Backbilling : Pre-existing payment plan from before legislation was changed. Grounds for complaint?

jjoleary1388

Hi Guys my nephew is on an existing payment plan from a heavily backbilled energy account from 2011, They will be paying until 2027 I believe. The backbill was first issued in 2013 and has been on a payment plan ever since. Are bills like this considered to be part of the legislation changed in (I think) 2016 : The bill was possibly 2/3 years overdue and he had rang several times to try and pay. Is he eligible to get this bill cancelled partially cancelled (the second/third years debt)?

Any Help would be great 

Thanks guys 

MWT

Without going into any details of how they got into that position, the straight answer is no, the change in the rules was not retrospective.

However before the rules were introduced formally, the principles were set out in 2007 and a number of suppliers willingly incorporated them into their own code of practice, so which supplier is this and very briefly how did he get into the back-billing situation?

Curiousgirl1

If a payment plan had been set up over 14 years, it’s either for a huge amount or he is paying back a very small amount each month. How much was it for & how much is he paying per month? 

Cardew

As indicated above, the back-billing provision was a part of a voluntary code of practice by the Energy companies. It only applied if the company was at fault in not raising a bill; and even then not all a bill was written off.

From what you have stated it seems that it is a case of your nephew owing the company money and he has agreed to a payment plan.

jjoleary1388

Hi guys sorry for delayed response, 

The bill is from 2013, and the payment plan was set up for such an extensive period because I believe they knew they had broke the rules in hindsight. 

I did see that the rules actually came in, in 2007 so it should be well within the period. When he moved in there was a gas leak so they changed the meter and did no consolidate the actual readings from 2012 to 2014 at some point 

They actually did bill him but they refused to accept a meter reading for the entire period and then his bills when they finally did accept the reading the bill was massively increased, They then accepted an instalment, Then when he moved a CS rep offered to put his last bill on his PP and he accepted... only for them to chase him for it after. 

The Collection department literally said this to him after listening back to the original call "we said we COULD add it to your bill, - yeh we COULD but I am not going to" I think that rep got fired over it tbh he made a complaint and they was super apologetic over it so they basically just allowed the PP to run from 2013 until 2026

Im trying to get all the info together now but I think they may have to let him go here for the remaining balance, looks like they will have added a substantial amount to the bill that is not in the billable period 

any feedback on the above message would be awesome 

Thanks for all the help guys greatly appreciated 

jjoleary1388

also he is only paying back £10 per month, thanks for asking 

jjoleary1388

Also the company is EDF sorry for not including this in original message