Worried I will end up in prison!

[isitfree]

I bought a house 3 years ago and did not receive an electric bill so after 5 months I got in touch with the company the previous owners said they had, turned out no electric company had ever had anyone with an account at my address. It is a private new build and has never been registered as receiving an electric supply. I then found out the council did not know the house existed and no council tax had been paid in the previous 10 years that the original owners had it!
I have managed to register with the council now and the person who rates the properties came out to value it for council tax. HOWEVER I can not get any electricity company to register us for an account.
The electric is coming from somewhere but no bill has been paid for 13 years!!! I even phoned the national grid and was told "oh dear, the previous owners have really dropped you in it" What the hell do I do?

If you ring Love Energy and give them the MPAN (it's on ALL meters) they will tell you who your supplier is. They're a great comparison site and go above and beyond their remit, to help.
Tell them the problem and they will not dismiss you. Ring them tomorrow.

@Alcemeg

Congratulations, OP! Now is the time to rub your hands together with glee and set up a bitcoin mining operation from your shed. You might as well cultivate cannabis in the attic while you're at it!

brilliant

@L0bstersLass
slashlover - is this definitely correct? I'm in a similar situation. My electricity provider hasn't provided me with a bill for over 2 years despite taking my direct debit payment monthly. My account shows as over £1k in credit with them.
Where can I find it documented that they're only allowed to charge me for the cheapest tariff for the time period? I'd love to have that information to hand.
Thanks.

Why not cancel the direct debit and email and ring to say it will be reinstated when they send you a statement. It's illegal not to send a statement either monthly or quarterly depending on your agreement with them.
I can't understand why you've let it go on for so long without receiving a statement.
Do you have the energy company app? The statement will be on there plus your direct debit payments. If you don't have the app, look on their website it will be on there. You must have a username and password to access your account but it's easy to set up. You can then download all your statements.

Contact Experian - give them the address and they might be able to tell you if anything is linked? If there's an account somewhere they will know about it

@BurntO

Have you tried www.findmysupplier.energy/ ?

They cannot bill you any charges more than 12 months ago op

I'm sorry that's not true ☹️

@Dontwanttolivewithmylover

If you ring Love Energy and give them the MPAN (it's on ALL meters) they will tell you who your supplier is. They're a great comparison site and go above and beyond their remit, to help. Tell them the problem and they will not dismiss you. Ring them tomorrow.

No, it's not on all meters.

I'd be interested to see what it looks like on yours (obscure some of the numbers for privacy).

You mentioned you're in Scotland
You said Planning was given and building control approved everything, they just never told the council it was completed.

Red flag!!

In Scotland, the stages of a legal build are, planning permission application/ planning permission granted/ (varying amounts) of supervision by Building Control during the build. Finally, Completion Certificate. (These are all council departments)

The CC is awarded (by the council's planning and building control dept) after their final inspection to ensure that the completed building matches the PPermit and Building control standards. If the builders knew the building did not comply, they knew it would fail inspection and that's why they never told the department it was completed or applied for the CC.

We once bid for a house in what turned out to be a similar that circumstance. The house had an extension. The vendor showed planning permit and plans. My lawyer asked to see the CC, the vendor claimed to have lost it so Lawyer contacted the Planning dept to get a copy; they told him the work had failed inspection because it wasn;t up to Building Control regulations, so it had been refused a completion certificate. Vendor was furious we'd found out his lie.

This stalled the sale of the building (to us or anyone). The vendor was forced to spend a lot of money getting the work brought up to the legally required standard, and inspected and certificated.

I'd advise you to get that CC if possible. (you can apply retrospectively). It's an important part of your investment's legal standing.

@MangoFandangoo

Have you tried https://www.findmysupplier.energyy^/ ?

They cannot bill you any charges more than 12 months ago op

I'm sorry that's not true ☹️

Why do you say it's not true Mango? 👀👀👀
Where is your information from???
As long as it's not fraud or obstruction I thought it was pretty clear that energy cannot back bills over twelve months. The OFGEM Links given earlier contain the info.

They can make you pay unpaid bills from over a year ago but not make you pay when bills haven't been issued.

I haven’t read the whole thread so this may have already been raised. Is it possible that someone else is paying this bill? Have you checked the electricity schematics? Is it possible that you are drawing electric from a street light circuit or other communal building?

A similar thing happened to us when we moved 2 yrs ago. No utility bills at all. I used the MPAN number and found out the national grid people or whoever they are believed our house was 22 smith street when in fact we were 22 private road off smith street. If that makes sense? Anyway, all power providers insisted we were 500 yards down the road from where we really lived on a pot which was abandoned following a bad shelling in WW2

DH was thrilled. It took about a year but we now pay utilities. The previous 3 owners did NOT.

I would contact offgem to establish which electricity board is responsible for the supply. It might also be worth contacting the original builders of the property.
Keep records of all communications you make.
I had a similar issue that I moved in, changed supplier, but then without my permission or knowledge the supply was changed back to the original supplier. I had no bills for 5 years!! I just put an estimated amount away in a savings account. Once the mess was finally sorted out they ended up writing the full back period off as it was their fault. I had a very nice holiday with the savings.
Good luck trying to sort it out.

@isitfree
Fantastic that you have it all sorted, keep all correspondence so if any company does try to come at you then you can forward that information.
Also, make sure you shop around for the best company to supply you. Meanwhile enjoy the next month, which is set to be bloody freezing, keeping warm and snuggly under your electric blanket xx

I've a similar situation with another utility bill. I've phoned, have a case reference number but to no avail. I'm putting money aside each month and will pay if eventually asked to do so. But I've given up wasting time contacting them to try and get them to take my money as I was getting nowhere - constantly told someone would get back to me but never did...

Contact any company and ask them to check the national database for you. Either use the MPAN or give them your address. It should tell them on there who the supplier for the property is.

The company can not back bill anymore than 12 months. No matter who your supplier is. I work for an energy company so I know this.

I would just keep note of everything you've done and then send a sign for letter to the appropriate place that you won't be chasing it up anymore. If someone wants paying then they'll have to come to you because you've done your best.

*signed for

Happened to us, new build, dual fuel from Scottish Power yet it took them 4 years to bill us for the electricity. Every time I contacted them, despite providing meter details and account number for gas, they said without electricity account number they couldn’t help.
Eventually was resolved and they wrote off a massive chunk. Its about 15 years ago so don’t know if 1 year rule was in place at the time but we paid about 30% of bill.
One of their own advisors told us just to give up as obviously no one was chasing it 😂

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

Do you have any close neighbours? Maybe they have a higher than average bill.

That came to my mind too.🙄

From what I can see you ha e "done the right thing" as previously stated you can't pay a bill that doesn't exist and this isn't your mess. Just keep putting money aside so you can pay some backlog should it be requested. Definitely not going to prison.

As you appear to have have informed all the relevant companies and authorities, I can't see why you should be liable for bills that have not been sent to you. As has been said, keep details of every communication and conversation that you have had.

Are you near a railway station or other big infratstructure/manufacturing plant? Your supply is coming from somewhere.
When I was in rail and we upgraded a few stations etc, we found houses were being powered by the station! We found out cos even we deposited to do work, houses lost their supply. Its not your fault, so don't worry. Once you chase it down, you'll need to pay so put money aside. :)

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-59957355