Please, please help me - EDF Back-Billing!

Cardew

The first thing to do is establish the facts, then worry about who was to blame, or if it were possible to have used that amount of electricity.


If your tenancy agreement stated that you were only to pay British Gas - you need a copy of that agreement.


Also the letting agent should have recorded the gas and electricity meter readings on that agreement.

45002

1316Baggies

Why are you running 3 threads on same subject

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5176770

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5176766

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5176771

Dr._Shoe

I actually had a similar thing. A bill from EDF landed on my doorstep once alledgedly from 3 years previously when we had been with BG. Like yours it was quite sizeable. The address was right but the householder's name was different. It turned out to be someone who lived in a building with a similar sounding name.

It seems that EDF aren't very good at getting their details right!

whoschuffed

Not sure if this is the same thing but Ive had a similar email/letter land which states that I owed them about £280 from a flat I lived in over 18 months ago.

I phoned up and challenged it as I gave final readings and settled the account when leaving. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing on web chat and then Twitter (if you want a quick response send them a snotty tweet and they will be all over your case) I finally had someone from the "Executive Team" on the phone.

They said that the bill was actually correct as we were on an Economy 7 meter and the day and night readings had been mixed up somewhere along the line. I'm not sure how true this is as as our usage correlated with the figures on the meter (i.e. night time usage was always higher in Winter months when we had the storage heaters on) but to cut a long story short she said because they hadn't billed us within 12 months of leaving the property I wasn't legally obliged to pay anything and it would be written off.

So if its over 12 months tell them to whistle! (

Cardew

whoschuffed wrote: »

Not sure if this is the same thing but Ive had a similar email/letter land which states that I owed them about £280 from a flat I lived in over 18 months ago.

I phoned up and challenged it as I gave final readings and settled the account when leaving. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing on web chat and then Twitter (if you want a quick response send them a snotty tweet and they will be all over your case) I finally had someone from the "Executive Team" on the phone.

They said that the bill was actually correct as we were on an Economy 7 meter and the day and night readings had been mixed up somewhere along the line. I'm not sure how true this is as as our usage correlated with the figures on the meter (i.e. night time usage was always higher in Winter months when we had the storage heaters on) but to cut a long story short she said because they hadn't billed us within 12 months of leaving the property I wasn't legally obliged to pay anything and it would be written off.

So if its over 12 months tell them to whistle! (

The OP only moved out in Nov 2014 so the 12 months is irrelevant.


However, you are 'legally obliged' to pay any debt you owe. There is voluntary charter, that most(not all) energy companies have signed, that under certain conditions they should not back-bill more than 12 months.

energyworker

Cardew wrote: »

The OP only moved out in Nov 2014 so the 12 months is irrelevant.


However, you are 'legally obliged' to pay any debt you owe. There is voluntary charter, that most(not all) energy companies have signed, that under certain conditions they should not back-bill more than 12 months.

Similarly if the company had been sending owner occupier letters/bills or similar to the property that hadn't been answered then there is no basis to apply back billing.

Back billing only applies in circumstances where the person living there provides all of the information necessary to produce a correct bill and the company fails to do so.

1316Baggies

energyworker wrote: »

Similarly if the company had been sending owner occupier letters/bills or similar to the property that hadn't been answered then there is no basis to apply back billing.

Back billing only applies in circumstances where the person living there provides all of the information necessary to produce a correct bill and the company fails to do so.

The company, EDF, had not been sending us bills. This is the first communication we've ever had with them. One letter.

We were being sent bills by British Gas, which we paid on time, every time,

GingerBob_3

Lesson to be learnt - for all:

Never provide forwarding addresses to landlords, estate agents, utility companies and so on. Pay what you owe when you move and leave it at that.

Cardew

GingerBob wrote: »

Lesson to be learnt - for all:

Never provide forwarding addresses to landlords, estate agents, utility companies and so on. Pay what you owe when you move and leave it at that.

Unless you are disappearing to Outer Mongolia what good would that do?


You cannot pay 'what you owe' when you move. How can you settle your gas, electric, water, council tax bills without having them forwarded. The new occupants/landlord have to agree the readings - and if you are not contactable to settle any dispute on those readings you leave yourself wide open; you might even be due a rebate! Also most tenants have a returnable deposit with the letting agent - do you write that off?


If you attempt to disappear, any alleged debt gets passed to a Debt Collection Agency - who will usually trace you; and you will invariably have a black mark on your credit history.


It is a lot harder to dispute bills a year or two after you have moved.

Cardew

1316Baggies wrote: »

The company, EDF, had not been sending us bills. This is the first communication we've ever had with them. One letter.

We were being sent bills by British Gas, which we paid on time, every time,

As stated before, you need to get your letting agents to sort out this mess.

I think there was a mix up with the meters for my basement flat and the top floor flat which their tenant told me about as I was leaving as she was too, but I thought that they were being switched back for the new tenants.

You had been told there was a problem over metering, and should have got the agents to sort it out.

If indeed EDF were supplying your electricity, your agents need to determine with EDF exactly how much you owe during your tenure and arrange for the sums you paid BG for electricity to be refunded.