to be gobsmacked that a quick phone call saw an electricity company reduce a bill by more then £900.

[hatwoman]

I can't believe they did this. we rented our house out for about 16 months - electricity bill was paid by the tenants. tenants moved out in december. we sold the house in April. so for dec-april the electricity bill was paid by us (house was unoccupied). the other day we get a bill for £850. eight hundered and fifty fecking quid . "based on meter readings." and the bill actually said "Because this bill was larger than normal we have checked that it is correct and it is".

so I rang. they said they would look into it. It turns out, as I suspected, that the shortfall between money collected and electricity used was down to the tenants. nothing to do with us. In actual fact we're in credit - so the company owes us money - and is sending us a cheque for £80.

Although, to their credit, they dealt with it quickly, AIBU to expect them not to make such a huge mistake in the first place, and, in particular not to explicitly claim that it has been checked and is correct.

That's really piss poor. Somehow it woudl be less piss poor if they hadn't claimed they'd checked it - it's the bare-faced lie that's the most annoying.

YABU. They had checked that the meter reading was correct. it wasn't their fault that your tenants had not updated the electric company with the correct meter readings. And they sorted it straight away. In this day of poor service from energy companies you should be bloody grateful they sorted it quickly.

YABU. You should have given the company a meter reading in December when your tenants moved out. I have always done that.

Lesson learnt for next time eh!

YABU, the amount they billed was completely correct for the amount of electricity used. If you did not provide them with a meter reading when you became responsible for the bills again, how are they supposed to know that there has been a change of bill payer?

Did I miss something? Where did the OP say no meter reading was made in December? For the company to decide that the OP was 'in credit' for Dec-Apr suggests that a reading had been provided.

I realise the error was in who to bill, rather than the amount to bill for. But they had all the relevant information. When I rang up to query the bill I provided them with NO additional details - no meter readings, no dates of moving etc - I simply said how can this be right? and the man said, "erm yes, maybe you have a point. I'll get back to you on Monday". so they clearly had all the info they needed to issue a correct bill.

Erm, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it really might not be that simple. I've had this twice, both with British Gas. The fist time I was renting a flat in an old victorian conversion. They billed me for heating the hallways etc . To make matters even more complicated I wasn't even with British Gas . That took over 6 months to sort out and get refunded, after each phone call I was guarenteed it was sorted now, then I'd get another letter threatening me with court action.

The last time I moved house the previous tennets were with British Gas. I phoned the day I moved in and switch suppliers, provided both companies with current meter readings etc. did everything Iwas meat to. Got my bill off NPower, paid my Npower bill. Got a bill of cunting British Gas. Confirmed with main electric board that I was not being supplied by British Gas, again. Again it took over 6 months to stop the demanding letters. It's still on my credit file, but I have lost the will to deal with it. After each and every phone call I made over the year I was dealing with their mistake I was promised it was all fixed, only to get more letters. You couldn't pay me to be with BG now.

Sorry for the rant, but it felt good. And I know your probably not even with BG.