Back-billing for the past 5 years!

brewerdave

zafyha said:

brewerdave said:

zafyha said:

Anyway, I’m really quite taken aback. In all honesty, I needed to have submitted monthly readings-but if an engineer came last year, if they saw there was major discrepancy, shouldn’t they have back billed me then? Can they back bill me for 5 years? Any advice/help would be welcome....

Thanks 

Are you saying that you haven't received a bill for 5 years ? Haven't had a bill appear on your online account ? If they have been reviewing your DDs regularly then it suggests strongly that bills have been produced ,so back billing would not apply. Also you need to have sought the bills over the period for back billing to be considered -sounds like you haven't.
As to the meter reader visit last year, they are not employed directly by the Utility Co. anymore - generally contracted out work. I had a visit by a meter reader about 15 months ago - he only read the elec. meter - told me he wasn't contracted to do gas - and the reading he took, has never appeared anywhere as far as I can see.

So if I were to say to the company that your engineer took the readings and didn’t submit it right or why didn’t you (the company) realise there was an issue with the roll over then, it wouldn’t be a strong enough point? 

Sorry - I don't think so. YOU have a responsibility for ensuring that regular meter readings are submitted and used.
zafyha said:

@brewdave
sorry for my ignorance-could you clarify what you wrote here:
Also you need to have sought the bills over the period for back billing to be considered -sounds like you haven't.
Do you mean do I have the bills from 2015? Well I have an online record of all my DD throughout this period-

It means you must have emailed,phoned or written to them asking for bills - if you haven't then ,in my opinion, back billing does not apply.

rp1974

Well done for addressing this eventually,if you went to the effort to change your tariffs why wouldnt you have sent meter readings?.How often did you send them?.Easy to say with hindsight,harder to sort out now.The direct debits have been rising using estimates as theres no basis for usage without readings.Cant see why your credited for gas,then backbilled thats odd,is this all on the same account from the same supplier?.

Talldave

zafyha said:

Talldave said:

Explain this roll over??

This is when the meter (in my case the Gas meter) reached 9999 and then rolled over (or back) to 0000 and started again. Thus the company expected my readings to be something like 9587 but mine in June 2020 were along 0235 so they realised the meter rolled over. 

OK, but the rollover is a non-event, their estimate was simply less than your usage. The figures could have been 8587 and 9235, the bill would have been the same. The rollover has no effect on the bill.
That said, I thought gas meters had 5 digits? What was the reading in 2015 and what is it now?

zafyha

brewerdave said:

zafyha said:

brewerdave said:

zafyha said:

Anyway, I’m really quite taken aback. In all honesty, I needed to have submitted monthly readings-but if an engineer came last year, if they saw there was major discrepancy, shouldn’t they have back billed me then? Can they back bill me for 5 years? Any advice/help would be welcome....

Thanks 

Are you saying that you haven't received a bill for 5 years ? Haven't had a bill appear on your online account ? If they have been reviewing your DDs regularly then it suggests strongly that bills have been produced ,so back billing would not apply. Also you need to have sought the bills over the period for back billing to be considered -sounds like you haven't.
As to the meter reader visit last year, they are not employed directly by the Utility Co. anymore - generally contracted out work. I had a visit by a meter reader about 15 months ago - he only read the elec. meter - told me he wasn't contracted to do gas - and the reading he took, has never appeared anywhere as far as I can see.

So if I were to say to the company that your engineer took the readings and didn’t submit it right or why didn’t you (the company) realise there was an issue with the roll over then, it wouldn’t be a strong enough point? 

Sorry - I don't think so. YOU have a responsibility for ensuring that regular meter readings are submitted and used.
zafyha said:

@brewdave
sorry for my ignorance-could you clarify what you wrote here:
Also you need to have sought the bills over the period for back billing to be considered -sounds like you haven't.
Do you mean do I have the bills from 2015? Well I have an online record of all my DD throughout this period-

It means you must have emailed,phoned or written to them asking for bills - if you haven't then ,in my opinion, back billing does not apply.

I have a record of the DD online but I never did request a bill as my DD were regular, i never changed suppliers-just their tariffs sometimes. I’ll be honest I thought the DD each month were acting like my bills. Sounds pretty stupid now. 

MWT

Maybe a good idea to start with the basics, what were the opening readings in 2015, and the readings now?

Also good to confirm if the gas meter is metric (m3) or imperial (ft3) and to make sure the billing matches this. It will say on the meter but if in doubt a photo would help.

zafyha

rp1974 said:

Well done for addressing this eventually,if you went to the effort to change your tariffs why wouldnt you have sent meter readings?.How often did you send them?.Easy to say with hindsight,harder to sort out now.The direct debits have been rising using estimates as theres no basis for usage without readings.Cant see why your credited for gas,then backbilled thats odd,is this all on the same account from the same supplier?.

Yes all one account, same supplier throughout. Right at the beginning, in 2015 it was with another supplier but then the current supplier took over. I never actively changed to another supplier-Just changed their tariffs to try and manage my monthly DD. Yes really realising the mistake of not submitting readings. 

zafyha

MWT said:

Maybe a good idea to start with the basics, what were the opening readings in 2015, and the readings now?

Also good to confirm if the gas meter is metric (m3) or imperial (ft3) and to make sure the billing matches this. It will say on the meter but if in doubt a photo would help.

In 2015, reading was 8141.
in 2020 reading was 2175. 

I’ll try and attach a pic of the gas meter here...

stewie_griffin

That works out at about 25000 kWh a year which is double the national average and would explain why you've now got a large balance after giving a meter reading.

rp1974

Ok,looking at that meter it has four digits running upto 9999 then rolling over to 0000 again.In 2015 it read 8141,that ran upto 9999 is 1858 units.After this it went from 0000 upto 2175 when that picture was taken,that added to the previous amount then totals 4033 units,is that what shows on your bills?.Also that gas meter is an imperial,not a metric meter as MWT stated above,double check that is whats on your bill.I dont have much experience in using gas and the backbilling rules used for it,might be the same as for electric,might not,someone who knows will help to explain Im sure.

MWT

zafyha said:

In 2015, reading was 8141.
in 2020 reading was 2175. 

I’ll try and attach a pic of the gas meter here...

Perfect, thanks, so we now know it is an older imperial meter with 4 digits measuring in cubic ft.

You've used approx. 127,124kWh to date, which is quite a lot, but not impossible.

From your previous bills or annual statements can you say what they were estimating your annual gas use to be, and do they show the estimate in m3 rather than ft3?