Receiving an energy bill 3 years after moving

bacon.

Hi, I wondered if anyone could offer any advice or had similar experiences. At the end of 2011 I moved out of a property for which npower supplies the gas and electric. Multiple times over the next 12 months I requested a bill to my new address, receiving only "your bill is being calculated" letters. Yesterday, over 3 years later, a bill was received, not by me but to an address I'd stayed at for 4 weeks prior to moving, demanding payment within 7 days as well as an additional fee for having to "track down" the address.
Does anyone know the process I would have to follow here? I'm certainly not going to just pay the bill within the demanded timeframe when its taken them over 3 years to calculate it.
Any tips welcome!
Many thanks

spiro

Do you have any proof that you contacted them serveral times after you moved out and provided your new address? This could emails, letters you sent. If you have these I believe the back billing rule would apply otherewise it's your word against theirs that you provided your new address otherwise they could just argue it's take 3 years to track you down.

bacon.

Thank you for your reply,
I don't have any proof of my own correspondence but they sent multiple letters to the new address informing me my bill was being calculated, so there's no denying that they had the new address. This was my address for over two years following the requests for bills so even if they didn't have the address after this one, they certainly provided no bills for two years.
I'm not completely clear on the back billing rule, it appears that if they didn't provide the requested bill after 12 months it's considered the error of the company? How would I proceed if that's the case?

Cardew

Is the letter from NPower or a Debt Collection Agency?

spiro

bacon. wrote: »

Thank you for your reply,
I don't have any proof of my own correspondence but they sent multiple letters to the new address informing me my bill was being calculated, so there's no denying that they had the new address. This was my address for over two years following the requests for bills so even if they didn't have the address after this one, they certainly provided no bills for two years.
I'm not completely clear on the back billing rule, it appears that if they didn't provide the requested bill after 12 months it's considered the error of the company? How would I proceed if that's the case?

Hopefully you kept these letters. If you did write a letter to them labelled complaint explaining you story and including copies of the letters stating they will provide a rule. Finish the letter stating that it over 12 months since you left them and you have proof (letters to you) they knew your new address you believe the back billing rule should apply.

Cardew

It is the date the bill was raised that is the important factor.

bacon.

The date the bill was raised isn't included, just the date of this demand. The date I left them and first requested a bill was December 2011 and they certainly didn't send a bill for at least two years so I'm not sure the date the bill was raised will be too important.
The letter is from npower rather than a debt collection agency.
I'll see if I can track down an email address, I no longer have a UK address so they're even less likely to respond to a letter than usual.
Thanks for the responses!

naedanger

bacon. wrote: »

The date the bill was raised isn't included, just the date of this demand. The date I left them and first requested a bill was December 2011 and they certainly didn't send a bill for at least two years so I'm not sure the date the bill was raised will be too important.
The letter is from npower rather than a debt collection agency.
I'll see if I can track down an email address, I no longer have a UK address so they're even less likely to respond to a letter than usual.
Thanks for the responses!

"If your supplier is at fault and has not sent you an accurate bill
that they should have sent you, they will not ask you to pay any
extra for energy you used (and which you did not receive an
accurate bill for) more than one year before they issued the bill."

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication.html?task=file.download&id=4991

Also:

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/files/docs/Factsheets%20and%20guides/back_billing_consumer_guide.pdf

If you need to complain to npower I suggest you put it in writing and follow their own complaint process:

http://www.npower.com/home/help-and-support/contact-us/complaints/complaints-handling-policy/

There are plenty of instances where npower has flouted the code:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/10610676/Energy-firms-continue-to-flaunt-billing-rules.html

Cardew

bacon. wrote: »

The date the bill was raised isn't included, just the date of this demand. The date I left them and first requested a bill was December 2011 and they certainly didn't send a bill for at least two years so I'm not sure the date the bill was raised will be too important.
The letter is from npower rather than a debt collection agency.
I'll see if I can track down an email address, I no longer have a UK address so they're even less likely to respond to a letter than usual.
Thanks for the responses!

Actually the date the bill was raised and sent is crucial. Under the Gas/electricity Acts all any energy company have to prove is they sent a bill - not that the customer received the bill.


The reason for that is sensible in that many people would flatly deny ever receiving a bill(obviously I am not implying this happened in your case)


Could the bill have been sent to another address you stayed at and simply binned by the occupant?


Make sure any future correspondence on this matter is now in writing!

bacon.

Naedanger: Thank you for those links, amazingly helpful.

Cardew: There's no way of knowing the date the bill was raised. As above, they sent letters saying they were calculating the bill for 12 months after my move out date, each time I requested the bill. I then received nothing before moving in 2014, so if they sent it, it was over 2 years late.

footyguy

bacon. wrote: »

The date the bill was raised isn't included, just the date of this demand. ...

Request a copy of the original bill to which the demand relates

It is usually only the original bill that details how the original amount is calculated, so you'll need it anyway to check it is correct