Ofgem faulty meter back billing rules

mojo29_2

Earlier this year (late spring and summer) my gas smartmeter stopped working. It did not just turn into a "dumb meter" but completely stopped working. After it was replaced, I was issued with a bill for which my usage was estimated for a period of almost 2 and a half months, across three billing periods.

Thinking the bill was a little high, I challenged this and they said it is correct, and in line with Ofgem rules on back billing.

Does anyone know where I can obtain a copy of said rules? There is lots online about the 12 month rule, as well as the £40 compensation due for the meter being offline for over 90 days, neither of which apply for me. l cannot find the rules online about estimating despite searching. I want to challenge them further, as having done the maths, for the period I was offline, the cubic meters they have estimated I have used are between 50% and double the number of cubic meters I used over those three billing periods last year.

(I would estimate the actual usage to be less, as for one month, I didn't have a bathroom in my house as it was being refitted, so my hot water usage would have been negligible, and of course I didn't have the heating on during those months, but that is supposition).

t0rt0ise

Your case is nothing to do with back billing. Raise a complaint and explain to them why their estimate is wrong. If no joy take it to the ombudsman.

Neil_Jones

mojo29_2 said:

Earlier this year (late spring and summer) my gas smartmeter stopped working. It did not just turn into a "dumb meter" but completely stopped working. After it was replaced, I was issued with a bill for which my usage was estimated for a period of almost 2 and a half months, across three billing periods.

Thinking the bill was a little high, I challenged this and they said it is correct, and in line with Ofgem rules on back billing.

Does anyone know where I can obtain a copy of said rules? There is lots online about the 12 month rule, as well as the £40 compensation due for the meter being offline for over 90 days, neither of which apply for me. l cannot find the rules online about estimating despite searching. I want to challenge them further, as having done the maths, for the period I was offline, the cubic meters they have estimated I have used are between 50% and double the number of cubic meters I used over those three billing periods last year.

(I would estimate the actual usage to be less, as for one month, I didn't have a bathroom in my house as it was being refitted, so my hot water usage would have been negligible, and of course I didn't have the heating on during those months, but that is supposition).

This is not a back billing issue.

Back billing only applies (for the most part) when you chuck a load of meter readings at the supplier (either yourself or via smart meter) and said supplier does nothing with them for months on end (or screws up the charging of the usage) and then suddenly notices.

If your meter fails and isn't registering how exactly do you intend your supplier to account for what you've used?  It will have to be estimated.  They'll have a rough idea of what the property uses in the period of the year when the meter was dead.

I think your "90 day rule" is this, which doesn't start until next year at the earliest:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2025/08/fixing-broken-smart-meters/

mojo29_2

Neil_Jones said:

mojo29_2 said:

Earlier this year (late spring and summer) my gas smartmeter stopped working. It did not just turn into a "dumb meter" but completely stopped working. After it was replaced, I was issued with a bill for which my usage was estimated for a period of almost 2 and a half months, across three billing periods.

Thinking the bill was a little high, I challenged this and they said it is correct, and in line with Ofgem rules on back billing.

Does anyone know where I can obtain a copy of said rules? There is lots online about the 12 month rule, as well as the £40 compensation due for the meter being offline for over 90 days, neither of which apply for me. l cannot find the rules online about estimating despite searching. I want to challenge them further, as having done the maths, for the period I was offline, the cubic meters they have estimated I have used are between 50% and double the number of cubic meters I used over those three billing periods last year.

(I would estimate the actual usage to be less, as for one month, I didn't have a bathroom in my house as it was being refitted, so my hot water usage would have been negligible, and of course I didn't have the heating on during those months, but that is supposition).

If your meter fails and isn't registering how exactly do you intend your supplier to account for what you've used?  It will have to be estimated.  They'll have a rough idea of what the property uses in the period of the year when the meter was dead.

