£1600 electricity surprise..I feel sick :(

[amber90]

I really hope someone can offer some advice. I currently live in a small, 1 bedroom flat. I would have thought my electricity usage was below average. I have storage heaters however these do not work and have not been turned on for over 2 years. I dont use the hot water heater switch beside the tank - I have an electric shower which I use so no baths. I use calor gas for my heat currently although sometimes use 1 bar of an electric fire. The extractor fan in my bathroom has been broken for maybe a few months and wont switch off unless the lights are turned off at the mains. I'm at university and live alone so have struggled a lot with the costs of maintaining the place with little jobs like that. Anyway - sorry. Just wanted to make sure I gave all the info. I changed providers in 2015 and was quoted £56 a month and set up a direct debit - all the meter readings were passed on from my old provider and that was that. I've never had anyone out to take a meter reading and have never been asked for one. I've also never been billed by them and to be honest I never thought about it - I figured I was paying the direct debit and that was fine. This morning I received an email from them saying that I owe them over £1600. I rang them to query this and they said I have two electricity meters in my house and that this is the amount I owe even after my monthly direct debits have been taken into account. They said that this dates back to 2015, when I changed over and that this is the first time they've been able to bill me (I should have asked why this was but I didn't think). I can only see one meter in my cupboard! I don't have this money to pay them - especially if my current payment isn't enough to cover my use along with paying back this huge bill at the same time - I don't see how I can possibly be using so much or how I have two meters. They've asked me to email them photographs of the meter and I've done so but I'm really freaking out and I just cant possibly afford this. I start back at university tomorrow for my final year and am gutted. I don't know what to do. :(

People really really really need to start telling these cowboys to piss off. Even if you do owe them it they should have told you at the time you were underpaying. It's unreasonable to even think you would hand over that money. Be stern and make them go through how you owe it and then if you do tell them to take an extra couple of pound a month until it's paid off.

Don't panic. First of all.

Now... Who is your supplier?! If its NPower then the bill is probably wrong. We went through hell with them and incorrect bills, it was very stressful.

Assuming you switched two years ago - 24 months - that would make your monthly total £122 which seems too high to me for your flat. So I suspect this is a meter issue and not your usage.

Just keep calm and send them what they require and it will get sorted eventually.

Are you sure that this isn't some kind of scam? It doesn't sound quite right to me.

If they have made a mistake, they can't back bill more than 12 months

www.ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/household-gas-and-electricity-guide/who-contact-if-its-difficult-paying-energy-bills/energy-back-billing-your-rights

I recently for a refund of a (normal sized) bill from a former electricity provider because it took them longer than a year to resolve the query on the bill. Pretty sure that was because they're not allowed to bill you for anything over a year ago.
Also, why would you have 2 meters? I'd be asking for am explanation about that before I paid anything.

Do not admit the debt.

And what pp ^^ said.

Firstly, you should contact the supplier and ask them the bill on hold while you sort out the issues. You are disputing the bill and and insist they place a hold for 30 days.

You say you have one meter, there should be a 'meter point reference' number on a tag, or written on the meter.

Call them back when you have found the MPR number. Ask them to verify this is the correct meter you have been billed for. (It should detail this shld also be detailed on the bill)

Ask them to provide details of the second meter, if you cannot locate it. (Are you in house that has been converted to flats?) That cld explain the second meter.

Breathe - if you do owe it, set up an affordable payment plan and stick to it.

And do not be scared -face it. Called being a grown up and these are issues people face daily.

HTH.

Who is the supplier? You should ask them for the two meter numbers (every meter has an individual ID number) so you can check both meters are allocated to your address. Because you are only aware of one meter at your property it sounds to me like they've acvidentally allocated someone else's meter to your address so the big bill is yours plus someone else's.

Thank you so much for responding guys. It's First Utility. I really don't feel like I could be using so much monthly especially without the storage heaters but started freaking out that it might have been the bathroom fan. I do turn this off at the mains when I remember but its on probably 50% of the time- it's over double their monthly estimate for the whole flat though!

I checked back on my emails and this was the first i'd had from them since joining. They've never tried to contact me by email or by post or telephone to discuss my payments being too low. I've sent the photos across so I guess I can't do much now until they get back to me. Unless you guys think it might be worth contacting citizens advice in the interim just to see what they say?

Thank you again. I think I needed told not to panic and a wee bit of support made me feel like it wasn't the end of the world for the first time today. x

If you have storage heaters, then that's probably why you've got two meters. One for the day rate and one for the night rate when the heaters would recharge. Using the day rate is very expensive for other appliances, especially if you use lots of high wattage things that heat up like the cooker/iron/hair straighteners etc. Get onto standard single rate electric if you don't use the storage heaters. Go through the complaints process with them, try and speak to a team leader if possible, and if no joy escalate it to the electricity ombudsman. Talk to the CAB if you need help or guidance through the process.

