Help with energy bills - Southern Electric

el_rombo

Hi guys, I was wondering if you could help me out a bit.

Basically, my girlfriend and I got the keys to our flat on the 28th June last year. Because we didn't have the internet (she works from home), we didn't move in for the first two weeks.

As soon as we moved in, we decided to change electricity suppliers. We moved from Southern Electric to Sainsbury's, I believe. The changeover was not completed until the 19th August.

We recently got a letter from SE telling us to get in touch as the electricity bill was "much higher than expected". After this, I emailed them and was told that the bill would be £158.58 - this is for roughly five weeks of actual living in a small, one-bedroom flat!

I've queried it, and they've pretty much said they averaged it out from June 19th to January 22nd, which is when I was able to give them a reading. They've acknowledged that the average will be skewed as it's now the middle of winter, but haven't said anything about changing the price.

For two people in a small flat with a gas oven, I can't help but feel £185 is way above extortionate.

Is this reasonable? And if not, is there anything I can do?

Thanks in advance.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

The problem is, how can you disprove it? I'm assuming you don't have:
1) Meter read on the date you moved in
2) Meter read on the date you changed provider

Without these, it's ultimately just guess work. You have to pay SE for the energy you used while you were with them.

What should it cost? Impossible to say, everyone runs their home differently. I would imagine something around the £100 mark would be fair.

matelodave

If you don't have the readings then it's really difficult to be able to argue with the supplier. You must take regular readings - at least monthly - otherwise you don't know what you've used, you can't check your bills and you can't sort out problems like this. You might even be paying for a previous tenant if you didn't read the meter and tell the supplier when you moved in or record your reading when you swapped. All they can do is guess (they call it an estimate) what you've used and they will always err on their side rather than yours.
You've probably just got to pay up and make sure you keep on top of it in the future

el_rombo

I would have given them a reading sooner, only our landlord had a padlock on the door in which the meters were held. She had gone away and refused to give us the key - in the end we had to take bolt cutters to the door.

We only got access to the meters after a few months of living there. It's so frustrating; I'm going to be absolutely broke after all this.

Would £90 a month be a reasonable estimate for the rest of the time? That's getting on for double what I thought I'd be paying...