I’ve fucked up and it’s going to cost me thousands- what do I do now?

[SnowQueenie]

A couple of years ago my electricity meter stopped working. Contacted the electricity company who came out and placed a smart meter. I continued paying the bills as they came in monthly, with increases when they requested it. They contacted me to say I needed to do a meter reading, but I have a smart meter so didn’t think anything of it. This month I’ve had a bill that’s more than 10 times my usual monthly bill. I’ve contacted them to ask what’s going on, and they’ve told me that I’ve not had a meter reading since October 2023. They’ve never come to do one, or told me the smart meter wasn’t working, so I didn’t realise. They’re saying they’ve been charging me as having 0 usage for this entire time, despite me paying £50-£60 a month. They’re now saying they’re going to back bill me for the entire time I’ve not been properly charged and that it’s likely to skyrocket my bills because of this. What the hell can I do? I’ve been paying monthly and didn’t realise there was an issue, surely the onus is on them to notice that the meter isn’t working and fix it. Or to come and take a meter reading if they haven’t got one? And how is it costing me £60 a month for 0 usage?

I work for an energy company. They should bill you up to date, to up to date readings, and then tell you how much the bill is. Then, they should set up an affordable payment plan with you, my company likes to have the debt gone within 15 months ideally. If you can't afford to get it paid down within a reasonable time, they will have ways they can help-like they may do a standing charge holiday for a period, or a 'you pay, we pay' type scheme, or other things. They'll likely go through your income and expenditure with you if you need financial assistance, it's so they can help you in the best way

@SnowQueenie can you look at a previous bill and see what usage they have quoted for the electricity. Also whether the usage was estimated or from a meter reading. They can't have been putting zero down as the usage for all that time as surely you would have noticed that before now??

Are you able to check your account online and see what information you have about the smart meter and any readings from it?

You should be able to get free legal assistance to help you renegotiate what you owe through your home owner's or renter's insurance. Give them a call asap.

Our gas bill is £50 per month for a 3 bed semi well insulated house, I wouldn’t have thought I was underpaying.

If you have a smart meter you don't need send readings. Maybe one a year?

Also your bank statements surely show what you've paid?

We get a monthly statement by email showing usage and credit in the account.

Don't you?

friends of mine get this with Scottish Power and Octopus.

That's very low- is that for cooking and heating?

Our total bill for fuel is around £180 a month- gas cooker and central heating.

Yes, cooking and heating. Heating isn’t on all day, just mornings and evenings.

Meters are outside so the companies check themselves, we don’t have smart meters.

I don’t have electricity we have oil

Do you mean you don't have gas?

It still sounds low because you'll also be paying a standing charge.

I also wouldn't have queried it - our electricity is around £90pcm at the moment for a 4 bed town house - no gas cooker and and both DH & I wfh so lights/laptop/music are on all constantly.
Hope you get it sorted OP

@AlwaysPeterPan I think the OP means they don't use electricity for heating and possibly also not for hot water, they use oil for that instead.

Mine is £85 on DD for gas and electric. Gas heating, electric cooking. 3 bed terrace. I use the heating when I want but I don’t have a tumble dryer and I use the washing machine a lot less than many MNers seem to.

Nice try. You did hear about the energy price crisis I assume? You know £60 per month isn’t enough to run a home.

😂😂😂

I had this with a smart meter that didn't work. In my case, Ovo knew I had a smart meter and then sent me numerous requests for readings as they informed me the smart meter wasn't sending them. That is, I was alerted to the fact the meter wasn't working.

The problem came when I asked for the meter to be changed/removed. This didn't happen, and I continued to get requests for readings. In the end, I threatened going to the ombudsman which prompted Ovo to get their finger out and assign me a caseworker (I used a template letter from the Martin Lewis website to prompt this).

When the problem was resolved, I was not charged for the backdated energy (because I had been asking for them to resolve it for a long time, so I had an email chain).

Basically, escalate it so you can get a named caseworker and they will look at it properly. Otherwise, no one department tells the other what is going on and you have to start from the beginning all the time.

Who are you with out of interest? (OvO were a shitshow, tbh. Sympathies if it is them.)

*to add - my resolution took over a year, so really good luck!

Telephone Citizens Advice. They will talk you through exactly who to email and what to write on your email to get this sorted. Something similar happened to me and it was like magic.

Tell them you don't accept liability and want the account reassessed under back billing (have a look at Ofgem about back billing) and realise a complaint. Pretty sure it won't end up costing you thousands.

In that case it seems quite high. Your elec covers only appliances.

Anyway, not the issue. I hope you get it resolved. You've had lots of good advice here.

That’s very unfair, my electricity for a 3 bed new build (in the Highlands!) was £40-£45 in the summer months and was £60 for December, I imagine I’ll be the slightly more for January and February.

It is ultimately on you OP to make sure everything is up to date and you are paying the right amount, although I understand how it can be overlooked! You would have paid it anyway so try not to look at it as losing out on money.

Absolutely dispute it.

Its highly likely they're estimating a higher usage, so absolutely spell out that you'd have a lower than average usage anyway.

And dispute anything over 12 months ago.

Then when they send the new total, suggest repayments you can afford - I am fairly sure if you make a reasonable offer, they have to take that unless theres a bloody good reason why not.

I suspect there may be a billing or account issue further confusing matters - as the meter was changed. You should have separate "accounts" or statements for each meter.

Was the account on the old meter properly closed off, i.e. with a final reading, the payments you made up to that date, and the balance owing or credit transferred to the account for the new meter? Do you have a statement showing this?

Does the statement for the new meter show 1) the balance brought from the old meter account 2) the meter reading taken at the time the smart meter was installed, i.e. the "opening" reading, and 3) a recent "latest" reading which is accurate? If not, what are they basing the billing on?

Insist upon full statements for the whole period for both meters, showing all your payments, and closing, opening and latest accurate readings (no estimates), in a clear layout of calculations that you can follow.

Contact Citizens Advice or Ofgem if you need help.

I had similar abd escalated. They wrote most of it off.

I haven't read all the responses but we had similar with Scottish Power. We were paying them money and then we received an astronomical bill. I kept telling them the smart meter was faulty, not providing accurate readings to them and eventually I went to the ombudsman because they hadn't resolved my complaint within the required time frame.

It was fixed within a day, a new meter installed and the "debt" cleared because they couldn't prove how much actual usage

Put everything to them in writing disputing the charges, if you need to call them take a note screenshot of the time and duration of the call and a note of the persons name

Honestly don't just accept what the company are telling you