF they eventually sent us a copy of a letter detailing the alleged change of account number which happened in November 2011.

Unhappy with this response, the complaint has now been referred to the ombudsman.

A few Q's
1) Is it acceptable to receive a bill 5 months after it was requested - where do we stand with regards to payment of the full amount?
2) Can EDF prove that they sent us the change of account number letter?
3) Can EDF close our complaint and restart 'collection proceedings' when our complaint is open with the ombudsman?
4) Do we have any rights as tenants of the property (note the unit was rented privately with no signed tenancy agreement and no signed contract with EDF)

Hope that all makes sense!
Thanks in advance,

macman

You would have been in a deemed contract from day one when you used the supply. No signature is required for a contract to exist.
Yes, they can pursue the debt for up to 6 years.
Since all you have paid are the standing charges, you clearly owe them for the power consumed, so what are you actually disputing? Have you agreed the opening and closing readings?
How could you not notice over 6 bills that your apparent consumption was zero though?
Your tenancy status is not really relevant.

Pharmacist

Thankyou for your reply macman.

I understand that the debt can be pursued for up to 6 years I just thought its a bit unreasonable to take 5 months to send a final bill out.

I agree we owe them for any power consumed I just cant understand how this ran into thousands of pounds when the unit was used as storage (accessed every once in a while) and was lit with skylights.

The opening reading was sent in by the landlord, although it does have an 'e' next to it on the first bill which means estimated. EDF said they took an actial reading in april last year but chose not to use it (dont know why) so the bills remained estimated. The final reading was taken 2 weeks after we moved out and the final bill estimated from that.

I now know we are also responsible for sending regular readings in but I didn't think this would be a problem in a storage unit which barely used electric.

It was naivety on our part for not realising the bills were estimated in the first place, it was the first bill we had ever had to pay so we took whatever amount was on it and gave it to the landlord.

We were disputing the bill as it had a different account number on it and we had never been informed of a change of account number and the fact that it took 5 months to send out a final bill.

Pharmacist

jalexa

Pharmacist wrote: »

We were disputing the bill as it had a different account number on it and we had never been informed of a change of account number and the fact that it took 5 months to send out a final bill.

Since this is now with the Ombudsman there is little scope for help here.

Given that you concede "naivety" I am a little surprised at the "billing technicality" form of your argument and knowledge of expected usage. Accurate billing is (very) partly about timing but mainly about meter reading accuracy, therefore actual usage. You have posted variously about "£1000+" and "thousands of pounds" but not a single meter reading or bill extract.

As you may have noticed now, meaningful help in this forum requires full disclosure of all the available "facts".

macman

As above. If you have already paid standing charges and the property was barely used, there cannot be charges of £1000+ over 18m.
How many kWh's have they billed you for over this period?