Bill for £400 from EDF for empty property

kempstar

We bought a property in July 2015, which we then sold in July 2016. It was refurbished in November and December and was empty the rest of the time.

A new meter was installed in March. This was because the previous meter was a pre-pay meter, and we wanted to change this to a normal meter just in case there were any issues regarding selling the house with a pre-pay meter.

We received a bill in July 2016 for £411.88, relating to March 2016 to July 2016, which was clearly incorrect as the property had been empty.

I contacted EDF immediately to explain this, and told them it had been empty. I had given them a meter reading from the day that I moved out but said that the meter must have been faulty. They said they would look at the meter to check if it was faulty, but they did not do so. By this point the new owners had moved into the property, but EDF were still the supplier.

After several phonecalls trying to get this resolved, EDF continually claimed that the bill was correct. I then got a call from someone who apologised and explained that someone at EDF had entered the meter reading incorrectly, and yes the bill was wrong. They issued me a new bill some time in July, this time for £8.97. I have a copy of this bill and EDF also have a record of this conversation. This was paid and the account was closed.

Last week I received a bill from EDF for the original amount of £411.88. I called EDF to ask what was going on. They told me that actually the person who told me the meter reading had been entered incorrectly was actually wrong, and the original bill was actually correct.

I explained the whole story again and told them the meter was faulty, to which they replied-

As we no longer supply the property, we are unable to book an appointment for an engineer to attend and check the accuracy of the meter, only the current supplier can arrange this.

If you would like this investigating, I would advise for you to contact the current occupant and see if they can contact the supplier so that this can be looked in to further as the supplier will only speak with the account holder and can not discuss anything with ourselves.

Can anyone advise me what I should do in this situation? I am certain the meter was faulty, but there is no way I am going to be chasing up the current occupants to try and get that investigated. Why should I do the job that EDF should have done in the first place? However I really do not want to risk getting any bad credit information on my credit file.

brewerdave

If you were on a standing charge tariff, then you would owe for the period EVEN IF you weren't consuming power. From what I understand, prepay tariffs have high standing charges so much of the bill MAY have been run up in the period between July 2015 and March 2016.
You need a fully itemised bill from EDF showing where the £411+ comes from.

kempstar

The bill relates to the period where it was a normal meter.

I dont have a fully itemised bill to hand, but I remember only a tiny proportion of it relates to standing charges.

Also the bill was for March 2016 to July 2016, not March 2015. I have edited the original post to make it clearer.

brewerdave

Are you saying that you definitely didn't owe anything for the period up to March ,when you had the prepay meter?? Were you adding credit whilst the refurbs. were taking place??
Sometimes the tariffs on prepays don't update automatically ,so you could have been paying too little for the usage??
Finally, did the new meter start at a reading of zero and does the bill show the correct start reading? When we had a meter change the "new" meter actually read ~ 150 not zero.

kempstar

Yes, I definitely do not owe anything for that period. I was adding credit constantly. EDF are charging me for usage for that period between March 16 and July 16.

Yes I have a piece of paper from them showing that the meter started at 0, but then an email from them saying it started at 99999.

System

Most new gas meters start at 99999 to allow one unit to go through the system , it then starts at 00000.Standing charges are the same for prepayment meters and credit meters. It sounds like they are maybe trying to claw back money owed on the prepayment meter which may well have had both debt and standing charges owed on the meter when it was exchanged.You would be liable for the standing charges on the prepay meter from the date you took over the property but at around £100 a year EDF seem to have got their figures wrong. You would need a new prepay gas meter card to reset the meter to the new account.If you did nt do that then EDF would just calculate from the old account number.

kempstar

Its nothing to do with the balance on the pre-pay meter. The balance on that was settled.

They are saying that the meter went from 0 - 900 ish in that time period, and according to that usage, the bill is correct. I am saying that the house was empty during that period, so there can be no way that that amount of gas was used. Hence I am saying the meter must have been faulty.

Cardew

When you moved out the new occupant would have initially been on a 'deemed contract' with EDF.

Even though you had given EDF your meter reading when you moved, you need to check with EDF that the same reading was used as the start reading for the new occupant.

notbritishgas

kempstar wrote: »

Its nothing to do with the balance on the pre-pay meter. The balance on that was settled.

They are saying that the meter went from 0 - 900 ish in that time period, and according to that usage, the bill is correct. I am saying that the house was empty during that period, so there can be no way that that amount of gas was used. Hence I am saying the meter must have been faulty.

When you sold the property in July 16 you obviously took the final meter reading to give to EDF. What was it, did it resemble 900 ish.

kempstar

Yes it does. The meter reading are gave them matches what they are saying.

The issue is it just was not possible to use that much gas unless the meter was faulty, as the property was empty. This is the bit I am disputing. I gave them the opportunity to check the meter back in July but they declined to do so.

System

So Kempstar, you say the meter was advancing when no gas at all was being used at the property. Did you check if the 100 ths of a unit dial was moving round.That could occur with a small gas leak in the house or anywhere from the meter onwards. IF it was a leak in the system somewhere you are liable for that gas usage even if it was escaping. Old boilers with a pilot flame can use some gas, maybe as much as £60 a year.
I have heard of digital gas meters (Siemens and Landys and Gyrs ) going bonkers and increasing.We have had a couple on here in the past, and it was verified by an engineer who, according to the poster, witnessed the digital gas meter advancing with no gas being used .
I can t believe that a non digital gas meter could advance the reading on its clockwork mechanism without gas flowing through the meter