AIBU to refuse to pay £2k electricity bill apparently used while the meter was broken?

[Babypythagorus]

I'm so angry, and so afraid of having to pay almost £2k, that maybe IABU? I don't know!

We moved into a new house 30 Dec. Landlord said the electricity was usually £150 per month. We got our first bill in march, for over £1000. We rang the landlord, he rang the company to say WTF, and the held the bill while they investigated.

3 months later, after many phone calls from me and landlord asking them to send someone out ("you do live in a very remote place BabyP" "well you fucking chose to sell power here, you unbelievable twats!") and they send another bill for another grand! I lost the plot, and contacted my MSP, who got involved and got the meter replaced in about a week. Suddenly they could get someone on a boat.

In the last 2 weeks of the new meter we've used £30. So an average of £60 per month. They've sent me a revised bill based on that for £1800. Apparently it makes perfect sense to say I've spent an average of £300 per month Jan-June, and £60 per month in July,

Argh!!

Am I allowed to say I'm not paying? I'll happily pay something reasonable, but this just seems mad? Or maybe IABU and should just cough up...?

I'm also pissed because if they'd fixed it in a timely manner we'd be fighting over £1000, not £2000, which is obviously still hideous but only half as scary...

Refused to pay until they provide you with an actual bill, most providers send out estimated bills which can always be asked for. Why is ur electricity being dealt with by ur landlord? Your electric providers should be only in contact with you, are you sure u havent been paying for yours & landlords electric & now he knows ur not stupid enough has found his own supplier & hence the now low bill? Either way u need an actual break down bill where u can see what you have used & not what the providers thinks uv used. Did u give meter readings when setting up with ur providers? We moved into a flat & got a bill for hundreds & it was because the old tenants hadnt told the providers they were moving out. Luckily our landlord had already advised us to take down the meter readings on day of moving in so we could explain that anything previous of date & meter reading was not our usage. Hope it gets sorted for u & dont back down until they prove you have used that electricity.

Do you have meter readings and usage records from when you think it was broken? My OH's job is arguing electricity/gas bills with people to recover debt. They don't send people out - no point - but they'd tell you to track your usage and meter readings over a period of time to see whether it is in line with what they'd expect or not. Obviously, it's too late to do that now that the meter is changed, but if you were concerned, I assume you recorded your usage as proof of why you were concerned? Also, they will rightly argue that you use more in winter. How well insulated is your house...how long do you keep your heating on?

I don't know exactly how your particular supplier will go, but if you refuse to pay it just gets passed on to a debt recovery service. If you have a big debt, they can refuse to allow you to move supplier, or potentially force you to have a pre-payment meter (although since you're paying your bill for now, they're unlikely to do that).
If they won't back down on the size of the bill, ask for a payment plan so you don't have to cough up the full amount at once.

No I don't think you are. Doesn't sound like much of a revised bill really!!
I'm in dispute at the moment about my mums electric. They reckon she hasn't paid it for 11 years!! Yeh righto!

You need to write to them with your installation reading and the current reading and date it was taken. Show the amount that you have used and demand that they amend the bill based on your actual usage. Point out that you only moved in on whatever date and state that you refuse to accept an estimate based on previous tenants usage.

Advise that you will be happy to pay the amended bill as soon as it arrives, providing it reflects your actual usage.

Request that they send you an amended bill within the next 28 days or you will contact ofgem to request that they intervene and investigate both their estimation systems and their policies on faulty meters.

Should say, I spent 13 years working for ofgem and this does work.

You can dispute this.

Tell them they need to open a complaint. They should have already done this. They can not close it until you say your are satisfied with the resolution. After 6 weeks it will have to reffered to ofgem. At this point they should write to you with full details of the complaint and every cinverstation.

It costs companies money if it goes to ofgem, even if the company are in the right. Which they most certainly arent.

They should have already done this at the first sign you were unhappy.

I worked for 1 of the big 6 and still work in the industry. I also had a complaint aboit stupidly large estimated bill. Of over 3k. Took a while.

They should look at current usage and adjust your bill accordingly. It will be an estimate as your bills would gave been slightly higher in winter. But should come out more beneficial to you, not them.

Thanks for replying all. And sorry, I've not been clear enough and am now guilty of drip-feeding I think!

We gave meter readings, but the bill was so large we said it must be broken. The landlord also had a ridiculous closing bill, so he got involved as we were dealing with the same thing. We both have complaints open, and both have been over 6 weeks so we can start the ombudsman thing.

The complaint got escalated (eventually, after thr msp got involved) and they finally sent someone out to look at the meter, and it was indeed broken, so they replaced it. They are now saying the only thing that was wrong was the timer, hence the revised bill of £1800 instead of £2100 (a change to a bit of spending on the cheap time, not the expensive).

