Massive Bill Help

Daveamajor

Hi everyone, I need some help on the next steps to take for my Gran's ridiculously high energy bill.

I'll try and keep this as concise as possible but it's complicated!

She lives in a 3 bedroom flat. Has fairly modern appliances and doesn't have anything excessive that could cause these bills so I believe something has gone wrong somewhere.

Problem 1 

She has 3 meters in her house.
Meter 1 and 2 are marked day and night so I believe they are for her storage heaters. 
Then meter 3, which on her bills is marked night as well. I believe it to be her main electricity as it is on the same tariff as us. 

However, meters 1 and 2 are averaging £70 per month in usage over the last 6 summer months (Apr 21-Sep 21) even though her heaters haven't been on at all.
We used to joke to shut the door and keep the cold in. Her house is always cold and she never has the heaters on, especially in the summer. 

So what could be causing this? 

Problem 2 

There are, unfortunately, very few actual readings due to the pandemic and us forgetting, so a large part of her energy bills were based on estimates.

There was an opening reading when she opened her account in June 19 and then an engineer read of meter 3 only in Sept 20. 
Between that 15 month period, her meter increased by 4309 units and that averaged her monthly payments at around £48. Nothing too excessive and a pretty good average baseline figure.

There was another meter reading 10 months later in July 21 and the meter had increased by 7357 units. (Sep 20 - Jul 20)

Being 84 and not really leaving the house that often, nothing has changed about her habits. She uses the same appliances as before, in the same way. 

SO I believe that in that 10 month period something has happened to the meter to cause such a dramatic increase. A fault perhaps?

What could it be?

Problem 3

Because of the above problem in July she was hit with a massive £700 bill and as such Bulb increased her payments to an eye-watering £211 per month. They have also now increased the payment again to £288 per month to get her account in credit again.

She is now in credit but we can't decrease the payments to a normal amount. 

I have done a comparison between my house and her house as we are comparable sizes and my average bill for the same period is £40 and bulb estimate she is using £135 (meter 3 only) worth of electricity per month.!!!!

This also doesn't account for the 1st and 2nd meters ticking over at a rate of £70 per month even though the heating isn't on in any room. 

So I guess my question is what's the next step?
Complain again to Bulb only for them to insist that the meters are correct? Citizens Advice? An Ombudsman or even her local MP?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give

Dave

AcerBen

Raise a complaint with Bulb, which will firstly ensure that they look into the query properly rather than fob her off.  They will probably first want new readings taken a week apart so they can do some calculations.

One way or another she's probably going to need an engineer to come and test the meter.  

The only risk with that is if it turns out that the meter is actually working fine, I think she may be expected to pay a fee. 

jbuchanangb

To get a grip on this you need to get hold of her bills, particularly one from a year ago and one recently.

You need to see what meter readings were used on the bill a year ago, and what on the recent one. You need to see what daily rate, and what unit rate is being charged for each meter. You also need to read each of the meters now so as you know what the actual readings are.

Look on the bill from a year ago to see whether there was a credit or debit balance. Calculate the amount she should have been charged for the period by multiplying the number of days between the bills by the daily rate. With more than one meter there may be more than one standing charge. For each of the three meters calculate the cost of the units. Remember to add the VAT if necessary. Find out from the customer what she has actually paid from her bank account, during that period. If you have all the bills from the oldest to the newest, the payments recorded there should match the bank payments. Now by adding together the daily charges, and the unit charges from each meter, adjusting for the debit/credit balance on the earliest bill, you will know whether the customer owes money to the energy supplier or the other way round.

phillw

Daveamajor said:

This also doesn't account for the 1st and 2nd meters ticking over at a rate of £70 per month even though the heating isn't on in any room. 

So I guess my question is what's the next step?

An energy monitor can tell you what you are using at the exact minute, you used to be able to get them free from various places.

Then you turn off everything and see what energy is being used. If electricity is still being used then I assume there is a consumer unit or something that can be turned off and see if that stops it, if you can turn off individual circuits then that can help track things down.

If there is literally no energy being used and the meter is still counting up then there is a fault.

Or maybe you'll find where the 3 bar heater is being plugged in when searching for things to turn off.

My guess would be 24 hour a day immersion heater

In my experience parents/grand parents won't always tell you the truth as much as you would like.

Daveamajor

AcerBen said:

Raise a complaint with Bulb, which will firstly ensure that they look into the query properly rather than fob her off.  They will probably first want new readings taken a week apart so they can do some calculations.

One way or another she's probably going to need an engineer to come and test the meter.  

The only risk with that is if it turns out that the meter is actually working fine, I think she may be expected to pay a fee. 

Thanks. I'll raise an official

 complaint then.

jbuchanangb said:

To get a grip on this you need to get hold of her bills, particularly one from a year ago and one recently.

You need to see what meter readings were used on the bill a year ago, and what on the recent one. You need to see what daily rate, and what unit rate is being charged for each meter. You also need to read each of the meters now so as you know what the actual readings are.

Look on the bill from a year ago to see whether there was a credit or debit balance. Calculate the amount she should have been charged for the period by multiplying the number of days between the bills by the daily rate. With more than one meter there may be more than one standing charge. For each of the three meters calculate the cost of the units. Remember to add the VAT if necessary. Find out from the customer what she has actually paid from her bank account, during that period. If you have all the bills from the oldest to the newest, the payments recorded there should match the bank payments. Now by adding together the daily charges, and the unit charges from each meter, adjusting for the debit/credit balance on the earliest bill, you will know whether the customer owes money to the energy supplier or the other way round.

Already done all that. That is how I have arrived at all the calculations and averages. 

It's also how I know the supposed heating meters are racking up £70 per month when not on. 

phillw said:

Daveamajor said:

This also doesn't account for the 1st and 2nd meters ticking over at a rate of £70 per month even though the heating isn't on in any room. 

So I guess my question is what's the next step?

An energy monitor can tell you what you are using at the exact minute, you used to be able to get them free from various places.

Then you turn off everything and see what energy is being used. If electricity is still being used then I assume there is a consumer unit or something that can be turned off and see if that stops it, if you can turn off individual circuits then that can help track things down.

If there is literally no energy being used and the meter is still counting up then there is a fault.

Or maybe you'll find where the 3 bar heater is being plugged in when searching for things to turn off.

My guess would be 24 hour a day immersion heater

In my experience parents/grand parents won't always tell you the truth as much as you would like.

The other alternative is that something is on but we have visited the house recently and I haven;t noticed anything that would cause this amount over such a long period of time.

Xbigman

If there really are 2 meters for the heating that are registering usage when off you should try turning that supply off at the meter for a few days and see what happens. I'd also consider physically disconnecting the storage heaters wiring from the mains and/or pulling the fuses from the fuse board. As its a flat you have to wonder if its been wired up wrong and she's paying for someone else's electric bill or maybe the bill for the communal areas. Disconnecting at the mains or fuse board should sort that out as a neighbour might suddenly find they're heating doesn't work or the communal lights don't work. Sorting out exactly which meter is powering what could well provide the explanation you are seeking.

Darren