£11,000 back bill for 3 years

Thealybot

Hi,
I received a letter from Eon in June stating that I owed them £11,000 as my meter readings were estimated and I've been underpaying electricity since Jan 2018. I was not aware that my meter was not a smart meter so I haven't provided meter readings since Jan 18 (I can accept this was my mistake for not finding this out). Since I received the bill I have given meter readings as requested. 
In this scenario do the back billing rules apply? 
Also, I have raised a complaint about the total sum to eon as it is extortionate. I live on my own in a two bedroom flat. Since 2018 I have been away from the property for 3 months at a time - which I can prove and nothing was used. I cannot fathom considering these factors how I have accrued a bill this high. 
I cannot afford to pay this even by their suggested 12 month plan. 
Their customer service team has been a nightmare to get hold of, constantly hanging up the phone or the chatbot getting disconnected. 
I have contacted Citizen's advice who have given me some suggestions but I just wanted to know what are my rights going forward and how to proceed with this? It is causing me a great deal of stress

QrizB

That sounds horrendous. Can you post your meter readings and tariff details here so we can offer you a sanity check on the £11k bill?

There are a couple of official E.ON reps who pop in to the forum from time to time. Possibly @E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena  will see this and comment?

Reed_Richards

Could you have misread your meter and provided incorrect readings on which the very high bill is then based?

tim_p

Is the £11K bill AFTER you submitted a meter reading or before. If before have they supplied a new bill based on the new reading?
How much have you been paying each month for electricity?
Presumably you’re all electric, what’s the reading now and what was the last one on a bill that doesn’t have the letter ‘E’ next to it (and when was that)?

Thealybot

I am waiting for the most up to date reading but the last one taken was on 21st Jun at around lunchtime and they were 57903 and 03831. Once I have the up to date ones I can post here

And I've attached some images of the charges they have sent 

Thealybot

11k bill was before the reading was submitted. They haven't sent me an upto date bill but I did get a letter saying they were passing it on to a debt collection agency and the figure now stands at £11650. 

Robin9

@Thealybot  Have you been receiving any bills from Eon - perhaps by email or emails asking you to look at your own account.

I suspect that you have probably been on a standard  (ie expensive) tariff all this time.

Lots more info please so we can comment more constructively.

Can you give us those meter reads please - take great care in reading the meters, some have dials which go in different directions, modern ones have a decimal point. If off peak there may be 2 or more registers  R1, R2 and Total.

Before 2018 were you with another supplier ?

JGB1955

How much have you paid since Jan 2018?  That will need to be credited against the £11K.

Robin9

JGB1955 said:

How much have you paid since Jan 2018?  That will need to be credited against the £11K.

As I read this the £11,000 is net of the DD's the OP has paid.  I do hope this is going to be a meter read error ?

Thealybot

I don't have access to the meter I have to ask the estate manager who gets the caretaker to get them.
What extra infor do you need

QrizB

A couple more questions if you don't mind.

• Did you move into the property in Jan 2018, or were you already occupying it and switched to EON from a different supplier?
• Did you provide opening readings to EON then, do you have a record of those readings and can you post them?
• Have you been paying EON anything at all? Have EON billed you before now?

On the face of it, you've has three-and-a-half years of electricity from EON without a bill. Over that time you've used almost 44000 "day" units and 16000 "night" units, 60000 units total or around 17000/yr which isn't an absurdly high amount for an all-electric property. You should be paying around £270/month for that much electricity at the tariff EON have you on.

If you haven't paid anything at all in that time, it would explain why you now owe £11000.

Edit to add: apologies for the disjointed post, it took me 15 minutes to collect the numbers which is why everyone else has already asked my questions!