Obligation to send bills?

Maz

This might well be a daft question and even posted before - apologies if it is/has.

Question is, are energy companies under any legal obligation (or any kind of obligation) to furnish their customers with bills on a regular basis?
To expand this further, customer pays by monthly direct debit for gas and electricity and hasn't had a bill or any kind of statement since October 2007, so has no idea whether or not he owes them money or if they've got loads of his over paid cash! :rolleyes: Also, if he asks for copies of missing bills are they obliged to supply these?

Supplier is NPower, anybody else had any problems getting regular bills from them?

stewie_griffin

I think legally they can bill you once every 6 years (5 in Scotland) but regulatory its once every 12 months.

As for the missing bills then again they are required to keep them for 6 years however are in their rights to charge you for a copy to cover administration costs (although I've never come across a situation where they have charged).

Cazza

I only get billed once every three months, so if I'd had the October bill, I'd be expecting March around now. That means I'd only have missed one bill. How many do you think they've not sent out?

mute_posting

Maz wrote: »

Supplier is NPower, anybody else had any problems getting regular bills from them?

I would imagine the lack of bills helps them with their creative accounts, i.e. if the customer doesn't have it in writing that we have charged them double their annual tier 1 units in the past 9 months, they can't complain.

MP

Maz

Thanks for all your replies peeps. It's the 'creative accounting' (sculpting) recently outlined on this site that made me sit up and take notice! Do you think I'll have resistence getting copies of bills from them and if so, how hard can I argue? What's the difference between legally and regulatory? Can I insist that they send out bills?

mute_posting

I'd be surprised if there wasn't something in their T&C's about the standards customers should expect re: billing etc that didn't mention "regular" or "timely" bills which I think you could argue should be quarterly based on industry norms for such terms in connection with the supply and billing of electricity.

MP

Maz

Thanks MP. Am deeply suspicious at the lack of bills up to now. Will try to find out about their T&C's. Have to say after all I've read on here, I suspect foul play! Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

smartie1976

If you are on direct debit you'll get one bill a year usually.
If you are paying quarterly you'll get a bill every 90 days or so.

there is nothing suspicious in you not receiving bills if you're on DD - none are 'missing'.

I only get 1 bill a year from my water company because i'm on a meter paying DD. It's standard practice across most utility firms.

You can ask at any time for a current bill if you provide a read for them.
However your best option is to sign for online billing and then you can submit meter reads any time you want and you can look at your account. This will always ensure you're up to date.

You will need to make a years worth of payments for any credit/debit to level out. People are almost always 'owing' money by the end of march because they use more in winter, and then they're 'in credit' by october because of the warmer summer months. Over the year it's even.