EDF Trying to bill me for an account which closed 18 months ago

MarkBer

I wonder if you can help?
I received a call out of the blue two days ago from EDF claiming I had an outstanding balance from 2012. The account was closed 18 months ago (and final bill was settled) but recently became ‘live’ again after the computer realised it hadn’t collected the full amount due to an error with my instalment plan (they messed up the initial direct debit at the start of the contract so I had been on catch up).
I read on a site that there is a time cut off, so are they entitled to bill me for this amount? It is about 18 months since the account was closed and as far as both parties were aware everything was OK. There has been no correspondence in the meantime.

I have since had a follow up email:

“I can confirm that at the time of your final bill your balance was £360.41 of which £235.88 was included within your instalment plan. When your account closed we collected £124.53 which was the difference between your instalment plan and the final balance. When your account closed the Direct Debit was closed and so the instalment plan payments were not collected.”

Does anyone know if this is reasonable protocol?
Thanks!

dogshome

Bad news I'm afraid - EDF do have the right to send out bills to adjust for previous billing errors, for up to 6 years after the event

Aquamania

MarkBer wrote: »

I wonder if you can help?
I received a call out of the blue two days ago from EDF claiming I had an outstanding balance from 2012. The account was closed 18 months ago (and final bill was settled) but recently became ‘live’ again after the computer realised it hadn’t collected the full amount due to an error with my instalment plan (they messed up the initial direct debit at the start of the contract so I had been on catch up).
I read on a site that there is a time cut off, so are they entitled to bill me for this amount? It is about 18 months since the account was closed and as far as both parties were aware everything was OK. There has been no correspondence in the meantime.

I have since had a follow up email:

“I can confirm that at the time of your final bill your balance was £360.41 of which £235.88 was included within your instalment plan. When your account closed we collected £124.53 which was the difference between your instalment plan and the final balance. When your account closed the Direct Debit was closed and so the instalment plan payments were not collected.”

Does anyone know if this is reasonable protocol?
Thanks!

They have 6 years to collect what is owed (or 5 years if you are based in Scotland) - that is what the law allows.

Not sure what you read on a site. Perhaps they were referring to the voluntary code of practice for accurate bills. If you've read it, you'll know all about it, but if not, you can read about it here
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

Probably doesn't apply unless you previously alerted the supplier to their error and they ignored that for over 12 months.

MarkBer

No problem. Thanks for the info