I’ve fucked up and it’s going to cost me thousands- what do I do now?

I had this about 15 years ago. My DH moved out of his flat to live with me and the energy company tried to charge him 4 years of backdated charges as he'd just been paying his DD and hadn't had meter readings.

We contacted the Ombudsman and they advised that as the electricity company legally 'own' the meter - it is their responsibility to obtain a meter reading at least every year and if they have failed to do, they cannot back bill you further than 12 months.

It reduced a £4k bill to £700. Do contact the ombudsman and challenge the company.

I had to have a faulty meter replaced a few years ago. It caused loads of problems with billing as they kept trying to make the readings tally with the old meter. You would think it would be easy on their system to update a serial number on a meter but apparently not.

Ask them to confirm the serial number of the meter they are trying to bill you from

Iv just checked mine and electricity alone for December was £57.60 so I absolutely wouldn't question £60 for electricity every month

Exactly as @Bjorkdidit says, the first thing to do is to check several previous bills and see what the electricity usage was being shown as. Were they all estimated or were they actually showing 0 usage? If the OP was paying £60 a month into the account, what was the subsequent balance each month?

I check my account online regularly, I have a smart meter, but I still check each bill to see if what is given for usage is what I expect, and isn't an estimate.

Ok so i worked for an electric company, do you have electric heating or a pool or a pond A they are expensive? £60 a month is very cheap, do you have a new meter fitted if so you need to read the meter at the same time each day for a week to see how many units you are using daily and from there you can work out your monthly bill cost...

They’re saying they’ve been charging me as having 0 usage for this entire time, despite me paying £50-£60 a month.

I don't get this.

You pay a standing charge per day/ week regardless of usage.

Have you not had an annual statement emailed?

This shows standing charges and charges for electric usage per kwh.

Your electricity provider charges by how much electricity you use per kilowatt hour (kWh), depending on their electricity unit price.

Your annual statement shows standing charges and the price of a KWh.

These can change throughout the year/season depending on the fixed rate tariff.

But the OP hasn't seen any bills and like many, doesn't seem to understand the difference between a direct debit payment and an electricity bill. Until this issue is resolved, no-one knows what the bill is actually for.

Of course it is if you use oil for heating. 😂😂😂

Do not agree to pay this bill and be very firm in telling them (in writing) that you’ve paid every month what they’ve asked for up to now, so you don’t believe that you owe them anything.

Ask them to explain how they’ve calculated the amount of electricity used when they’re saying that the metre isn’t working properly.

They can’t simply pluck figures from the air.

Sonds to me like the company fucked up, not you. If you've been paying 50+ GBP monthly, they can't possibly charge you the full amount now just because they don't know what they did with the money. Don't be in a hurry to pay up. Good luck!

Who are you with?

This is not a norm for all the people, though. My bill is in the region of £50 a month. And the OP already said that she uses oil for heating and her electricity bill is typically low anyway.

eh?

They can't do that. You can only be charged for what you use and they need to have proof of that.

Our meter stopped working after a power cut, I contacted them but it took them months to send someone out to fix it and we paid nothing for months. They then explained clearly that they cannot just 'make up' or 'estimate' an amount used to back charge so its free.

You have to have proof of a debt amount owed.

Also I would query anything unusual, I got a debt charge from British Gas saying I owed them £600, first I heard of it was it tanking my credit score. Contacted them completely confused, they checked their system and it turned out their system can't distinguish between credit and debit and they owed ME £600 for years of over paying. I got a check refund from them (wouldn't have known or been refunded if not for the credit score issue) but it stayed on my bloody credit score for years as a 'debt' effecting things.

Definitely dispute it, perhaps they need to look into why they're not receiving readings. Won't be the first time a smart meter installation goes wrong!

Don't understand why people are so incredulous about others' energy bills - shop around for a better deal! Mine is on average £75 a month/£900 a year for gas & elec - around £90 in the winter, £50 in the summer.

