Always check the meter reading used for final bills with a company that's gone bust !!!

JudgeDekker

In the normal run of switching energy supplier, you give a meter reading to the new supplier, they pass it on to the old supplier, and hence the same number is used as the last reading for the old supplier and the first reading for the new supplier, ensuring continuity and hence billing consistency. However, I don't think this process works properly when the change happens because the old supplier has gone bust. I have had three energy companies go bust underneath me (Yorkshire, Symbio and PFP). In the case of the first two, I provided a meter reading to the SoLR, which they used as the opening reading, but the administrators for both Yorkshire and Symbio chose to invent a their own (much higher) meter readings, meaning that my final bills were higher in both cases. For Yorkshire, it was £200 higher than it should have been. I am still waiting for the final bill from the administrators of PFP, but I'm guessing it's going to be the same there.

Now, this could be caused just because the admin from a company going out of business is bound to be a bit chaotic, but I suspect it's deliberate. I think that under bankruptcy law the administrators are allowed to just make up their own meter readings because the normal ombudsman-enforced rules of customer protect don't apply, and they take full advantage. Therefore I strongly encourage everyone to pay careful attention to their final bills, and to protest when it isn't right. I fear otherwise there will be a mass rip-off of millions of people in this 2021 bankruptcy wave. Good luck, everyone.

jimjames

If Symbio take a higher reading then it could be beneficial as their rate is so much lower than the one you'll be on next

Armengar

i am happy for my final readings to be higher than the ones I took.  Those will be a lower rate than the cap and taken from my credit.

Descrabled

I can raise your bid in spades, having managed to endure five electrical supply bankruptcies. Yorkshire was definitely the best of all for customer service.

All except one of the changeovers between the bankrupt company and the SoLR were faultless with meter readings that agreed.

The exception was Iresa and it was nearly 12 months to agree their final bill. Their accounts were a complete mess.

All my gas supply companies have managed to avoid going belly-up so far.

I do always send my meter readings every month without fail.

JudgeDekker

jimjames said:

If Symbio take a higher reading then it could be beneficial as their rate is so much lower than the one you'll be on next

The point is that you need to be sure that the final meter reading from the old supplier is the same as the initial reading for the new supplier. For me, twice, it wasn't. 

phillw

JudgeDekker said:
The point is that you need to be sure that the final meter reading from the old supplier is the same as the initial reading for the new supplier. For me, twice, it wasn't. 

You should check that even when the company doesn't go bust.

Although I'm sure more problems happen when so many accounts are closed in one go.

wild666

JudgeDekker said:

In the normal run of switching energy supplier, you give a meter reading to the new supplier, they pass it on to the old supplier, and hence the same number is used as the last reading for the old supplier and the first reading for the new supplier, ensuring continuity and hence billing consistency. However, I don't think this process works properly when the change happens because the old supplier has gone bust. I have had three energy companies go bust underneath me (Yorkshire, Symbio and PFP). In the case of the first two, I provided a meter reading to the SoLR, which they used as the opening reading, but the administrators for both Yorkshire and Symbio chose to invent a their own (much higher) meter readings, meaning that my final bills were higher in both cases. For Yorkshire, it was £200 higher than it should have been. I am still waiting for the final bill from the administrators of PFP, but I'm guessing it's going to be the same there.

Now, this could be caused just because the admin from a company going out of business is bound to be a bit chaotic, but I suspect it's deliberate. I think that under bankruptcy law the administrators are allowed to just make up their own meter readings because the normal ombudsman-enforced rules of customer protect don't apply, and they take full advantage. Therefore I strongly encourage everyone to pay careful attention to their final bills, and to protest when it isn't right. I fear otherwise there will be a mass rip-off of millions of people in this 2021 bankruptcy wave. Good luck, everyone.

If I am changing suppliers for any reason I take a final reading as close to midnight on the last day I am with the company, this would mean that either the readings are absolutely correct or no more than one kWh out for electric and no more than one unit out for gas, 11.4 kWh. This would mean the bill is no more than one pound out if paying 6p for gas and 24.5p for electric. 
If you take a photo of the readings then even an independent company will have trouble saying the readings are not accurate. 
I did this with two companies I left after the BG estimates, done from a smart meter, were way out when I left them for OFTM in Jan 2018, how they could screw up a smart meter reading is beyond me but they tried.