That is the question I am asking; what / where can l find these Ofgem rules which determine what they are allowed to estimate my bills upon? lt seems unreasonable to charge me between 50 and 100% more than what l used over the same three billing periods last year. 

The company has described this as Ofgem back billing rules. 

QrizB

mojo29_2 said:

That is the question I am asking; what / where can l find these Ofgem rules which determine what they are allowed to estimate my bills upon?

You've not said who your supplier is, but here is para 2.3.1 of Octopus's standard terms and conditions:

[By agreeing to this Contract, you are agreeing that you will] provide us with meter readings at least every 90 days, or at our reasonable request, or allow us to take readings automatically through your Smart Meter so that we can provide you with an accurate bill. We will always try to ensure your next bill or statement takes account of any meter reading you give us, but if we don't have a valid meter reading, we may use an estimate instead;

My bold.

You will probably find a similar clause in your supplier's T&C.

mojo29_2 said:

lt seems unreasonable to charge me between 50 and 100% more than what l used over the same three billing periods last year.

How many kWh have they estimated you have used in the period?

How many kWh have you used in the same period in previous years?

mojo29_2 said:

The company has described this as Ofgem back billing rules. 

This is not back-billing and I don't know why your supplier has told you this.

squirrelpie

The answer is still the same I think. Raise a complaint and explain why you think their estimate is wrong a propose your own estimate. Then if they don't accept it, take it to the ombudsman.

mojo29_2

Sorry, I'm really struggling with the quote feature on this forum, despite being a seasoned forum user, I just cannot seem to work out how to edit the code to quote properly, but to answer QrizB, they have estimated I have used an average of 0.5 cubic meters per day for the period I was "offline."

To compare this over the three month period last year (I cannot get the exact dates obviously as it crosses three billing periods), but this is double my usage for month 1, 50% more for month 2, and 150% for month 3. lt's even 65% higher for the most recent billing period which is Oct - Nov.

l made contact with them again and even the agent agreed the estimate was preposterous, so they said they will look at rebilling me for the period. 

MeteredOut

mojo29_2 said:

Sorry, I'm really struggling with the quote feature on this forum, despite being a seasoned forum user, I just cannot seem to work out how to edit the code to quote properly, but to answer QrizB, they have estimated I have used an average of 0.5 cubic meters per day for the period I was "offline."

To compare this over the three month period last year (I cannot get the exact dates obviously as it crosses three billing periods), but this is double my usage for month 1, 50% more for month 2, and 150% for month 3. lt's even 65% higher for the most recent billing period which is Oct - Nov.

l made contact with them again and even the agent agreed the estimate was preposterous, so they said they will look at rebilling me for the period. 

Can you post the actual kWh usage for the periods in question, both their estimate for the period where your meter was not working, and the closest equivalent periods you have for the the previous year. Do you also have usage for years prior to that too?

QrizB

Half a cubic metre is about 6kWh, which doesn't sound inherently unreasonable for a day's gas - it's in the typical range for an occupied property with gas hot water but not using heating.

If you have evidence that your own usage is typically less than that, of course, you can use that to argue your case.

Chrysalis

I think you have already had good advice, I had a similar situation earlier in the year.

Send them polite but firm email's telling them what you think a reasonable estimated usage should be, backed with supporting evidence.
I would also do this in the form of a complaint so you have the two month clock ticking as well.

If they ignore, dispute or whatever and its not acceptable, then if they either dead lock or two months passes since start of complaint, raise it with the ombudsman with the evidence you have.

To try and answer your question on what the rules are? Honestly I dont know, but Octopus were trying to convince me its ok for them to bill based on the average of the most recent bills, not really taking seasonal adjustments in to account.  Since in my case the meter broke in spring, and the preceding bills were winter usage I got over billed and disputed it.

It can work the other way, someone told me on reddit, their meter broke end of summer, and they got estimated summer usage all the way through the winter, they then decided to not push for replacement meter to take advantage.