EDF Uncharged us for 2 Years

MoneySaver2011_2

I am asking for advice on behalf of my parents. Here is what I understand has happened.

We have a direct debit set up with EDF energy for our gas and electricity bills.

We get our bills in paper form a few times a year.

The other day, we received a bill asking for just over £3000 for gas from EDF, for unpaid months going all the way back to 2011.

It turns out, that since 2011, EDF has not been debiting us for gas. Only for electricity. Previously, before this date, it had been debiting us for gas.

We have phoned EDF who are investigating.

I have the following questions for everyone here:


Is this a mess up from EDF? If so, what are our rights? Do we have a right to dispute this?

If it turns out it is our fault, can we ask to pay for it in instalments?

A couple living in the block of apartments next to our house, has almost the exact same address as us - same postcode as well. Their EDF electricity/gas bills have been sent to us for the past few years by accident. We have taken their bills to them, and asked several times for them to correct their address. Is there a chance EDF could have accidentally charged us for their bill? Or is this not possible?

MoneySaver2011_2

Apologies, just realised there's a typo in the thread title!

yangptangkipperbang

Deleted_User wrote: »

We get our bills in paper form a few times a year............................. It turns out, that since 2011, EDF has not been debiting us for gas. Only for electricity. Previously, before this date, it had been debiting us for gas.

Did no one bother to check that the bills bore some resemblance to reality ?

macman

Re the other property, cross check the meter numbers on your bill.
So you haven't read your bank statements or bills since 2011? Your bill for electricity only would be about a third of the total for gas and electricity-how could you not notice that?
Yes, you can negotiate a payback over the period that the arrears built up-so around 2 years.
Yes, they are entitled to recover the arrears due to misbilling. It's not clear whether back-billing rules would apply in this instance.

Nada666

(If you Edit then Go Advanced your first post you should be able to correct the typo in your title).

dogshome

A strange one with the possibility that an Erroneous Transfer is somehow involved, but some clarification needed.

Is it the case that EDF haveing previously billed for Gas & Elec, in 2011 simply ceased to bill for the gas?

You say the original D/Debit values were set up to cover both the Elec & Gas, did EDF continue to collect both amounts, (In which case what's happened to the Credit that would have built up on the gas account), or did they also cease to collect the gas D/D when they stopped billing the gas ?

The possible mix-up with a neighbors meter needs investigation, and to do this you need every Gas bill that EDF have issued since the account opened, (If they have not been kept, ask EDF for copies).
Check each bill from the beginning to see that all the Start & End readings are consecutive, and that the Meter No on the bills tallies with that on the actual meter.

It is possible that the "Only12 months Back-billing Agreement" could apply, but a lot of answers are needed before that can be claimed

handful

I'm a little embarrassed to admit the same has happened to me with EDF not charging me for gas without me realising

I had my meter read a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd check my status with the winter approaching to find I was £1100 in credit less what I've used since the last issued bill in October last year. I didn't notice that this was just for electricity but phoned EDF to ask them to update my balance so I could see where I was.

I also wanted to know because I am approaching the end of the Blue+ Sept 2013 deal so will be looking at what deals are available. When they came back to me they advised that they had not been billing my gas usage since May 2011. after calculating the gas as well I am know around £400 in debit, not horrendous but still a bit of a shock when I believed I was comfortably in credit.

When I was billed last year I was credited around £300 and I put this down to my new boiler which should be a lot more efficient than my old one but I now know it was due to the omission of the gas element of my bill! I looked here to see if there was anything about back billing as I would seem to fit the criteria unless I'm missing something? Sorry to hijack the thread but it seemed sensible to add to this one rather than start another so similar.

I have given meter readings for both on a number of occasions by the way and was genuinely unaware of the undercharging. I will update if I have any interesting developments to report.

dogshome

Hi handful
Back - billing no longer than the last 12 months? - In your case the answer is YES
The starting date for the 12 month calculation is the date you get either written notice of the error or an actual bill, earlier phone conversations don't count.

Bearing in mind the last bill was in May 2011, a correct back-bill will go back to only Oct 2012.
BUT -
The back-billing agreement was brought in to save customers from "Bill Shock" when the supplier issued one huge bill covering a lot of time, and for a while suppliers just accepted the Back-bill responsibilty, no matter by what method the customer was paying the bills

However some suppliers are now taking the view that where a customer has been paying by D/Debit and built up credit because of the lack of bills, then there is no "Bill Shock" and the Back-billing agreement should not apply
If there is any debt whatsoever when your Bill is set against the credit you have built up, stand your ground and insist Back-billing be applied

handful

Hi dogshome. I came back to update and saw your helpful post, thanks. Well, I have had some success but not total. They sent me an extremely complicated reply and with an adjustment of £185 on the basis of applying the back billing code but you hit the nail on the head in your post by stating that they could have requested I pay back the £300 odd that they credited me in error but won't. I quote [FONT=&quot]"EDF Energy apply billing code to write off any charges over 365 days that have not been covered by Direct Debit payments.[/FONT]" So they are saying the money I paid and then had refunded were classed as DD payments so not eligible for back billing. I challenged this but they are having none of it. Not sure if it's worth pursuing now to be honest, I suspect this has been tested and challenged before. If anyone has any more info on this it would be much appreciated.:)