£20k EDF bill out of the blue! They haven't taken a reading since 2013

JamoLew

We had a similar situation with BG a few years ago.

We tool the case to the Ombudsman under the back billing clause and won.

Expect a fight, but in the end we won over the statement "you must provide a meter reading OR not prevent access to your meter for reading"
or something similar.

They claimed we had refused access to our house to have the meter read, however our meters are outside the house accessible from the drive, on one occasion they claimed we refused we were actually in holiday in USA and the nail in the coffin was ---- it transpired they were going to the wrong house !!!!!

In the end, the bill was reduced to the maximum of I believe 15 months of use and we negotiated to pay back over the period of time that was under dispute --- In you case this should be a reasonable solution

System

JamoLew wrote: »

We had a similar situation with BG a few years ago.

We tool the case to the Ombudsman under the back billing clause and won.

Expect a fight, but in the end we won over the statement "you must provide a meter reading OR not prevent access to your meter for reading"
or something similar.

They claimed we had refused access to our house to have the meter read, however our meters are outside the house accessible from the drive, on one occasion they claimed we refused we were actually in holiday in USA and the nail in the coffin was ---- it transpired they were going to the wrong house !!!!!

In the end, the bill was reduced to the maximum of I believe 15 months of use and we negotiated to pay back over the period of time that was under dispute --- In you case this should be a reasonable solution

With respect, you may be confusing a house with a small business.

The above link above doesn't work for me but this one does:

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

trickytree1963

Have you considered contacting CAB or Stepchange to see if you can get a reasonable and/or affordable repayment plan set up. Going forward Id recommend taking regular reads so you can monitor your actual usage too.

jpwjpw

If the last accurate reading was in 2013, that would mean your bills should have been £4000+ a year?

Is that electricity only?

Sounds like a huge amount to consume for a small business, especially if it's seasonal only.

Chamellow

This is why I thought it was incorrect, but apparently not, plus I have been paying between £400 - £800 a month direct debit, although for 6months they reduced it to £1 a month!

Chamellow

I think she said today 163k units since 2013 but she was struggling to add them up
We do have a freezer, big outside spotlights, an air conditioning unit (or the sweets melt) and a whippy machine?

MothballsWallet

House_Martin wrote: »

I think Hengus has probably got it right in quoting the "back billing " rule..Being a business user you have`nt the same rights as a domestic user where a reduction in the bill could have been offered seeing as how they broke the minimum period of taking a supplier reading every 2 years ( now its only 1 year ).
Is the electric meter working in a form of "smart mode " as most business electric meters are now at least in my area ?.Many of these meters don t work in smart mode and have nt worked from day one so check on that one. Many business users I meet are not aware their meters are duff because the supplier could nt be bothered to inform them.

Isn't AMR an accepted alternative for business customers where a smart meter can't be fitted?

Robin9

Isn't AMR Smart by another name ?

MothballsWallet

Robin9 wrote: »

Isn't AMR Smart by another name ?

There are similarities, yes, but they're not SMETS1 / SMETS2 meters from what I remember.

Robin9

I know when AMR was introduced in the 1990's a dedicated phone line was used but i would presume they use the same comms as Smart.

I've got 4 business supplies using Smart.

N