Utilita Historical Billing Error

Rev_Rhubar

Last year, Utilita decided to sell many of their accounts to EDF. This included my Mum's. On the first EDF bill, we spotted that her Utilita remaining credit had not been transferred in full. Initially they refused to explain why, but after many emails, phone calls and a letter of complaint, they finally admitted that they had made a billing error in April 2022. They seemed to have only discovered it in Nov 2025 during the transfer to EDF.

I was wondering, do you think this falls under Ofgem's "back-billing" rule? They missed the 1 year deadline for reporting the error, however on Ofgem's website, the examples seem to be more about incorrect meter readings rather than accounting errors.

They indicate that other customers were affected by this (see attachment). I guess Utilita didn't bother telling them about the error either, and I wonder how many didn't notice that their balance had been silently reduced.

MWT

This isn't something that back-billing would cover, there has been no error in the amount billed, just an incorrect balance figure, I'm a little surprised that your mother didn't wonder where all that money had come from at the time…?

Sadly she is not entitled to keep the money from an error like that and the £40 gesture does not seem unreasonable.

Rev_Rhubar

Hi, thanks for the back-billing explanation.

I'm a little surprised that your mother didn't wonder where all that money had come from at the time

I don't think its unusual for folk to not closely monitor their utility bills. Also, my mum has not kept the original bills from 2022 and Utilita say they can't reproduce them so we have no way of checking these figures.

Ectophile

The back billing rule only applies when a utility company is asking you for more money than you have already paid. In this case, they already have the money from your mum.

Woodstok2000

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82073371#Comment_82073371

That's wrong. Energy firms cannot use credit balances as a way to get around the back billing rules. Read this thread, and I particular the linked statements from Ofgem and their CEO:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6654634/back-billing-but-in-credit-so-energy-ombudsman-found-in-favour-of-supplier/p10

QrizB

The back billing rule only applies when a utility company is asking you for more money than you have already paid. In this case, they already have the money from your mum.

Nevertheless, this thread isn't about back-billing and the account credit under discussion never existed.