Unexpected bill from EDF

storeyboy10

Some context first...
I lived in a rented property from Sept 2006 - Sept 2007. It was a 5 bed house, with 5 people occupying it, most of the time not in the house during the day.
We went with EDF for the gas. We began paying 20 a month by direct debit, then put it up to 40, and finally put it up to 60 for the last 6 months. We then got a huge final bill for around £550, making the total paid over 12 months, just for gas, of £1361, which I thought was quite steep anyway!
I paid this final bill in October, based on a meter reading which I submitted to them.
End of story I thought, until the 2nd Jan this year, when I checked my bank account, and saw that £1100 had been taken from my account, without my knowledge, from EDF for gas!!!
I did not receive any bills or notification of this (they have my new address, as they sent the final bills there in October, and I did not receive anything!). I called them up right away, said they would investigate. They found out that my final bill was based on the reading I supplied, but then someone else (the estate agents when the new tenants moved in a few weeks later) submitted a reading, upon which a new final bill was issued for me!!!
Someone from cust services is investigating for me now - someone is taking readings daily in the house now, and contacting EDF with them - so EDF can confirm the meter is not faulty. The girl is also looking at all past readings, to find out what has gone wrong - it is impossible that we used £2300 worth of gas in 1 year! We didn't have any pools, saunas etc.! just a normal 5 bed house!
The landlord seems on my side - symphasising with the situation, and unable to provide any explanation for what has happened. To my knowledge, I was the only one to take a meter reading upon leaving the property - and EDF dont seem to keen on telling me what readings were submitted, when, and what the values were.


Does anyone have any advice? It would seem the logical explanation is an incorrect reading was provided after I left the house - but EDF have £1100 of my money, taken without my knowledge, and still with no explanation of why. Do I have any rights? What should I demand EDF to do? Should they give me my money back, as they cannot prove it was anything to do with me? Help!

Thanks in advance for any help given.
Chris.

Cardew

Obviously this all hinges on the accuracy of your meter reading on leaving and that of the new tenants when moving in.

If it had the old style gas meter(with dials reading alternately clockwise and anti-clockwise) they are very easy to read incorrectly.

I can't see that EDF can accept your reading and issue a final bill and then months later take more money without any explanation.(obviously in hindsight you should have cancelled your Direct Debit authority) Presumably the £550 bill you paid by cheque?

In fact under the Direct Debit guarantee they must notify you if they are to take money from your account(other than the Direct Debit) so I would contact your bank and get them to reclaim the £1,100. Unless you do this you are arguing from a position of weakness.

Meters are very unlikely to be faulty; so don't pin your hopes on that.

storeyboy10

My final bill in October was paid by Direct Debit.

I thought I had cancelled the DB with EDF - in fact, the electricity one was cancelled, but the gas one shows now as still active. Could EDF have reopened the DB without my knowledge?

I will go to my bank today and explain the situation, and find out where I stand in relation to the direct debit guarnatee.

Thanks for the advice. I am thinking that the meter readings supplied were wrong somewhere along the line - which I hope explains the problems :-)

siren13577

The thing is you notified EDF you were moving, provided a final meter reading and presumably paid the final bill. EDF should have requested new payment details from the new tenants and deducted any amount of money from their bank account not yours. You could send EDF a copy of your new tenancy agree if this is relevant but you should be able to claim the money back under the Direct Debit guarantee. Visit your bank in person and request the money back under the direct debit guarantee, don't be fobbed off, it is your right. It may take a week or so but the money should be placed back into your account. I would also consider writing a strongly worded letter of complaint to EDF, this is terrible customer service. Good luck

Cardew

storeyboy10 wrote: »

My final bill in October was paid by Direct Debit.

I thought I had cancelled the DB with EDF - in fact, the electricity one was cancelled, but the gas one shows now as still active. Could EDF have reopened the DB without my knowledge?

I will go to my bank today and explain the situation, and find out where I stand in relation to the direct debit guarnatee.

