billed although de-energised on ECOES?

tomkut

Dear Moneysavers
Can one be charged for electricity when ECOES shows de-energised?
I recently found out of the issue while trying to switch supplier and was wondering if I would be entitled to a refund for my past bills since records show there was no supply to my property. This would be cheaky!
It raises more questions anyway. How would I find out the dates of de-energised status?

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Have you used the energy?

Ryune

I've seen two cases of this (supply down as de-energised when it's not). If the supply is actually live you are liable. Whether anyone will actually charge you is another matter since it depends on the circumstances and when it happened.

- In one case I saw the supplier kept on charging during the period so there was no liability. The supply moved to them and someone change the status by mistake. They billed it fine and it was only when we tried to move it we realised the error.

- In the other no one charged for around 4 years after it happened and no one took responsibility to sort it. Once it was resolved there was no back billing though we'd built up a decent sum just in case.


Ecoes is not infallible and there are mistakes here and there (and suppliers know this). If the supply is actually live and down as de-energised in error I suspect if you were to try and reclaim money you would get bounced back when someone asked where you'd got power from for however many years. If there are any actual or customer readings for the period showing usage that would also help shoot you down.

tomkut

thank you Ryune. I thought it would have been nice to punish my current supplier for messing about with my ECOES records and impeding my switch.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

tomkut wrote: »

thank you Ryune. I thought it would have been nice to punish my current supplier for messing about with my ECOES records and impeding my switch.

Have you used the energy?

chanz4

You could get billed by the dno instead at standard rates. They are still the supplier even if stats says de-energised. Even with no supplier under 7/11 electricity act they can get the last supplier to bill you

tomkut

Bluebirdman of Alcathays - yes
thanks chanz4

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

tomkut wrote: »

Bluebirdman of Alcathays - yes
thanks chanz4

Then yes you will be charged.

ecoes is a great tool and is 99.9% accurate, but occasionally it goes awry. Fortunately, it's relatively simple to calculate what you've used - meter reading now minus meter reading when you moved in. That constitutes your bill.