Electric Back Bill

oranglou

I am after some advice please. Having lived in a rented property for 10 years, moving out a year ago, I have just received a 'final bill' from EDF for the amount of £2,150. I paid all bills that were sent to me, they were quite low, but I was hardly there and they even sent an engineer out many years ago to check the meter was working correctly. The meter also had been read, but usually estimated or I informed them of reading. The bill is broken down based on estimates from 2014 to 2019 for day and night rates. I assume they are guessing the monthly usage as the amounts/rates change throughout? Are they allowed to chase this amount? Where do I stand with them? 

JGB1955

As long as you have actual readings from the dates that you moved in, until the dates you moved out AND know all the tariffs you signed up to (and when).. easy!.... or, I suspect, NOT

dogshome

Did you give them meter readings to close the account when you moved out ?

oranglou

dogshome said:

Did you give them meter readings to close the account when you moved out ?

I did give them a meter reading on the last day, and they did give me a bill up to that date, which I paid. Now, 11 months later have given me another final bill.

Gerry1

Which is correct, the final bill or the final final bill?

Robin9

How much was the first final bill ?

oranglou

Gerry1 said:

Which is correct, the final bill or the final final bill?

To be honest, I'm not sure what is correct.

oranglou

Robin9 said:

How much was the first final bill ?

From memory, think the final bill in September 2019, was approx. £20+, which covered a few weeks.

Gerry1

With all due respect, you do seem to have been just a wee bit cavalier with providing meter readings, monitoring your account and keeping records !  With such a huge variance it should have been easy to get an idea as to which bill is correct.

That said, it could well be that there's been a hasty bit of last minute accounting by EDF before the 12-month back billing rule starts to kick in, so corners may have been cut and errors not spotted.

Send them a formal complaint via Royal Mail asking for full itemisation to justify the amount demanded, or a deadlock letter.  Make sure you get a complaint reference number and go to the Ombudsman after eight weeks if there's no resolution.

Needless to say, send monthly readings from now on, reconcile each bill and keep records for six years.

theoretica

Does the new final bill take into account your past payments?  They haven't just lost all record that you paid them anything?

oranglou

Gerry1 said:

With all due respect, you do seem to have been just a wee bit cavalier with providing meter readings, monitoring your account and keeping records !  With such a huge variance it should have been easy to get an idea as to which bill is correct.

That said, it could well be that there's been a hasty bit of last minute accounting by EDF before the 12-month back billing rule starts to kick in, so corners may have been cut and errors not spotted.

Send them a formal complaint via Royal Mail asking for full itemisation to justify the amount demanded, or a deadlock letter.  Make sure you get a complaint reference number and go to the Ombudsman after eight weeks if there's no resolution.

Needless to say, send monthly readings from now on, reconcile each bill and keep records for six years.

This was the first time I had to pay electric bills and completely admit being naïve in the way of handling it. I would have kept bills at the time, but thinking this was all sorted and moving, not sure that I would have kept them. Thank you for your advice re complaint. I moved properties and no longer deal with / left EDF 12months ago, but noted re future bills.