Final electricity bill disparity

KatieBW123

I had an electrical account with SSE and a small monthly DD of around £30. I left a property in August under very difficult circumstances and the property owner closed my account. SSE then took £1800 from my account for the final bill. I raised an indemnity with the bank and got the money back into my account. I submitted my actual final meter reading to SSE and looked into my account which I had always believed was inflated. I can see that the last actual meter reading was in Dec 20, so two years ago. It has been estimates since. There is a huge disparity between the actual final meter reading I have given and the final estimate. I got a bizarre email this am from SSE stating they would only accept a photograph of the reading, which I don’t have, it was simply noted. I just wondered what rights I have and I am especially concerned that SSE will reactivate my cancelled DD and extract the money again from my account and I thought giving me a chance to agree an amount and payment plan. Any pointers please? This has been a very difficult and overwhelming time. 

Brie

I doubt they can reactivate a DD particularly if you let your bank know that they aren't allowed to have any of your ££.  

Do you believe you actually owe them anything based on the reading that you provided??  I'm assuming their final estimate is significantly higher than what you contend is true.  

Do you have any kind of good relationship still with the property owner?  They will have opened an account, likely with SSE initially, so there should be proof there of their initial reading - assuming they took one.

[Deleted User]

Why didn’t you take a meter reading on the day that you moved out: information on what to do when moving home is clearly explained on most supplier websites.

If you can demonstrate that the supplier failed to obtain a meter reading from you in the previous 12 months from Aug 21 to Aug 22 then you can ask for the BackBilling Code to be applied. This would write off charges from December 20 to August 21. 

FWiW, I think that you will struggle to demonstrate that any readings were inflated now that you are no longer in the property.

KatieBW123

Brie said:

I doubt they can reactivate a DD particularly if you let your bank know that they aren't allowed to have any of your ££.  

Do you believe you actually owe them anything based on the reading that you provided??  I'm assuming their final estimate is significantly higher than what you contend is true.  

Do you have any kind of good relationship still with the property owner?  They will have opened an account, likely with SSE initially, so there should be proof there of their initial reading - assuming they took one.

I have an especially poor relationship with the landlord who is my ex brother in law and who forced my family out of the property. I believe I owe a much smaller amount to SSE. The new occupiers account I am obv not privy to the details in terms of starting metre reading but they only opened the account in November (whereas they have actually occupied since August, the day I left)

KatieBW123

[Deleted User] said:

Why didn’t you take a meter reading on the day that you moved out: information on what to do when moving home is clearly explained on most supplier websites.

If you can demonstrate that the supplier failed to obtain a meter reading from you in the previous 12 months from Aug 21 to Aug 22 then you can ask for the BackBilling Code to be applied. This would write off charges from December 20 to August 21. 

FWiW, I think that you will struggle to demonstrate that any readings were inflated now that you are no longer in the property.

We were being made homeless- I had a lot to deal with. I sent my brother to collect the meter reading the day after we left. 

[Deleted User]

KatieBW123 said:

Brie said:

I doubt they can reactivate a DD particularly if you let your bank know that they aren't allowed to have any of your ££.  

Do you believe you actually owe them anything based on the reading that you provided??  I'm assuming their final estimate is significantly higher than what you contend is true.  

Do you have any kind of good relationship still with the property owner?  They will have opened an account, likely with SSE initially, so there should be proof there of their initial reading - assuming they took one.

I have an especially poor relationship with the landlord who is my ex brother in law and who forced my family out of the property. I believe I owe a much smaller amount to SSE. The new occupiers account I am obv not privy to the details in terms of starting metre reading but they only opened the account in November (whereas they have actually occupied since August, the day I left)

This is a different legal problem. If the energy account was in your name, then the supplier has a legal right to look to you for payment until the account is taken over by A N Other. If people forget to tell the supplier that they are moving out, then suppliers will normally accept a legal document such as a tenancy agreement ending as proof that you ceased being responsible for the property on a certain date. The supplier will then bill to this date.

