Need help with Backbilling rule

siftkhanz

Hey Everyone apologies if this is not the place to ask this here.

I was with first utility at my property and left them in july 2017 and there was an outstanding amount of 600+ on my final bill which I asked to be taken by direct debit of 100 pounds monthly.

After that switch of supplier in july 2017 i again switched supplier august 2018, now got an email from first utility that there is still amount pending of 300+ in that final bill.

I informed them that I had direct debit set and never cancelled it so why there is balance, they told me it got stopped (from there end) on September 2017 so for last 12 months they never bothered to ask for payment and I also forgot about them until this email.

when I asked the first utility customer representative about backbilling rule she got a bit aggressive and never explained to me exactly how and when it should be applied, therefore asking here.

so need help to find out if backbilling applies here or not and is there any time limit on enerygy suppliers to ask for unpaid bills when I wasnt the one cancelled the payment plan.

thanks

Smodlet

Hi and welcome to the forum. See this for Ofgem's rules on how and when providers can back bill.

In a nutshell, "... a supplier can’t seek additional payment for unbilled energy used more than 12 months prior to the error being detected and a corrected bill being issued." It sounds as if they did issue a correct bill from what you say so the back billing rule would not apply in your case.

HTH.

spiro

Also didn't you notice the money was not going out of your account?

matelodave

You should still have £300 in your account if that's what they didn't take.

Surely you check your bank account occasionally just to make sure that your salary is going in and only stuff that you've authorised is going out.

I'm sure that most of us would notice £300 extra sitting in our accounts.

As said above the back-billing rule doesn't apply and you'd do well to check your credit ratings to ensure that you don't have a default on your account.

siftkhanz

thanks for the quick reply and prompt help will call and sort it out