I've just received a 'Final Bill' from OVO

alicef

covering 9th September 2018 to 23rd Feb. 2019 - so about 5 years after the account was closed.

I suppose I should be thankful the final balance was zero.

Anyone know why OVO is re-issuing bills?   

Netexporter

No idea, although I recently had a bill for for 1kWh from Eon Next, who I was with for a couple of months about two years ago, which they wrote off. So it probably cost them about £.40 to write off 34p.

I can only surmise that Ofgem have issued an edict to suppliers to clean up any discrepancies in their accounts.

mexican_dave

Utility companies can't bill you for energy costs more than one year in arrears! Refer to  https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/problems-with-your-energy-bill/you-havent-received-a-gas-or-electricity-bill-in-a-while/#:~:text=Under back billing rules, your,supplier can still charge you.

GingerTim

mexican_dave said:

Utility companies can't bill you for energy costs more than one year in arrears! Refer to  https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/problems-with-your-energy-bill/you-havent-received-a-gas-or-electricity-bill-in-a-while/#:~:text=Under back billing rules, your,supplier can still charge you.

Unfortunately it's not quite that simple...

If you haven’t received an accurate gas or electricity bill for over a year, you might not have to pay for all the energy you’ve used.

Under back billing rules, your supplier cannot usually send you a bill for energy you used more than 12 months ago. The back billing rules don’t apply if the supplier sent you a bill before the year passed and you didn’t pay. In this case, the supplier can still charge you.

alicef

I must confess to being quite confused by what is and isn't a final bill from a utility company.  Is there a decision tree diagram available that one can follow.  

To the best of my knowledge I have always settled the Final Bill.

How much time can a utility provider have to revise a 'Final Bill' if they have issued one and I have paid it?
  

QrizB

As the closing balance on your new final bill is zero, it's possible this is just an administrative housekeeping exercise.

alicef said:

How much time can a utility provider have to revise a 'Final Bill' if they have issued one and I have paid it? 

They can revise bills indefinitely.

What they can't do (under Ofgem rules, with some exemptions) is ask for new money for energy supplies more than a year ago, or (under the laws of England and Wales) enforce payment for bills that are more than six years old.

alicef

@QrizB, so BGas closed my account on a reading lower than the Octopus opening - not much difference 30-40 units - and issued a Final Bill.  Does this mean that after 1 year from the date of that bill they cannot ask me to pay for those units?

QrizB

alicef said:

... so BGas closed my account on a reading lower than the Octopus opening - not much difference 30-40 units - and issued a Final Bill.  Does this mean that after 1 year from the date of that bill they cannot ask me to pay for those units?

My understanding is that yes, so long as BG hold a supply licence they're not allowed to bill you for those units - unless your final bill was in credit and you received a refund, in which case they can ask for it back.

There might be other edge cases but that's the basics.