£340/month electricity DD

silver_manatee

My elderly mother in law has had her DD upped to £340/month just for electricity. For context she lives on her own in a 2 bed flat with 3 electric radiators. She had been paying £113/month but when the meter got read for the first time (Oct 19) since she moved in in Dec 2017 her new monthly amount went up to cover the arrears. They say they are only back billing her 12 months (Sept 18 to Sept 19) and she's only just told me about it. So somehow, despite paying £113/month, she owes them a whopping £2,724. How she is supposed to use £4k of electricity a year is beyond me.

Is there a template letter I can use to base my letter for her to sign on please? My thoughts were to say she will take monthly readings for the next 12 months and they can back bill her the equivalent amount (debited against the £113/month she paid that month). But freeze her £113/month payments.

For context she has never read a meter in her life because her husband previously dealt with it and also they had an external meter so someone just came to read it whenever. She genuinely had no idea she was supposed to read it and had no idea that 'estimated reading' on her bills meant no one actually had a clue what she was using. I think it's been years since it was read and she is being charged for the previous tenant's usage, dressed up as only being back billed 12 months. All help would be welcome.

Gerry1

Does the property have gas? If not, is it impossible to have it laid on? That would be the best solution.

Peak rate electricity is the worst possible option because it's so expensive. She's doubtless on an unfavourable tariff because she's never switched tariff, so that must be tackled.

Make sure she's on the Priority Services Register.

If she's really stuck with electricity only it would probably make sense to replace the radiators with some modern storage heaters e.g. Dimplex Quantum and switch to Economy 7.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Wrong way round, start here:

- type of space + water heating
- actual tariff name
- get an online account
- put regular 8 week meter readings in
- CAC / 12 = monthly payment + arrears
- comparison sites, best tariff for needs
- switch supplier to better tariff ? not with £3k arrears

Best of luck, need more ask.

Gerry1

She may not be able to change supplier, but she should be able to change tariff.

The usual advice applies: make sure that the number on the meter is the same as on the bill, and that it really is her meter, not a neighbour's.

daveyjp

Take a reading at the earliest opportunity, then readings at the same time every day to get an idea of daily consumption.

Robin9

One question before we dive into consumption - you say "radiators". Are these the super modern ones filled with magic material that cost a fortune to install and even more to run because they use on peak energy or the more conventional storage radiators.

When she moved in (Dec 17) were the meters read and the existing supplier notified ? Did she (or you) then switch her to a new supplier and a 12 month fix ? If so what happened when the fix ran out ? It's quite possible she's on a standard (ie expensive) tariff.

Could you post a copy of her first bill showing meter reads and also the latest one. (scan the bill and use something like imgur - making an obvious mistake in the link)

It's time for you to take control - set up the account online if you haven't already done so. Also get a letter from her to the supplier authorising you to act on her behalf - (and phone, insurance etc while you are it)

Have you POA for her ?

[Deleted User]

Firstly I would double check the meter readings.As a meter reader myself I would nt rely on these readings by a meter reading company being correct especially if she has an old analogue meter such as a dial meter.
If her late husband had also been doing readings then the supplier would have had accurate annual kwh total so huge arrears like she s got would not have happened

Gerry1

Welcome back !

Kowman

silver_manatee wrote: »

My elderly mother in law has had her DD upped to £340/month just for electricity. For context she lives on her own in a 2 bed flat with 3 electric radiators. She had been paying £113/month but when the meter got read for the first time (Oct 19) since she moved in in Dec 2017 her new monthly amount went up to cover the arrears. They say they are only back billing her 12 months (Sept 18 to Sept 19) and she's only just told me about it. So somehow, despite paying £113/month, she owes them a whopping £2,724. How she is supposed to use £4k of electricity a year is beyond me.

Is there a template letter I can use to base my letter for her to sign on please? My thoughts were to say she will take monthly readings for the next 12 months and they can back bill her the equivalent amount (debited against the £113/month she paid that month). But freeze her £113/month payments.

For context she has never read a meter in her life because her husband previously dealt with it and also they had an external meter so someone just came to read it whenever. She genuinely had no idea she was supposed to read it and had no idea that 'estimated reading' on her bills meant no one actually had a clue what she was using. I think it's been years since it was read and she is being charged for the previous tenant's usage, dressed up as only being back billed 12 months. All help would be welcome.

WOW that is more than I pay per annum for Electricity or Gas!

This sounds similar to what happened to a friend of mine, they had electric storage heaters and the timer that sets it to use night rate was not working, apparently there is a pen they run over a wire near the meter that glows red if there is power (there should not be during the day).

The other thing to check are the historic readings, she can obtain these via a subject access request if she gets any blockers by the energy company. If you get a friendly operator you can find the readings going back years

It is important to gather this evidence before you start disputing things, it prevents them changing things.

Under ICO regulations you have a right to correct data when it is wrong, this includes the database that energy companies share about electricity usage.

What you need to look for is faulty readings in the past or now, for example a transposed digit, this happened to a neighbour with a 6 and 8

You need to go to the meter, look at the serial number, but also look for other meters that they may have been reading

Imagine that they have been reading a neighbours meter for years that was 6123 and now they have read hers which is 8765, there is no correlation between these two meters, so they can forget that last year malarkey,

In such circumstances they need to measure for a quarter or even a year and base charge on that as they have no way to prove previous usage.

In my experience electric heaters are a nightmare, so much more expensive to heat, this makes me worry about all this banning on Gas Central Heating in new builds and promises by daft politicians to change our homes.

If you find they have not been reading properly the way to put them on the backfoot is to dispute the historic readings going back for all the years you can prove it from old bills.

Taking it to ombudsman costs them £350 odd, so remember that in your negotiations.

silver_manatee

Many thanks for all the responses. I'll respond to the questions in brief:

It's an isolated rural small older 2 bed flat on a working farm above a garage so no chance of gas.

The landlord signed her up to 2 Year Fixed Energy - Economy 7 18 December 2018 (ending 12 March 2021)

It estimates her future annual consumption is 21546kWh (my 3 bed elec/gas house with 4 occupants is 3788kwH a year)

It says her 26 Sept to 14 Sept usage is 16666kWh

Good point about Priority Services Register

She isn't internet savvy enough to have an online account yet but I can offer to set one up for her and submit her meter readings if she can take them for me.

Good idea about daily readings. I think if she does that she should get more confident about reading the meter herself. Worst case scenario she can take a photo of it on her phone, send it to me via WhatsApp and I'll submit it for her. I'd have to talk her through the WhatsApp bit!

I have messaged her landlord to ask if he read the meter when she moved in. Or at the very least in Dec 2018 when he switched her tariff.

All meter reads are estimates except the one taken on 18th October.

silver_manatee

Sorry Kowman I missed yours. Unfortunately she's quite some way away from us so at the moment we're having to rely on phone calls. She has agreed to take photos of her meter though which I should be able to get the serial off. I do believe they have no way of measuring past usage. She says her immersion heater has been playing up, not switching off. I'm assuming this is likely to be contributing to the bill? But is it enough for it to be this enormous?

My husband has POA for her but at the moment I'd like to help her help herself as she's in pretty good health despite her age so I don't want to take on running her house remotely for the next 10 years!