Electric meter blank display for over 10 years

plod23

Hi , Im with Eon for the supply of electricity to a property I rent out as two flats . I pay for the electricity. But the meter went faulty somewhere around 2012 and the display is blank and has remained so . I requested a new meter , but they came out to swap it but couldn't , no explanation . This happened several times , but Eon was so difficult to talk to and make them understand that this has gone on until today where the power distributor has been out and changed the company fuse so a new meter can be fit .  The problem now is that they have been estimating my bill and in the last year have added loads onto the estimated readings and got the bill up to £35,155 , but through the period I have been paying direct debit each month . Does anyone know how to get this sorted out payment wise as I have had to cancel the direct debit as they were about to take £4000 in one go and the same each month 

Swipe

Your mistake was not cancelling your direct debit. Then you could then have invoked the back billing rule of paying for no more than the last 12 months of usage as you made an effort to alert them of the problem. This is assuming they didn't bill you during the last ten years.

MeteredOut

First thing is to try work out roughly what you should have been paying - people here can help you do that. What size property do you have and what sort of electric usage do you have (eg, electric heating, cooking, EV etc).

How much DD were you paying during those 10 years, and, can you share what Eon have now billed you, in kWh for each of those 10 years?

Do you have a record of when you notified Eon of the issue and were asking them to resolve it? Ultimately, you are responsible for electricity used, but there is some protection from usage > 12 months ago, in certain circumstances (search for back billing rules).

cannugec5

Do back billing rules apply for a commercial let? I note the  OP is the owner/landlord and yet paying the utility bills. 

Does he/she have the same protections as a domestic customer? 

MeteredOut

cannugec5 said:

Do back billing rules apply for a commercial let? I note the  OP is the owner/landlord and yet paying the utility bills. 

Does he/she have the same protections as a domestic customer? 

Back billing rules are for consumer tariffs. The OP does not say whether they are on a consumer or a business tariff; it sounds like an HMO (1 meter, 2 flats), but if it was a house converted into 2 flats, its feasible the supplier was not notified and it's still on a consumer tariff. Whether that would then negate back billing rules is the question.

plod23

HI , thanks for comments , it is a consumer situation , its 2 freehold flats after a house was converted 20 years ago . I will look up back billing rules 

Gerry1

When this has been resolved it might be a good idea to arrange for each flat to have its own meter and for the tenants to pay their suppliers directly.

Sailbad

MeteredOut said:

cannugec5 said:

Do back billing rules apply for a commercial let? I note the  OP is the owner/landlord and yet paying the utility bills. 

Does he/she have the same protections as a domestic customer? 

Back billing rules are for consumer tariffs. The OP does not say whether they are on a consumer or a business tariff; it sounds like an HMO (1 meter, 2 flats), but if it was a house converted into 2 flats, its feasible the supplier was not notified and it's still on a consumer tariff. Whether that would then negate back billing rules is the question.

Just for information, back billing rules also apply to micro businesses.
From Ofgem's website....

"The rules apply to household and Micro Business energy customers."

and

"Your business is classed as a 'microbusiness' if it either:

• has fewer than 10 employees (or their full-time equivalent) and the yearly turnover, or yearly balance sheet, is not more than €2 million.
• uses less than 100,000 kWh of electricity a year
• uses less than 293,000 kWh of gas a year"