Backdated electricity charges on Meadfleet bil

dizzyblonde1961

The estate I live on is levied a twice yearly charge including maintenance costs, overhead costs (which include things like emails, phone calls, admin and staff) and a management fee which is 15% of the combined costs of the above. 

The current bill has suddenly raised charges billed to them by Scottish Power back to 2014 when the estate was bill, with Scottish Power saying that it had been unsuccessfully billed. Each bill has always included a charge for electricity anyway, so we had no idea that something else was not being billed. 

Ofgem say that domestic customers are not liable for unbilled charges over 12 months old but I am not sure that this can be applied in this case, as the interim bill goes to Meadfleet and is then passed on. 

Can anyone please advise?

MyRealNameToo

dizzyblonde1961 said:

The estate I live on is levied a twice yearly charge including maintenance costs, overhead costs (which include things like emails, phone calls, admin and staff) and a management fee which is 15% of the combined costs of the above. 

The current bill has suddenly raised charges billed to them by Scottish Power back to 2014 when the estate was bill, with Scottish Power saying that it had been unsuccessfully billed. Each bill has always included a charge for electricity anyway, so we had no idea that something else was not being billed. 

Ofgem say that domestic customers are not liable for unbilled charges over 12 months old but I am not sure that this can be applied in this case, as the interim bill goes to Meadfleet and is then passed on. 

Can anyone please advise?

They will have a commercial arrangement not a domestic so the 12 month rule doesnt apply to the bill for the estate management. You are reimbursing expenses of an estate not directly being billed for electricity so it doesnt apply to you either. 

So this is an unpaid bill from 2014 or a mistake on a bill from 2014? Even if the domestic rules dont apply the law of limitations still does however they may want to settle the bill anyway as refusing a bill as statute barred doesnt tend to result in a good ongoing relationship. 

dizzyblonde1961

@MyRealNameToo Thank you for your reply. All it says is "Due to a billing problem with Sscottish Pwer, Account number XYZ was not successfully billed. Unfortunately therefore, this has resulted in a number of invoives now being due for payment from previous periods'

MyRealNameToo

dizzyblonde1961 said:

@MyRealNameToo Thank you for your reply. All it says is "Due to a billing problem with Sscottish Pwer, Account number XYZ was not successfully billed. Unfortunately therefore, this has resulted in a number of invoives now being due for payment from previous periods'

Have you looked at the accounts provided to you in that period? Were the electricity bills unusually low? 

We were fortunate to have the opposite problem, shortly after buying a leasehold flat there was a massive refund from the water company which paid half our service charge for the year. 

Given its over 6 years there may be an argument of them contesting it as statute barred but they may not want to as there could be other repercussions. 

dizzyblonde1961

@MyRealNameToo Every account shows Scottish Power electricity charges apportioned per house, so no true invoice is ever seen. We therefore had no reason to suspect that anything was missing. The ones that are shown are for FP3 and FP5 apparently. I have no idea what this other area is for?