Spark Energy £417 Bill.

Niklas33

Hi all.

We've received a bill for a Month's electric bill of £417.31.

We live in a one bed rented flat.

All the rest of our bills have been between 50 and 90 pound per month.

Not sure how this has happened? We don't submit meter readings we pay the average for our property.

Our electric cut off a week ago and had an engineer out to fix it for us he submitted a reading but surely 417 is too much?

Thanks.

MothballsWallet

Why do you not submit meter readings?

If you don't do that, the supplier will estimate until they get confirmed readings from a meter reading coming round.

Have a look at the newest reading on the electric bill: does it say "A" or "E" next to it?

If it says "A", then that's an actual reading from a meter reader - sounds like they've now got a better idea of your usage and have issued a catch up bill based on that actual reading.

victor2

Niklas33 wrote: »

Hi all.

We've received a bill for a Month's electric bill of £417.31.

We live in a one bed rented flat.

All the rest of our bills have been between 50 and 90 pound per month.

Not sure how this has happened? We don't submit meter readings we pay the average for our property.

Our electric cut off a week ago and had an engineer out to fix it for us he submitted a reading but surely 417 is too much?

Thanks.

If you haven't submitted any m,eter readings, then the supplier would have been using estimates, and that would be indicated on your bills. When the engineer fixed it and provided a real meter reading, the difference between estimates and actual would have appeared on the one bill.
You do unfortunately owe what has been billed by the sound of it. Provide actual readings in future and you won't get a repeat shock. Clearly the £50 to £90 was not enough, so expect that to increase a bit.

System

Niklas33 wrote: »

Hi all.

We've received a bill for a Month's electric bill of £417.31.

We live in a one bed rented flat.

All the rest of our bills have been between 50 and 90 pound per month.

Not sure how this has happened? We don't submit meter readings we pay the average for our property.

Our electric cut off a week ago and had an engineer out to fix it for us he submitted a reading but surely 417 is too much?

Thanks.

Delete ‘month’s bill’ and insert ‘catch up bill’. I am not sure what you mean by ‘average for our property’. If you fail to provide regular meter readings, then all suppliers will bill you on estimated readings. When a meter reading is taken, then the supplier will adjust the charges to cover the period back to the last actual reading - less money already paid. The moral here is ‘read your meter’. Suppliers only have to obtain a meter reading once a year.

Blackpool_Saver

Several things could have happened here, it could be as above as Mothballswallet stated, or the reading the engineer gave could have been wrong (you should do this so you know it is correct), or there could have been a fault with the meter, can you look at the meter reading now, and look at the bill, then reply....

Niklas33

It doesn't show an 'A'

And we don't submit meter reading's as the meter reading is out of reach for all residents (We're all on Spark Energy) and none of us submit meter readings and just to clarify the guy who visited had to put down on his tablet he was unable to reach the meter and put in a guess on usage.

And before anybody states 'Use a ladder' the box is 30ft in the Air at the bottom of the stairs.

And to quote the guy who visited 'I've put down i'm unable to reach the box and the landlord hasn't provided a method to gain access to the box as it's too high in the air'

Blackpool_Saver

I wouldn't put up with that for a day, you need to get that sorted

Blackpool_Saver

I don't understand, can you post a picture please? How can it be at the bottom of the stairs but 30 ft up? And are all the meters there next to each other?

Niklas33

Yes it's one enormous box, and there's 75 flats in total and just to clarify we live on the top floor.

We've been told by Spark we can save £319 by switching to Direct Debit and that would take us down to £911 pound for the year.

Should we pay the £417 would we billed like this again? Because we can't afford to pay £417 per month.

victor2

So even the engineer's reading was an "estimate". That is totally unacceptable. You need to get the landlord to sort out how to read the meters. Presumably all the residents have meters which cannot be read and all are being billed on estimates. You can argue that your bill is not based on an actual reading and therefore not correct, but you would really need an actual reading to determine that. Maybe someone in the know can say what the responsibility is for access to meters.

D_M_E

You need to do three things:

1. Get access to the meter

2. READ THE METER

3. Make sure the meter you are reading is the actual one which is recording the energy used by your flat.