But given our recent usage, with a new meter (same house, same heating system etc) I just can't believe that the timer was all that was broken. How can they believe I was using £300 per month before, and now only £60?

Will the ombudsman be able to do anything? Can I refuse debt collectors in court in some legal way?

Argh. Thanks again for your replies. This is so horribly stressful!

It sounds like you have an Economy 7 meter and your heating is also controlled through the electricity? Only from you mentioning the 'timer'. It sounds as though the meter wasn't broken and was accurately recording the amount of kwh drawn by the appliances at the property, but as the tineswitch was coming on incorrectly you were originally being billed for more daytime units (the more expensive on an Economy 7 tariff) than you had used and more needed to be billed on the night time units. Because/if your heating is powered by electricity the supplier can't just look at your summer (when your heating won't be on) usage and extrapolate that over the year at £60pm as it wouldn't show what you would use during winter. However, they can't just pluck their estimation for your winter usage out of the air. It won't be calculated at £60pm unless they desperately want to get rid of the complaint, but the big 6 supplier I worked for for 15 years had recently moved away from throwing money at the problem and was starting to fight such complaints.
Escalate the complaint up the management chain asking for a breakdown of the amount they have come to and how your day/night usage split has been calculated. If you lived in a similar size property before find your usage/spend for that and ask them to take that into consideration. You should get some money knocked off for the inconvenience of it all but possibly only 10%.
Apologies if I have got the wrong end of the stick and you are not on a timed usage meter.

I'd take it to the ombudsman. We had a different situation with one of the big providers when they didn't send me bills despite repeated requests for them to do so. When they did eventually send them they were estimated. I argued with them for so long and eventually took it to the ombudsman. They investigated and found in my favour and I got nearly £900 taken off my bill. This was partly due to some of the debt being from over a year ago, their inability to issue accurate bills, them having me on the wrong tarrif ( I had no idea) and they had to deduct more as an apology for my inconvenience! They also stated that because of the error I was to allowed to pay the debt over the maximum period of time which worked out to be £20 a month.
We also previously went to the ombudsman years ago when we changed from a normal meter to a card meter in a flat we rent out. The provider issued a back bill for power used that had apparently been undercharged when it had been the previous normal meter and said if we didn't pay they would adjust the new card meter to deduct at a higher rate. We argued that they couldn't charge us for historic power that we had no way of verifying the use as the meter had been changed and that as some of the tenants had changed, they were not liable for this debt. That debt was cleared completely. Yours is obviously a different situation but it seems very unlikely that you should have to pay a debt accrued due to a faulty meter!

is your complaint definitely still open?

At work I had to deal with an overcharge of almost £10k due to wrong tariff, estimated bills, wrong opening readings and an issue when registering a new meter. The only thing that worked was escalation. They were so so obviously in the wrong but they will threaten and not budge unless they absolutely have to. It took over a year to sort I'm afraid!

Oh my. A year??!

Yes, it's still open. I had it escalated up yet another layer today. They are sticking to saying it's adjusted and now right. But it just can't be!!! I don't have any evidence, apart from the general madness of the amount, though, so maybe I need to go for just paying it off over a very long time? Ugh...

Contact the ombudsman. Pass them all the details and let them assess it. They will work out how much you owe. I was offered a £20 reduction initially and after going to the ombudsman got nearly £900 off. While it is with the ombudsman the debt should be frozen so no action is taken

If you pay you are admitting you owe the amount!

For us it took over a year as it was a commercial debt - because of various obscure reasons we couldn't follow the normal timescales. It should be quicker for you!

Electric companies are insane like that.

In my last job an electric company claimed we owed them thousands for a bill racked up on a property on a street with the same name as our company, because apparently that makes us responsible for it.

Months that saga went on for, they just wouldn't have any of it!

If it's s.p they have a hardship fund thing that you might be able to apply for.

Tell them its time to 'deadlock' the complaint. They should have already done this when it went over 6 weeks.

What does "deadlock" mean?

My electricity meter was broken and despite me telling the company, they didn't fix it until after a year had gone by. They didn't charge me anything at all for electricity during that period because it was deemed unfair. No one could prove one way or another how much electricity I would have used. I could have had different numbers of people living there, different appliances, been on holiday etc.

I recommend pushing for paying them nothing.

Basically it means that you and your energy company can not resolve the complaint between you and ofgem will review and rule on it.

There is a strick deadlock process. It doesnt cost you anything. Once its deadlocked, the supplier wont discuss further details until OFGEM rule.

They should send you a letter straight out that gives a true and accurate reflection of your complaint and further details of ofgem timescales etc.