New Build home, energy bill delay! 7 months on.

rachepool

We moved into a new build property in April 2018 and had automatically been registered by the developer for dual fuel with British Gas.
I expected a bill for dual fuel within the first few weeks, which never came.
I emailed in July chasing my bills, I was then advised that they 'had not opened an account for me' (which the developer stated they had) - they opened a Gas account and I submitted my meter reading (and about 6 weeks later received a bill, which has been paid).
They were unable to open an Electricity account as 'the energy supply to the property was de-energized', and they required me to submit my MSN number - which I did (I have done so 3 times). Since then, I have sent numerous emails chasing my Electricity bill which 7 months on I fear will be adding up!! Does anyone have advice on this? My Husband is determined that we will not be paying this bill as they have had numerous opportunities to send bills through and have failed to do so.

molerat

Have you been putting money aside each month to pay this bill when it arrives ? Have you been reading the meters regularly and making note ? As long as you have made reasonable efforts to contact the energy company they can only bill you for the past 12 months use. They can and will bill you for anything less than 12 months so taking the will not pay attitude is not going to help and may harm your credit file. Also if f you have not set up a fixed term account you are also most likely on the most expensive tariff.

matelodave

Although you say the builder set up the energy accounts did you actually check and make sure at the time you moved in that they were in your name and send in the readings. Suppliers arent' always mind readers and if you dont register then they dont actualyl know who the customer is.

You should be able to work out how much you owe by reading the meter and doing the sums.

However by not registering with the supplier yourself, you are probably going to be on their most expensive Standar Variable Tariff and you dont actually know if the meters were on zero when you moved in.

As Molerat correctly points out, you should have the money to pay the bill if you haven't had one yet, it would have helped if you'd been sending in monthly meter readings and lastly do you really want to trash your credit rating on a principle.

System

rachepool wrote: »

We moved into a new build property in April 2018 and had automatically been registered by the developer for dual fuel with British Gas.
I expected a bill for dual fuel within the first few weeks, which never came.
I emailed in July chasing my bills, I was then advised that they 'had not opened an account for me' (which the developer stated they had) - they opened a Gas account and I submitted my meter reading (and about 6 weeks later received a bill, which has been paid).
They were unable to open an Electricity account as 'the energy supply to the property was de-energized', and they required me to submit my MSN number - which I did (I have done so 3 times). Since then, I have sent numerous emails chasing my Electricity bill which 7 months on I fear will be adding up!! Does anyone have advice on this? My Husband is determined that we will not be paying this bill as they have had numerous opportunities to send bills through and have failed to do so.

Hi - welcome to the forum. I have a lot of sympathy for the situation that you find yourself in as I am in a similar situation with Scottish Power. The problem on my small development (15 homes) is that the Developer talks in plot numbers and in the real World we all use postal addresses and postcodes. This mismatch has resulted in one of my meters being listed on the Database as [STRIKE]Plot[/STRIKE] 6 instead of 14. Both meters have an incorrect postcode. Scottish Power's specialist team is on the case. A year on since the first property was occupied we had a visit last week from a lady with a clipboard. I gave her a copy of the e-mail that I sent to Scottish Power three months ago giving them details of what was wrong. She was grateful as her 'investigations' hadn't revealed that anything was amiss!!

I have switched to a new supplier but this requires the use the of the incorrect data on the two National Databases. Having switched, the listings for my property have been updated for my property. Months on, I still await a Final Bill from Scottish Power.

Finally, you will end up paying BG what you owe UNLESS 12 months is reached when The Back Billing Code will kick in. As others have suggested, you need to make adequate provision for these charges.

dont_use_vistaprint

We had exactly the same, we tried to contact them various times and were told we couldn't register and were send back and forth to the developer and the utility company. In the end we stopped contacting them. We never received a bill for over three years but saved the money and when it finally came refused to pay it and let it go into dispute and made a formal complaint that they prevented us from switching by maladministration. Came to an agreement to pay a single payment of approx 30% of what they requested, then immediately switched :-)

Edit - when it finally came , we did immediately setup a DD, but only on the condition the disputed amount was separated out and they just collected £60 pcm while the balance was in dispute

dont_use_vistaprint

Hengus wrote: »

Finally, you will end up paying BG what you owe UNLESS 12 months is reached when The Back Billing Code will kick in. As others have suggested, you need to make adequate provision for these charges.

Hi - do you know when this rule came into effect? They never mentioned it to me and I never knew about it. We took the new build in April 2014 and I think it was June 2017 when we had the request

System

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

Hi - do you know when this rule came into effect? They never mentioned it to me and I never knew about it. We took the new build in April 2014 and I think it was June 2017 when we had the request

See the following link:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/ofgem-bans-suppliers-backbilling-customers-beyond-12-months

It was a voluntary code up to this date and not all suppliers were party to it. For it to apply, the consumer must show that action has been taken to get a bill. Any payments made on account will be used to offset charges. Note - it is not a complete write off: the Regulations permit the supplier to charge for the previous 12 months of usage.

rachepool

Thank you for everyone's comments! I pay a monthly DD for our gas to British Gas and have emailed almost monthly asking for an electricity bill, I have kept all of these emails and also details of conversations that I have had over the phone. This seems to be a common issue on out or development, our builder has registered us correctly and I have seen proof of this. I have also seen the email sent from the builder to British Gas on our date of entry with the meter readings. Seems we are stuck waiting! Unsure if I can attempt to create a new account with another supplier due to us not being registered on the national database! Nightmare!

rachepool

Thank you so much, seems we are in similar situations. How did you find out about your register on the national database? If I knew this I could attempt to register with a new provider and set up a direct debit for dual fuel.

Joyful

Ask British gas to check Ecoes with your address and your Meter Serial number. This will allow you to see what the problem is. Anyone in the call centre has access to this. You can also ask to go through to the sales complaint line.