There's a reason utility companies can't bill for any mistakes over a year old and it's because they are pretty much all very very bad at being utility companies. It's probably a mistake, and if it's not you won't have to just hand over £1600 in one go.

Storage heater usage goes through the main meter, although there are gadgets associated with them to register the night time usage. I have them.

Please don't say it is NPower.
They did exactly this to my mum, twice, who lived in a two bedroomed flat with storage heaters. They were not reading the meters and were making stupid excuses. It will be rubbish and their mistake. Do not accept it. It is ridiculous. I made a huge fuss, a formal complaint which I pursued and pursued and eventually got to the point where I was prepared to take it to the ombudsman- twice. Both times they admitted their fault at the last moment, wrote off the bill and paid compensation. I kept a note of ever single call and error and rubbish advice and lie they told. Is it NPower?

OP, tell them you are disputing the amount and the invoice shld be placed on hold. Send them an email.

Then check your meter. If a second meter, let them do the donkey work. If two meters on the bill, then tell them you do not know where it is and get them to arrange an engineer visit.

You are well within your rights to ask for this.

Op already said it was first utility

You can not have used £1600 of electricity on lights, an occasional bar of an electric fire in one room and a shower for one person- and that is after two years of £56 a month direct debit. You just can't.

Ugh, First Utility are shit, and so are their customer services. Makes sure that they're basing their calculations on the right units too.

Is your meter an economy seven meter with two sets of numbers on it which record Day rate and Night rate? I had one like that when I had storage heaters. The day rate is comparatively expensive

I had the same issue with my provider who said I had 2 meters registered. I think it was because the previous owner didn't register the replacement pre pay meter and so far I've received Bill's for over £1000. I gave them the correct serial number and they're sorting it out. Don't worry OP.

I had this with first utility. I wanted to refuse to pay it and was happy to hold off until they pushed further but my DP was stressed out and wanted to change ASAP so paid it (resulted in lots of arguments between us).
They still won't let us switch, no idea why. I can't do anything with it as it's all now in my DP's name.

Hope you have much better luck than I did, and I'd be very interested to hear about how you get on with it.

X post.

Had exactly the same problem with First Utility. They are beyond useless. £2,000 electricity bill out of the blue despite paying direct debit every month.
I contacted citizens advice, do this they are very helpful. They will talk you through the back billing issue (they are not allowed to back bill beyond a certain time). Escalate as high as you can at First Utility. Citizens advice actually take your case on and can call for you.
In the end they admitted they were at fault for incorrect bills, bad admin etc eat and we had the bill hugely reduced. Do not panic!

Firstly if they haven't billed you properly since 2015" they can only bill you for last twelve months, that should get more than half back. The industry term is back billing.

Secondly if there has been no meter read in that time by them, they are in breach of their licence which stipulates once a year min.

Thirdly if they have incorrectly reviewed your direct debit using estimates it is also a service agreement breach.

Thirdly they may have cocked up the night and day readings. In the morning look at the meters later on in the day, maybe after using kettles and microwaves and see which is the day rate meter. Check on bill, but be cautious if it's in your favour ie you currently have most use at night on the bill and its wrong, then it would be better not to rock the boat on this.

At the end of all that, they cant insist on immediate payment if it's do high, ask for it to be calculated over 24 months on your dd.

Check meter reads first and go from there.

For the record, on a flat like how you describe I would expect your current dd to be reasonable. Check the tariff you are on too, but don't agree a new one until after you've resolved all the above as that would lock you in to them. You can always insist it's backdated.

Also ask the operator to look through notes to see when you last had a conversation about tariffs. If you were advised incorrectly, then that can add to your negotiation.

Try all that first, and say 'i am making a complaint' to get the clock ticking for ombudsman. That will cost them £400 or so, so it focusses attention nicely.

Hth

I would check they don't have multiple accounts opened erroneously in your name at your address, which is what happened to me a few years ago. Turned out it was a cock up at account opening stage and they didn't notice no payments were being received. Hope you get it sorted

Energy UK's Code of Practice for backbilling says you can't be charged for consumption for over 12 months ago that you haven't already been charged or paid for. This means that they'd look at the difference between what you were previously charged and what you've now been charged and any payments you've made come off that. That's if First Utility are part of Energy UK. Check the meter type they say you have - it sounds like you have specialist electrical heat and hot water. Is your hot water on constantly? How have they got reads now?