Îf you feel that you have been wronged, then it seems to me that your only option is to pay the supplier and then make a claim for repayment from your BiL.

rp1974

What was the issue preventing meter readings being supplied for the previous two years?.
All very well saying that now however,it would've either prevented exactly this billing disparity from occurring in the first place,or on the other hand been able to show SSE that their figures were bull.
Uncertain if it's still the case that you can raise a complaint with the Ombudsman in regard to SSE in 6 weeks rather than 8,although without much in the way of facts and figures it may not achieve much.

matelodave

It's pretty difficult for energy companies to guess what your consumption is especially if you dont' check bills regularly and send in reading son a regular basis. 

If you hadn't had a meter reading since 2020 , never sent one in yourself, all the bills were guesstimated and you didn't check or get them corrected then how can you possibly know whether what you used was less than what the energy company has decided.

I know it sounds tough but these things frequently come back to bite when something unexpected happens, by which time it's a bit late to try and sort it out because you don't have any records to use as evidence. At least a years worth of meter readings would have given the energy company a bit of a steer on your consumption but 18 months or more of guesses means that they really dont have any idea and so have to estimate.

Ii's even worse if you didn't close your account yourself and someone else did, then its more than possible that wrong final readings could have been given and without proof  - like a photograph and evidence of the date that it was taken, its not going to be ever so easy to disprove it.

Perhaps a chat with Citizen's Advice might help

TBH £30 a month was probably unfeasibly low even a year or so ago and the cost of leccy has been rising quite rapidly over the past 12-18 months.

Gerry1

KatieBW123 said:

I had an electrical account with SSE and a small monthly DD of around £30. I left a property in August under very difficult circumstances and the property owner closed my account.

KatieBW123 said:

I submitted my actual final meter reading to SSE and looked into my account which I had always believed was inflated. I can see that the last actual meter reading was in Dec 20, so two years ago. It has been estimates since. There is a huge disparity between the actual final meter reading I have given and the final estimate.

KatieBW123 said:

We were being made homeless- I had a lot to deal with. I sent my brother to collect the meter reading the day after we left.

KatieBW123 said:

The new occupiers account I am obv not privy to the details in terms of starting metre reading but they only opened the account in November (whereas they have actually occupied since August, the day I left)

It sounds like you may not have given notice to SSE and provided a final reading at the time you moved out, but only at some point after the event, and if so then SSE will have had you on their books until November.  At best the landlord and the new tenant will have provided an accurate meter reading for a date long after you'd left, so you'll be paying for three months' use by the new occupier.  At worst, they may have submitted an inflated reading, and this would benefit both parties at your expense.

You could ask SSE to send a meter reader to the property to make sure the present reading is not lower than the reading given in November by the landlord / new occupant (i.e. to ensure that it was not grossly inflated either accidentally or deliberately).

Unfortunately without hard evidence of the date that you moved out and the reading on that date, there probably isn't much you can do about it now; your only hope would be to ask for a 12-month payment plan and possibly try to get part of the usage written off if the Back Billing rules apply.

Sorry to sound pessimistic but SSE will have to rely on factual evidence and can't be expected to get involved in a domestic dispute.

EssexHebridean

Hi OP - is there anyone you know who does have a good relationship with the ex BOL/Landlord and who might be able to go and get the photo of the meter, perhaps? A lot will depend whether it's accessible I suspect. 

I hope your situation has improved somewhat now and that you get some resolution on this - have you given SSE some detail about the reason why you had to leave to explain why you weren't able to contact them sooner? Optimistic perhaps but I'd like to hope they would at least consider your side of things. Also - have you checked back on your phone to make sure you didn't take a photo of the meter at the time - perhaps as it would have been quicker than physically writing it down - that maybe you have now forgotten about in all the stress?

macman

Assuming you cancelled the DD after you had received the final bill. SSE cannot 'reactivate it'. It's your account, so only you can cancel or authorise it. All the recipient can do is to start and stop drawing on it, if it's left active.
What I don't understand is why you didn't contact SSE once you received the final bill, because they would not have taken the DD for maybe 14 days or more after the bill was generated? You would have seen the bill, either via your online account, or via a hard copy  being sent to your forwarding address?
What was the disparity between the 2 reads, how many kwh's? It's very unlikely that in 2 years you could build an over-estimate of £1,800: that would be about 5,142 kWh at current prices, 
Why were there no meter reads submitted in 20 months?