Do you have to pay inaccurate bill?

artyboy

Mark_d said:

johnweir123 said:

Given the bill is so inaccurate I have to ask the question whether or not they can force you to pay it... send around the leg breakers, etc.   Can they?  Or do they have some sort of duty / obligation to make it mostly correct? 

If you don't pay the bill, this will be recorded on your credit report.  The supplier can prevent you from switching supplier and would have a good cause to have a pre-payment meter fitted.  The debt may be passed to a debt collection agency.

My advice would be to pay the bill but continue to challenge the correctness of the bill.

We don't know who the supplier is - and not all of them report to the CRAs... so you can't be sure that this will have any impact on the OPs credit file (bar it reaching the point where a CCJ is a realistic prospect)

Spoonie_Turtle

For those more knowledgeable than I - would OP be able to request that they (re)try pulling the data from the smart meter since it keeps 13 months' worth?

matelodave

I've got the Bright app and can still suck 30 minute data right back to Tuesday 10th November 2020 which makes it quite easy to check back.

I also read and record my meter readings every Monday morning (even though I do have a smart meter) and most importantly, read the meter and check the bills every month especially when there's a tariff change.

It made it so much easier to sort out the potential muddles when five of my previous suppliers went bust and it makes it easy to sort out any billing problems.

Chrysalis

My approach is keep to the legal obligation (pay, probably not much of a hit if on fixed DD), but also dispute it, make it clear you paying under duress.

The supplier might be prepared to suspend the bill whilst it is under investigation.

danco

I would be tempted to show willing and pay a significant portion of the bill. Dispute as others have said, and indicate that their bills are inaccurate and that you are paying your estimate of the amount due.

MeteredOut

danco said:

I would be tempted to show willing and pay a significant portion of the bill. Dispute as others have said, and indicate that their bills are inaccurate and that you are paying your estimate of the amount due.

This is what I would do - work out what I think the bill should be, and pay that, giving them the evidence in a complaint.

OP, if you can share actual dates, the readings you do have, and the tariff(s) you are/were on, then people here will be able to help with that.

How far out is the bill/usage compared to your expectations? Are you contesting the usage they are claiming, or just how that usage has been applied to the time you have owned the property?