Ridiculous bill. Do we have a leg to stand on?

[TheNoiseHurts]

We used to live in a flat (recently, in 2019) which had electric no gas, storage heaters large two bedroom that had 5 people in it.
Electric bills were £75 a month.

We did a lot of moving recently while we bought a house.

In that time we lived in a different two bedroom flat for 6 weeks.
It was minuscule, had 4 of us in and we didn't use the heaters at all.

We got a bill for £247 (that's down from £1,354!) for the 6 weeks we were there.

We have called them countless times, they have the initial meter reading and last Meyer reading. Yet I still think £247 is too much.

My husband has concluded that it was a bad tariff. I'm annoyed because we never agreed to a certain tariff the bill just came through the door.

To show this companies incompetence they also sent us a gas bill repeatedly. They told my husband that they can't stop sending them until we provide a gas meter reading, we asked them what we should do there because we don't have a gas meter what with not having gas to the flat. She just repeated that we would keep getting bills.

5 calls later and we fixed that.

Do we just have to suck up the £200+ bill? I'm so annoyed, we are so broke.

It does sound quite a lot. Do you have the meter readings? Can you say on here how much you used over the 6 weeks and somebody can check if the bill seems plausible? I agree otherwise it sounds like there could have been an immersion left on or something. As you say, November was quite mild and if you were out most of the time and didn't put the heating on much it sounds steep.

Watch that Lakeland airer. I brought one this year hoping it would lower my bills and I’ve just had a massive bill come through. Much much higher than normal usage and I can only blame that over last years heating and tumble dryer usage as that’s the only thing I’ve changed. In fact as it’s been so mild I’ve not had the heating on at all whereas normally I would turn it on to air dry clothes. Getting a smart meter now to check

Did anyone else get an advert about how to report electricity theft/meter crimes when they opened this thread?!

As it's a flat, check that the correct meter was read- we had an issue in a previous flat that the meters weren't labelled so the wrong flat's meter was read one time. That was fun to sort out! Especially since it was NPower, not known for their good customer service!

Ask for the opening meter readings and the closing meter readings and the tariff name and check the unit prices.

Who did the opening and closing meter readings? (I'm assuming you or the letting agent in which case you should already know the meter readings)

And agree about the Lakeland airers. 6 pence an hour sounds low, but a lot of people will just leave them on 24/7- that's around £40 a month. You could tumble dry a couple of times a week for nearly a whole year for that!

You need to do your own calculation and send it to them. Works out how many units you used between the readings you took at start and finish, then calculate units x unit rate, add any daily standing charge and VAT.

I gave a company 48 hours once to sort things out before I phoned the ombudsman. They're terms stated you had to give them longer, but the were soon on the telephone at 8am Monday morning with a named person who was assigned to the matter.

Did you actively turn the storage heaters off? I find it hard to believe there was no heating of any kind on at all without the place starting to smell a bit cold and damp (storage heaters often let out a gentle background heat, it can sometimes be hard to tell they're even on especially the older ones).

When I moved into this house we got a bill of £200 for 6 weeks. Turn out the put you on a generic high tariff when you open an account and bit is up to you to phone for a discussion on best tariff. (We just changed supplier online as I don't do phones)

Did you take meter readings the day you moved in and the day you moved out?
I Have always taken photos of my meter readings when I’ve moved in and out of a property so they are date stamped.
My hunch is that you’re being charged for a previous tenant!
I live in a 2 bedroom flat and my bill for 6 weeks over Nov/Dec was £82 and that was with the heating on every day as I have a child with medical issues

Watch that Lakeland airer. I brought one this year hoping it would lower my bills and I’ve just had a massive bill come through.

Agree. I've had one for a while, and did notice that where I always used to be in credit with quite a reasonable direct debit, I suddenly was never in credit.

Then we moved to a house with pre-pay meters fitted, and as it took ages to get them removed I had to use them for a while and was able to watch my money going down. Days when the Lakeland airer was switched on were approximately £2 more expensive than days without. So yes, if it was on all the time, it'd have cost me about £50-£60 a month. Which explains where all my credit went in the last house.

Very annoying as I love the airer and have nowhere for a tumble dryer and no outdoor space, so it's really hard to get washing dry.

@TheNoiseHurts

Do you want to post the initial and final meter reading, the tariff and standing charge so people can check the calculation for you (the tariff should be on the bill)? It does sound a lot for 6 weeks. There is an energy price cap now so even if you were on the worst tariff, it shouldn't be too bad.

@CharDeeMacDennis it was a huge shock! I know I was bit lazy leaving it on a lot but expensive lesson learned. I was always in credit and they’ve doubled my monthly payment to try and get the debt down.

Judjung by this thread I'm glad I canned the Lakeland airer I bought and never bothered using

Our house is a very small, modern 3 bed semi and our bill was £160 for the last month. We both work so are out of the house a lot.
Our washer and dryer are on at least twice a day, but we bought very efficient models in the last year, which has lowered our bills.
We have spent much more on our heating previously, for example when I was on maternity leave and we had colder winters.

Did you take the meter readings yourself when you moved in/out? Check the bill to see if they're correct & don't rely on the ones they have.

I have gas and leccy. 3 bed house. 2 adults. Fairly frugal with heating. My bills were £98 in winter £64 in summer. I built up credit as was not even using £98 worth in winter so they have just changed me to £75 in winter and £45 in summer. And refunded £100.