Thanks for the advice. I am thinking that the meter readings supplied were wrong somewhere along the line - which I hope explains the problems :-)

No they cannot re-open a DD without your authority.

It is possible that you did cancel and the bank simply made a mistake by paying £1,100(not that they would admit it!) but why would you cancel just electricity?

Don't let your Bank fob you off(as they possibly might try). If you instruct them to recover the £1,100 from EDF they have no option but to do so as the Direct Debit guarantee is between You and the Bank.

If you say you were not notified of the impending £1,100 payment that is the end of the matter as far as the bank is concerned - they must repay you; much as they do not like to invoke the DD guarantee procedure.

EDF will doubtless say they did notify you in writing(letter got lost in the Xmas post etc etc) However it is not up to the bank to adjudicate - you are their customer.

Let us know what develops.

storeyboy10

Well, I have been in contact with my bank, and they are pursuing the issue with EDF. EDF have since admitted that they sent the bill to the wrong address - should have been sent to an address in Liverpool, instead they posted it to the same road, but in London!

However, they are now saying that this is a "third party dispute" essentially between the estate agents who took the reading which effected my bill, and myself. I am going to the property tonight, with the permission of the current occupiers, to take a metre reading and let EDF know what it is - hopefully, it is very different to the reading supplied by the estate agents, showing where the error was, and all will be well and they can refund me.

I will let you know what happens. Either way, I am extremely annoyed at EDF for their inability to send a letter to the right address, and not spot this error in the first place!

storeyboy10

I have an update for everyone, I am really stuck and could do with any advice offered, thanks!

1) I have spoken to my bank, and they have raised a claim about the DB being taken without my knowledge.
2) I have since taken a metre reading from the property, and this is interestingly in line with the reading my landlord submitted. So - over the 12months I was there, the readings were in line - a mixture of my readings submitted, their own readings, and some estimated. Then, the day after I moved out, the reading my LL submitted was 4000 units higher than the one I submitted the day before - but since then, usage has been in line. So if you imagine the readings plotted on a graph (I have done this in Excel!) - it is a consistent line for 12 months - then a giant leap - then consistent again.
3) I spoke to the Energy Watchdog - they logged my claim, and put me through to the EDF high level complaints team - I spoke to a customer liason officer, who seemed quite good - and she is investigating everything, and calling me back sometime in the next day.

I see only 2 possibilities - either my landlord has fiddled with the meter (unlikely, it is a digital one), or the meter is faulty (more likely.)
What should I do next? Legally, does anyone know if I should involve a solicitor, citizens advice?
Many thanks.

Cardew

Well 4,000 units will be in the order of £1,100 which accounts for the additional bill.

Is it exactly 4,000 units?

I can't think what benefit your landlord would gain by fiddling the meter?

If the new tenants are paying from the landlord's new reading(i.e. the increased by 4,000 units reading) they are gaining nothing.

It is surely stretching the imagination too far to believe that the meter would go faulty(and 'jump' 4,000 units) in the one day between you taking a reading and the landlord taking a reading the next day.

The most plausible reason(although still unlikely) is that you/meter readers have been reading the meter wrong during your tenure. You may well have inherited a reading 4,000 units too high when you moved in?

storeyboy10

not quite, but nearly - my reading was 35492, landlords was 39452.

i know, it just doesnt make sense - all I do know is that i am over £1000 down, with no explanation as to why! over the 12 months, we paid a total of nearly £1400 for gas alone - for EDF to imply that my actual usage was £2400 for the year, is ridiculous.

i doubt i have consistently read the readings wrong during the course of my tenure - I submitted readings to them 6 times over the 12 months, and they read it once too - and everything seemed fine.

the most logical explanation i can think of is that my landlord took a reading when i moved out, changed it 4000 higher, submitted it, to cover his costs when he was doing DIY in the property before new tenents moved in (which was around 3 weeks later.)

if this is the case, or it ends up being my word against his, i guess i have no choice other than to involve a solicitor.

thanks for the advice.