Caravan Utilities backdated increase

A_Frayed_Knot

Hi, not sure if correct thread, please someone put me right.

Have a static caravan, and pay bills as they come in, however in Sept, we received a letter stating, it had come to their conclusion they would need to raise the electricity unit from .16p to .30p then again to .36p per unit., and we would receive our updated bill in 7-10 days time. 

However they informed us in Sept that they would backdate it to January !!  

My question is -  Can they do this ???

QrizB

A_Frayed_Knot said:

My question is -  Can they do this ???

What does your contract say?

The caravan site can't make a profit on reselling electricity to you.

They can however charge you what they've had to pay to supply it to you.

Gerry1

A_Frayed_Knot said:

they would need to raise the electricity unit from .16p to .30p then again to .36p per unit., and we would receive our updated bill in 7-10 days time.

I'd be ecstatic if my supplier backdated my electricity bills to January and charged me less than a penny per unit !

A_Frayed_Knot

QrizB said:

A_Frayed_Knot said:

My question is -  Can they do this ???

What does your contract say?

The caravan site can't make a profit on reselling electricity to you.

They can however charge you what they've had to pay to supply it to you.

As far as I know, they actually generate their own electricity - they also charge for reading our meter - 2 charges 1 for gas and 1 for electricity.  Need to look out the contract, though I'm sure doesn't mention utilities.

A_Frayed_Knot

Gerry1 said:

A_Frayed_Knot said:

they would need to raise the electricity unit from .16p to .30p then again to .36p per unit., and we would receive our updated bill in 7-10 days time.

I'd be ecstatic if my supplier backdated my electricity bills to January and charged me less than a penny per unit !

16 pence to 30 pence = 14 pence per unit, and then from May charging an extra 20 pence per unit making the overcharge more than the original already paid bill.  In effect getting more than a years bill with 8 days to pay.

Keep_pedalling

Often the rates that the site owner pays are commercial rates rather than domestic rates and 16p is way below commercial rates, even 36p is cheep for commercial rates. This is complicated if they are also generations their own electricity. How are they doing this, wind turbine, solar or hydro electric? 

Qyburn

A_Frayed_Knot said:

Gerry1 said:

A_Frayed_Knot said:

they would need to raise the electricity unit from .16p to .30p then again to .36p per unit., and we would receive our updated bill in 7-10 days time.

I'd be ecstatic if my supplier backdated my electricity bills to January and charged me less than a penny per unit !

16 pence to 30 pence = 14 pence per unit, and then from May charging an extra 20 pence per unit making the overcharge more than the original already paid bill.  In effect getting more than a years bill with 8 days to pay.

I think everyone except Gerry realised that you meant 16 pence, 30 pence etc.

MattMattMattUK

Keep_pedalling said:

Often the rates that the site owner pays are commercial rates rather than domestic rates and 16p is way below commercial rates, even 36p is cheep for commercial rates. This is complicated if they are also generations their own electricity. How are they doing this, wind turbine, solar or hydro electric? 

My understanding is that where they both buy in and self generate they can sell at either their buy in rate or their export rate, depending on how their system is set up, but the choice is largely theirs based on how they choose to account for things.

A_Frayed_Knot

Keep_pedalling said:

Often the rates that the site owner pays are commercial rates rather than domestic rates and 16p is way below commercial rates, even 36p is cheep for commercial rates. This is complicated . . .

I would hope it doesn't take 9 months to realise (Oh,we need some money - let's just tell them we are backdating everyones electricity bill from Jan) and double their bill for the year.   Just rather annoyed the way they have done it - first saying, oh, we decided to backdate your charges to Jan and telling us this in Sept, then saying new bill will arrive in 7-10 days - then get a bill 7 days late after the bill date (by email) hence giving you 7 days to pay, at this time of year as well.

surely they can't do that ? -  I can just imagine if a electricity company decided to do that to all their home customers.

cannugec5

A_Frayed_Knot said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Often the rates that the site owner pays are commercial rates rather than domestic rates and 16p is way below commercial rates, even 36p is cheep for commercial rates. This is complicated . . .

I would hope it doesn't take 9 months to realise (Oh,we need some money - let's just tell them we are backdating everyones electricity bill from Jan) and double their bill for the year.   Just rather annoyed the way they have done it - first saying, oh, we decided to backdate your charges to Jan and telling us this in Sept, then saying new bill will arrive in 7-10 days - then get a bill 7 days late after the bill date (by email) hence giving you 7 days to pay, at this time of year as well.

surely they can't do that ? -  I can just imagine if a electricity company decided to do that to all their home customers.

So they warned you in September of the new bill, but you didn’t receive it until now? Is that correct? In which case you’ve had 3 months to prepare as you already knew the new corrected rate. Of course you didn’t know the exact amount but you must have had a pretty good idea. I presume you have been putting money aside ready to pay. 

I agree that sending out a bill after the date to be paid is unacceptable. I would expect them to allow an extra 7 days to make up for their error if their normal terms are 7 days. 

I just don’t think ‘this time of year’ has any relevance when they warned you three months prior.