Huge Bill / Meter Read Advise Need Help!

MWT

Reed_Richards said:

@MWT, I don't understand what you think is untrue or what the practical consequence is.  If it turns out that the energy company made no efforts to obtain a reading between 2019 and recently in 2021, which, if true, is seemingly negligent of them, does the OP have any come back?

The untrue part is that it is sufficient for the company to rely on a contract or a request for a reading.

Ofgem placed the obligation on the supplier to bill accurately at least once every 12 months, how they achieve it is up to them and that can be via a customer reading, but Ofgem placed no obligation on the customer to provide it.

So if they don't get it that way and can't get it from a smart meter then they do have to send out a meter reader...

The 'come back' is the back-billing rules.

The supplier can't just run on estimates for 2 years and then hit the customer with a catch-up bill, they can only go back 12 months.

This was the quid pro quo behind the removal of the obligation to inspect meters every 2 years. The energy companies had that obligation removed, but they run the risk that if they don't manage their customer accounts in a way that gets them at least once accurate bill a year then they are gambling with their ability to get paid for anything older than 12 months which they have not already billed.

Gerry1

welshmoneylover said:

The OP needs to take regular meter readings himself. The energy companies hold millions of accounts and can’t possibly chase every customer for a reading. Sometimes we had to do it ourselves, takes 5 minutes and £50 a month is far too low for electricity.
I do wish people would stop blaming energy companies for catch up billing,. 

Back in the day, the electricity and gas boards always read the meters, customers just had to pay the bills when they were received.  All straightforward, no problems with little old ladies having to get down on their knees or use step ladders.  No problems with customers misreading pointer meters by 10,000 units or pressing 6 instead of 9.   Then came privatisation, and meter readers became as rare as hop-on buses with conductors.

In theory, energy should be cheaper because of choice and competition, although one wonders with all the costs of referrals, advertising, comparison sites, Ofgem et al.  But if the meter reading burden is transferred to the customer there needs to be an effective backstop to prevent bill shock.  The 12 month back billing rules belatedly sought to address the problem, and this implies that the energy company must have a meter reading at least every 12 months.

Reed_Richards

MWT said:

The supplier can't just run on estimates for 2 years and then hit the customer with a catch-up bill, they can only go back 12 months.

But hasn't the OP, seemingly, just been hit by a bill trying to catch-up on over 12 months of estimated readings?

Robin9

Shouldn't the OP take some responsibility in this ?  

niktheguru

What staggers me is when the energy companies OVER estimate usage people are outraged and are expecting money back plus compensation ASAP, however then if the usage has been underestimated people are running around trying to find ways not to pay what they owe rather than admitting to the short fall, and in the process denying any liability.

Surely alarm bells should have rung to the OP when his account was 1000 pounds in credit. Wouldn't one actually look at the bill and try and see what had happened, or even ask for the credit back. It would have then been obvious he was on estimated reading after estimated reading. Perhaps if he had read his bill he would have seen requests for him to read his meter and send readings.

This is the exact reason why people need smart meters.
I'm sure you'd be able to get the back billing rule to write off some of the debt owing....I guess we'll be the ones paying for that in the long run.

MWT

Robin9 said:

Shouldn't the OP take some responsibility in this ?  

Of course, it was totally within the ability of the OP to avoid this problem with only a little attention to what was going on.

It was also totally within the ability of the supplier to 'notice' they had not had a single accurate reading for months.

The position of Ofgem is that it is the suppliers responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen, not the customer's.

We don't have to like it, but this is a money saving site, so we would not be respecting the purpose of the forum if we didn't mention the things the OP can use in their favour.

Reed_Richards

So how would this work?  The energy company is only allowed to bill for the last 12 months of usage but nobody know how much that was because nobody was reading the meter.

MWT

Reed_Richards said:

So how would this work?  The energy company is only allowed to bill for the last 12 months of usage but nobody know how much that was because nobody was reading the meter.

It isn't an unusual situation, happens all the time when meters fail and are not immediately replaced.

Typically they will use an estimate based either on previous accurately recorded usage, or failing that they estimate based on current and future recorded use, which can delay an agreed amount to be billed of course.

niktheguru

I wonder if the OP looked at his old bills, if there is a line there asking for a reading.....it seems to me that most people when they have this problem, haven't even looked at their bills and either because they're online haven't bothered checking it at all, or if in the post just left it unopened or filed away.

t0rt0ise

I think it's unfair to blame the customer as some are wont to do. If you're older and have lived through times when the companies took care of everything, it's easy to miss the change to the expectation that the customer themselves does all the meter reading and checking. The younger people who have always known it that way don't realise the difference and how much things have changed. It's very easy for people to get left behind.