First Utility/Shell forget to take DDs. cause a huge debt, am i expected to pay for their mistake?

klova

I have been with First Utility/Shell Energy since April 27 2014, they told me to pay direct debit for £101. a month at first but quickly changed it saying i need only pay £53 a month and this was paid every month until 1/5/2015 when they asked to change it to £77 a month and i continued to pay that amount. Then without warning 2/1/16 they changed the DD to £130. I contacted them to ask what was going on i couldn't afford to pay that much each month as on disability benefits. They changed it to £100 monthly payments, which i paid. But without my knowledge they didn't take anymore DD payments, i didn't know this until they sent a bailiff to my house i wasn't in but saw on a card it was for FUtility, i contacted them and they said i hadnt been paying and owe them money. But it was them who stopped taking the payments. I contacted the CEO Mr Crooks 19/7/18, and told him the position, i am ill and this is making me worse, he said 'don't worry i will get someone to contact you and sort this out!' Which someone from his office emailed me and even though i said it wasn't my fault they had caused the debt, i couldn't argue anymore and agreed to set up another DD, only to find out October 2019 when i got a letter to appear in court they had not taken any of the DDs i had set up again. So for the second time they have caused a huge debt over 3 grand. They are wanting me to pay £2,485.76, apparently taking the back billing into consideration. I have sent in meter readings, and i have never stopped the direct debits, but they 'forgot' to take them, despite the CEO's staff sorting this all out. Now i am expected to pay for this gas/electricity because, yes i have used it, but i thought they were taking DD from my bank account so again they have cause the first debt then added the second debt they caused to the first one. This was brought to my attention after this letter to appear in court for non payment of utility bill October 2019. Surely as it's not been my fault the 12 month back billing should only go back to October 2018? Have you got any advice, please?

Or is there somewhere I can get free legal advice?
Thank you, Klova

JJ_Egan

Free legal advice  Citizens Advice .

Yellow_mango

Did you not receive bills or statements during any of these periods? Or check your bank account at all? 

Not noticing that no payments were being taken for over a year - not just once but twice, is frankly quite hard to believe. Especially since you say you were on benefits and £100 a month was a lot of money to you (since you couldn’t afford £130). 

After the first occasion, I think I’d be paranoid about checking my account to ensure the payments were being taken. And If you were submitting meter readings did you not check that these were being applied to your account (in which case you would have seen that it was falling into arrears). 

If they were issuing bills during this period (were they?), the 12 month back billing will not be relevant. 

klova

No I didn't check my bank account, yes they forgot to take it for a while, and when I set up a new DD and believe me I involved the CEO Colin Crooks and he assured me someone from his direct office would sort it out. They contacted me and of course I thought it had been sorted out, it didn't even enter my head they would 'forget' to take the payments again! The 12 month back billing is relevant and I have had £1,000 knocked of the whole bill making it approx. £2,500.  But I feel as I set up two DDs for them and they didn't bother to take the payments then why should I be responsible for their mistake and be in debt because of them.

klova

Oh and no I never had any bills and in the 6 yrs ive been with them ive never had anyone come to my house and read the meters.

matelodave

If you don't check your bills or bank statements then you are nearly as much to blame as them. Most of us would probably notice that £100 wasn't going out of the bank and when we did, we wouldn't spend it, we'd check and find out what was going on but save it just in case..

In the end you used the energy so you've got to pay for it - why should you get it for free because you couldn't be bothered to check your accounts. I'm sure that you might have had a bit more warning than a Bailiff turning up at the door but if you don't check your e-mails or online account then you might not. However they do usually send letters before sending the boys round or didn't check your mail either.

What happened when you were summonsed to court - did you go or respond, or did you ignore it. As suggested above you really need to enlist the aid of a solicitor or the CAB rather than the collective wisdom of an on line forum

Ectophile

But I feel as I set up two DDs for them and they didn't bother to take the payments then why should I be responsible for their mistake and be in debt because of them.

Fundamentally, it's because you have used their energy and you haven't paid for it yet.  Just because they made a mistake and forgot to take the money doesn't mean you don't owe it.

Onder Ofgem rules, they are not allowed to bill you for anything over 1 year ago if it was their fault.  But you still have to pay the last 1 year's bills.  Ofgem's rules are a lot more generous to you than the Limitations Act, which would have given them 6 years to bill you (5 in Scotland).

matelodave

However, if you have an on-line account and the energy company have been putting bills onto the account, and you haven't been checking them the AFAIK that shouldn't come under the rules of back billing because you have been billed but not checked them.

If bills a have been sent to your on-line account then any arrears are the result of not paying the bill rather than not being billed. DD's are a payment towards the bill, they aren't actually the bill. If your DD wasn't paid for any reason (yours or theirs) it doesn't absolve you from paying for what you've used.

It is your responsibility to pay the bills and to make sure that your DD's were in order. Do you never check your bank account?

dogshome

If you didn't have any bills over these years, by what method did FU/Shell advise you of the D/Debit changes - Emails, your online account or post ?.

It's a very complex situation that will take time to sort out, but the rule with Energy debt is that the supplier must negotiate a re-payment plan that the customer can afford

ToxicWomble

The back billing regs used to say something along the lines of:

you must provide readings when requested OR not prevent access to the meter.
Did you provide readings during this period or have your meter read?
Surely if you have had £100 a month less going out of your bank account then you have the XX x £100 available to pay them for now ?