Back Billing

alannaglover

Hi I am hoping someone can help. 

I am with Eon heat district heating and I have no choice but to use this supplier where I live. 

This morning I called eon as over the last 2 weeks I’ve had issues with my boiler and had engineers out but subsequently had my heating stuck on for 7 days when I didn’t want it on so was hoping to get some sort of refund. I called to give them a meter reading and it turns out my smart meter has been stuck on the same reading since 22 March 2019 it’s now 14th Feb 2020! I’ve been paying direct debit each month but turns out they were only charging me the standing charges. They reduced my direct debit to this based on my consumption and I’ve had at least 8 engineers out to my boiler in the last 12 months and the supplier take daily reads remotely and no one has picked up on the meter being stuck. They have said I will have a engineer out within the next 2 days to replace the meter and then they will watch my usage for the month and then work out my previous usuals. How will they do this fairly? How can they prove what I’ve used? Also can I claim for Back billing as I’m sure it’s going to take them a few weeks to work this out which will probably take me past 22nd March 2020? Any advice would be great 

ps my bills I’d received stated actual not estimates as they read my meter daily! 

DawnCrush

Congratuations on starting a new thread to ask this question.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76842166#Comment_76842166

But may I ask, why did you change board?
I would urge you to contact the board guide to to now request this thread is moved to the more appropriate Energy board to allow your thread to receive an improved response.

Hasbeen

As above this is the LPG, Heating oil board.

dogshome

The most relevant words in both your posts are "District Heating", where one big boiler supplies a block of flats with Heat & Hotwater, which is deemed to be greener than small boilers in each flat - Common in Germany where the costs to residents are reasonable, BUT, this is the UK where the owners of this plant, (A subsidiary of Eon), can charge what they like, when they like and none of the rules that protect domestic energy consumers apply.

So you are stuck with whatever consumption figures Eon come up with to resolve the stopped meter problem - Best advice is to sit out the length of your lease, and then move out  

Talldave

How does someone with disctrict heating have a boiler??

dogshome

Good question - However the OP's first line says they are with "Eon Heat" who only deal with district heating, and the references to the boiler failure are just triggered by the flat not getting heat.

 

No criticism of the OP, but time after time there are posts from people who have moved into flats, taken time to study the lease to ensure they can afford it, then Wham, they hit with expensive bills that were not heralded in the paperwork.

Streaky_Bacon

You will have various protections because Eon have signed up the the Heat Trust. This means that there are various rules they must follow, and any complaint can be taken to the Energy Ombudsman.

https://heattrust.org/the-scheme-rules

The rules, also require adherence to

Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014 No.312

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/3120/made

A quick look at the rules suggests that they may not be able to charge you for the unmetered energy. It should, at the very least be taken to the ombudsman.

alannaglover

Apologies my original post wasn’t clear. it’s a heating unit not a boiler, I have no choice to be with eon they supply my whole community and I own my home so moving out of my house isn’t a option. My question is do I qualify for back billing? 

Streaky_Bacon

alannaglover said:

Apologies my original post wasn’t clear. it’s a heating unit not a boiler, I have no choice to be with eon they supply my whole community and I own my home so moving out of my house isn’t a option. My question is do I qualify for back billing? 

If you bother to read the Heat Trust rules that I took the time to link in my earlier post, you will find back billing covered in section 15.7