Previous energy supplier - huge bill

kjrbetts

Hi everyone.

I moved in to my current property on 6th January.
Switched supplier on 18th February and gave new supplier meter readings from that date.

Problem is, I lost the meter readings from the day I moved in.
I then received a bill for £325 from old supplier. They say based on my opening read and previous occupant's final reading, it is correct.

I live in a 3 bed semi. Surely that's way too much? Do you reckon previous occupant pulled a fast one and fave false readings?
Do I have a leg to stand on with regards to challenging it? It was a fairly cold winter but over £300? We're in the south of England, not the arctic...

Thanks in advance

naedanger

kjrbetts wrote: »

Hi everyone.

I moved in to my current property on 6th January.
Switched supplier on 18th February and gave new supplier meter readings from that date.

Problem is, I lost the meter readings from the day I moved in.
I then received a bill for £325 from old supplier. They say based on my opening read and previous occupant's final reading, it is correct.

I live in a 3 bed semi. Surely that's way too much? Do you reckon previous occupant pulled a fast one and fave false readings?
Do I have a leg to stand on with regards to challenging it? It was a fairly cold winter but over £300? We're in the south of England, not the arctic...

Thanks in advance

Did you mean to say "based on my opening read and previous occupant's final reading"?. If you did, is your supplier not saying your and the previous occupant's readings agreed?

Or did you mean to say "based on my closing reading and previous occupant's final reading"? If so then ask if your opening reading agreed with the previous occupant's closing reading. If the supplier does not have an opening reading from you then are you sure you supplied it?

If the previous occupant sent an untrue low closing reading they were taking a risk since if you had taken an opening reading they would have been caught out. That said I am sure some people will do this.

However if you (and the supplier) don't have an opening reading from you then you are not going to find it easy to dispute the opening reading now.

dogshome

Without that opening reading to the original supplier you are on a sticky wicket, but there are checks you should make where you can.

If this £345 bill is for both Gas & Elec, which of the two is showing an unreasonable cost ?
If it's the Gas, there is a very small possibility of a meter type mix-up - Check you meter for the legends m3 or ft3.
If yours is marked m3, on that Final Bill divide the meter units used into the Kwh charged - The answer should be appx. 11, but if it is appx.31 you are being charged for the wrong type of meter and should contact both the Old supplier and the New immediately.

Check that the End Meter Readings on the old suppliers bill, match the Start Readings on the new suppliers first bill - It's not uncommon for suppliers to issue Final Bills based on ESTIMATED readings.

EnergyInside

As above, I would be challenging the supplier as to whether the previous occupants final readings were actual customer supplied meter readings or estimated ones.

You can also calculate your own estimate for the move in date. Look at how much you use (using start - end meter readings) for as long a date as possible. You then divide this by the number of days between start - end date. This gives you a rough estimate of how many units you use per day in the property. You can then calculate backwards to your move in date to estimate your readings then.

Even if the supplier insists the move out readings of previous occupant were customer supplied, I would be challenging it saying you don't use anywhere near that amount in the property and that they need to re-estimate your move in reading based on your consumption.