Can energy companies back bill 4 years?

Nada666

I would argue you should end up paying less than £250 above the £1500 you have already paid.

Even at standard tariff prices today (never mind some four years ago) the usage you quote should not cost much more than £1,900 plus standing charges - say £150 per year so a total of £2,500.

You should demand a recalculation of the cost at domestic prices and broken up at price changes - that should bring it below £2,500.

I certainly think you should stand your ground for back-billing - you actively engaged to find a supplier and have been actively paying your bills to Scottish Power. Tell them you will give British Gas the £1,500 you have already paid to Scottish Power but will expect to only pay the difference on the most recent twelve months.

That would be (at £2,500 over four years for your stated usage) £1875 for three years and £625 for the last twelve months. You paid Scottish Power £375 for this period - so that is an extra £250 you have to pay under the back-billing.

State you will pay them the £1500 once you receive it from Scottish Power plus you will pay an extra £250 (or however much it actually turns out) as soon as (but not until) you receive an accurate dated and distributed bill at domestic prices for the last four years

undaunted

You may have to work hard on this but the back billing guidelines are here if you want to have a read & try & find yourself an argument. Perhaps as to why British Gas didn't realise there was a problem in 4 years. Presumably the builder hasn't just been paying them all that time?

I don't suppose you have evidence of ringing everyone but must be able to prove that SP were contacted & agreed to take over the supply. Shouldn't that have flagged something somewhere, didn't the database showing supplier to the property get changed. If it did shouldn't this have been queried given that they believed they still had the customer?

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

Aquamania

the_original_one wrote: »

This was the line I was starting to go down, I will definitely contact re. The rates to see what difference that makes as there is no way that I would have chosen to be on such a high rate comparing to others.

I have already made a complaint to both SP and BG and was considering taking this to the ombudsmen to see what they say although having never done this before, would there be any point? As far proof, they actually contacted my housing association (which is who the builders passed them onto) who gave them my information and changed the account to my name and the date I moved in

It does seem that from start to finish there has been one mistake after another leading to the present day situation.

Its not the correct line

As the poster admits, they "don't know" although I can fully understand their musings are probably what you like to hear ... but that doesn't make it correct.

What I would say is it cannot be right that under BG it will cost you £3k whereas under SP it would only have cost you £1.5k. You need to look into this again. There is a fundamental flaw somewhere. No Scottish Power tariff I know of is half the price of the BG standard tariff.

What complaints exactly have you made to BG and SP?