Back dated bills...

plymcastle

Can anyone confirm the maximum limit in time that a service provider (gas) can backdate a bill?

I understand that for commercial supplies the limit is as per the law of limitations i.e. 6 years, but I am sure that I read somewhere that a domestic supply is limited to 12 months.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

far

My understanding is where there was an error by the supplier, backdating is limited to 12 months for bills dated after July 2007.

Cardew

You need to define what you mean by "backdate a bill"

Certainly if you have not received a bill they can only bill you for a 12 month period. e.g. if you moved into a property in, say February 2006 an initial bill, with a reading taken today, could only be for a period back to 23 Nov 2006.

Prior to July this year it was 2 years.

Terrylw1

See the Energywatch link:

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/help_and_advice/billing_basics/index.asp

Worth noting that the statue of limitations is 5 if you are in Scotland.

Commercials certainly don't have the same protection as they are all treated as larhe companies and expected to have taken a legal approach to an agreement.

Worth noting thats it's "energy" not billed. I know of Suppliers that interpret this to be an energy write off if the amount is higher than their estimates over the 1 year/2 year thresholds. It's a slightly ambigious one though as it can be interpreted either way from Ofgem's description.