Billed for electric for previous address

JayG81

Hi, I was wondering if anyone would be able to advise. I moved out of my flat at the end of November 2020 to move in with parents to help me save for a mortgage on my first house. I lived in this flat for about 2 years  and for most of that time until the last 2 months my electric was provided by Spark. About 2 months before I move out that automatically transferred over to SSE due to Spark going into administration or whatever happened to them. 

During my 2 years at the flat, I was always in credit and always gave monthly meter readings. I remember when it moved over to SSE there were issues getting my credit transferred over but they did it in in the end. I ended up getting the credit refunded to me. I ended up with final bill of about £2 after I moved which I paid. All done. Or so I thought. My final meter reading was given on the day I moved and my tenancy ended.

On Friday afternoon, 14 months after I moved out of the address, I have been billed by SSE for nearly £350.  The bill doesn’t state details of usage or reasons or rates etc etc. it does however have 3 separate lines stating ‘revised spark final bill of 0 amount for balances to final bill <date>’, then the amount they are now charging. For Each date stated for final bill there was no final bill on those dates (all in 2021). My final bill was in December 2020 for the £2. This is reflected on my online account. No bill in between December 2020 and Friday’s  one. 

I phoned SSE and the first person I spoke to said that she cannot help me and I need to speak to spark as sse don’t have my figures as I was with spark before they passed my account over. I said “but you’re the ones billing me”, she said but we don’t have the figures so you need to sort it with them and they will transfer the correct info over. I said “but you’re the ones billing me”.. we went round in circles. In the end she transferred my call to spark. I got an automated message from spark saying the number is no longer in use, and if my account has  been transferred to SSE then I need to call them. Amazing.

So I phoned SSE again and the person I spoke to this time said it would need to be looked at by someone at SSE who deals with spark migration. This made more sense. He said they are not in today so i should phone back Monday. So annoying. 

Whatever has happened, it looks like it’s regarding the migration from spark to SSE.  However, the balance (credit) transferred from spark to SSE is what it should have been. 

I did mention to the person at SSE about the 12 month backbilling rule, but he said this would not apply as this is a correction of the final bill I was sent December 2020.  I’m honestly not sure if he is right or not about this and it would not apply to me?

Anyway, I phoned back again to check that my complaint was classed as active and not resolved. It was not. So I made sure they opened my complaint as active.  This time the person I spoke to was more helpful and said he would contact the migration team and find out what this new balance is for and the dates etc. he said he would get back to me either today or Tuesday. 

Under normal circumstances I would take this as far as I can. I’m shocked by what has happened. The problem I have is that I am now house hunting and the last thing I need is this to affect my credit rating even though I believe they have made an error. But on the flip side I don’t want to pay to avoid bad credit rating because what’s to stop them randomly billing me again for more in the future??

Any advice would be great. 

Many thanks.

MWT

JayG81 said:

I did mention to the person at SSE about the 12 month backbilling rule, but he said this would not apply as this is a correction of the final bill I was sent December 2020.  I’m honestly not sure if he is right or not about this and it would not apply to me?

That part at least is correct, the final bill can be corrected later, and is not automatically covered by back-billing just because it is changing,, but if they are trying to add in consumption not previously billed then that would be different.

BobT36

Make sure you're paying for the period you were AT the property, and not after you left.
Often, landlords (or new tenants) don't take the energy supply back on, leaving the previous tenant to pay the bill in-between.