Reclaiming a paid back bill?

Dorset_Guy

I had an invoice from my old electricity supplier (that I had left 18 months earlier and that had been taken over by another company) and I reluctantly paid the bill (nearly £1000).
And then I found out that earlier this evening that I should never have been asked for the money in the first place because they aren't supposed to back bill more than 12 months.
Are they obliged to give me my money back?

JohnB47

Have a look at this:
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/household-gas-and-electricity-guide/who-contact-if-its-difficult-paying-energy-bills/energy-back-billing-guide-your-rights

MWT

Dorset_Guy said:

I had an invoice from my old electricity supplier (that I had left 18 months earlier and that had been taken over by another company) and I reluctantly paid the bill (nearly £1000).
And then I found out that earlier this evening that I should never have been asked for the money in the first place because they aren't supposed to back bill more than 12 months.
Are they obliged to give me my money back?

 A lot depends on what exactly the bill was for...

If this was chasing you for a previously billed amount that remained unpaid then they have 6 years to seek payment and back-billing rules would not apply.

A bit more detail on the circumstances would help...

Dorset_Guy

The supposedly final bill was paid to my old supplier before switching to another - then out of the blue 18 months later I got another bill from a company I'd never heard of that had taken over from my old provider (i.e. the old supplier seems to have gone bust and passed all the accounts on to another company). I had been with my new provider for at least 18 months so I believe the 12 month rule should have applied and they should have just written it off - instead they wrote two very strongly worded letters threatening action if the bill wasn't paid. I'll need to dig out the paperwork (was about 6 months ago) in order to get the company names.

matelodave

This looks like another case where hanging onto copies of old bills and stuff for several years would help greatly.

As MWT says. they do have up to six years to sort it out if the previous bill was incorrect or not fully paid - do you know if it was based on actual readings or an estimate.