You must start reading your utility bills, if you don't understand them (let's face it, some are just plain baffling) phone up and get someone to explain what they are trying or claiming to tell you.

Post Covid, nothing works anymore, all processes are broken or sub-optimal. If something isn't right, it may not be our fault but we still get to pay. There is no incentive for these companies to operate better or to improve so you have to be on top of your game. Written as someone who has just spent 2.5hrs today talking to an electricity supplier to get my recent £1,263.23 bill corrected to £278.35 following the installation of a smart meter.

I don't think this is going to cost you thousands. It sounds like you've not been billed properly for electricity for about 15 months but in that time you've paid them about £900 and you say that this is about right for your electricity usage? The £60 a month is the DD amount, it's not your bill.

Now they've sent you a bill that is 'more than 10 times your normal monthly bill', so likely a similar amount to the £900 you've paid, which more than covers the electricity you've used since the meter has been changed?

Do you have an online account with the electricity company? Can you log in and see if you've had any bills over the past 15 months and what they say re units used? The latest one might show the whole period since the meter was changed. Now what you need to check is that they've applied the payments you've made against the units used and it should show you're up to date, and possibly in credit a little.

Moral of the story, you should be receiving monthly or quarterly bills for electricity and you should keep an eye on it to make sure it's all running OK and contact them straight away if not.

As you have a smart meter , the screen would have gone blank if it wasn't connecting properly and they hadn't been receiving the readings . It can't have been blank for over a year , surely , as you would have noticed ?

I would contact them again , ask if they received the smart meter readings and if not , ask why they haven't contacted you earlier in that case.

For just electric. Yes it is. Mine last month on the bill was £46.79 including standing charge. I pay by DD, but 8 just checked the actual usage. Gas heating, electric cooking. With the gas as well my DD is £85.

I pay £60 a month for electric in a three bedroom house. Like the OP my heating and hot water is oil which I pay separately. Don't think £60 a month is that bizarre for some people.

I haven't read all the responses but we had similar with Scottish Power. We were paying them money and then we received an astronomical bill. I kept telling them the smart meter was faulty, not providing accurate readings to them and eventually I went to the ombudsman because they hadn't resolved my complaint within the required time frame.

It was fixed within a day, a new meter installed and the "debt" cleared because they couldn't prove how much actual usage

Put everything to them in writing disputing the charges, if you need to call them take a note screenshot of the time and duration of the call and a note of the persons name

Honestly don't just accept what the company are telling you

I had similar abd escalated. They wrote most of it off.

I suspect there may be a billing or account issue further confusing matters - as the meter was changed. You should have separate "accounts" or statements for each meter.

Was the account on the old meter properly closed off, i.e. with a final reading, the payments you made up to that date, and the balance owing or credit transferred to the account for the new meter? Do you have a statement showing this?

Does the statement for the new meter show 1) the balance brought from the old meter account 2) the meter reading taken at the time the smart meter was installed, i.e. the "opening" reading, and 3) a recent "latest" reading which is accurate? If not, what are they basing the billing on?

Insist upon full statements for the whole period for both meters, showing all your payments, and closing, opening and latest accurate readings (no estimates), in a clear layout of calculations that you can follow.

Contact Citizens Advice or Ofgem if you need help.

Absolutely dispute it.

Its highly likely they're estimating a higher usage, so absolutely spell out that you'd have a lower than average usage anyway.

And dispute anything over 12 months ago.

Then when they send the new total, suggest repayments you can afford - I am fairly sure if you make a reasonable offer, they have to take that unless theres a bloody good reason why not.

That’s very unfair, my electricity for a 3 bed new build (in the Highlands!) was £40-£45 in the summer months and was £60 for December, I imagine I’ll be the slightly more for January and February.

It is ultimately on you OP to make sure everything is up to date and you are paying the right amount, although I understand how it can be overlooked! You would have paid it anyway so try not to look at it as losing out on money.

In that case it seems quite high. Your elec covers only appliances.

Anyway, not the issue. I hope you get it resolved. You've had lots of good advice here.