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?

You have to fight this.

They wanted to charge me over £4000.
I'm autistic, was too scared to fight.
My son in law, also autistic, loves an intellectual/legal/financial fight.
It took him over six months but he got them down to £400.
He threatened them (nicely) with the Ombudsman but they became realistic before that stage.

Ask them for details of how you ran up that bill - how and when. They were charging me for Covid year (March 2020 to March 2021) when I wasn't living in my house, I'd moved in with daughter and son in law.

Did they inform you at any time that a debt was mounting? If not, why not? As stated upthread, they aren't supposed to charge back over a year.

I would put to them that they have a duty to bill you correctly and with a smart meter you assumed readings to be given automatically.
What @UnderTheStairs51 said. They did this to me. Put in a smart meter, didn't leave me a monitor, I assumed everything was fine, I was paying by direct debit.

A few energy companies have had issues with smart meters. I had one installed and every bill has said it was from a genuine reading but I'd noticed on the website that I wasn't getting a breakdown of usage. I always double checked the reading and it was always wrong.

I told them the meter wasn't working and they said it was but not always communicating. They've obviously realised there are issues as they sent out an engineer. The previous person had installed on the gas meter but hadn't installed anything on the electric which is what would communicate with them. Thankfully I kept giving them readings anyway. But there have definitely been a lot of issues with smart meters.

The ofgem ombudsman is excellent.

You need to raise a formal complaint with your supplier first and give them eight weeks to resolve it. In particular I'd be insisting that they provide:

1. A detailed breakdown of how they arrived at the figure they say you now owe,
2. An explanation of how they came up with the numbers they were charging you every month in the intervening years,
3. An explanation for why, if their meter (it's not your meter, it's theirs) hadn't been working for that long, why didn't they come out and fix it? Or at least tell you?

I'd recommend doing it all in writing if possible but if they call you take notes of what is said then ask them to send what they told you in writing. The more evidence you've got, the better. Once that eight weeks is up you can then ask the ombudsman to get involved. You can do it all through their website. It takes weeks to go through the process but it's really good.

The energy companies hate dealing with the ombudsman as they get charged for the service and they can't just fob you off. I had months of Shell demanding pretty much random amounts of money from me and being argumentative on the phone. Once the ombudsman got involved Shell changed their tune entirely, presented a much smaller amount that I owed (that they subsequently wrote off anyway), and I got £50 compensation on top.

We recently had an issue with British Gas, I noticed our account was in credit by £1600 and then noticed they hadn’t billed us for a year. We questioned it and they didn’t know why, and apparently couldn’t produce a bill although they had all our smart meter readings and everything was up to date. It took weeks to sort out, backwards and forwards. They regularly ended the chats with ‘we don’t know how to produce your bill’. They eventually did, and we were still loads in credit so requested some back. I wondered how many accounts were sat there with thousands of pounds just sitting there. It was ridiculous.
wish I’d know they can’t bill for over a year ago as it covered a month from over a year prior.

hope you get it sorted out!

We had to argue with Octopus to keep our budget amount at £100 a month. They wanted to drop it to £60 a month from £120 after the summer.

It can be done.

@SnowQueenie even if your meter reading is zero you would be billed about £30 per month (if you have combined electricity and gas) because of the daily Standing Charge. Each bill has the standarding charge amount plus the amount for kWh used.

The energy price cap is set to £1738 per year for the usage of a typical household (£145pm) so you would have to be using a tiny amount of energy to get to as low as £50pm

Recently had a situation which confirms power companies cannot back bill by more than 12 months. They put the onus on the customer to provide meter readings but legally it's on them. If a smart meter isn't working they should have seen that. We had a recent situation to confirm this. We had 16 months of DD payments sitting in our account but no bills issued - not even an estimated bill. As soon as I pointed out they couldn't bill more than a year they agreed.

Just in case it's relevant to anyone with smart meter issues - a gas smart meter will only work if it's within 5 meters of an electricity smart meter. Both were installed in a flat where meters were on different floors and sides of the building. Energy companies are aware but do it anyway because they are being paid by the government to switch meters over.

My direct debit is £72 a month for gas and electricity (usage for December was £48 electricity and £56 gas) so I don’t think £60 would seem suspicious if you only have one fuel, to those questioning it.

Have you got an online account? Does it show your credit balance and last issued bill with the last reading?

My dd works out as £63 p/m over the course of the year, obviously more in winter than summer, so not necessarily. 2 bed, newish semi and with eon.

Well that's high. Mine is generally under £50 so I would assume paying £60 a month would cover it

And I don't have standing charges

Incorrect. You can be charged for electricity used in excess of 12-months prior, however it has to be proven there was malicious intent to avoid paying in the first place. OP has a strong case for not being back billed more than 12-months as she had her meter replaced and paid a direct debit. OP should establish where the money she’s been paying has gone and go from there. If it is Scottish Power, get deadlock as soon as you can and go to the ombudsman ASAP.

As per picture

Smart meters are meant to send out readings automatically? Threaten them with the energy ombudsman when you make a complaint. Make sure you check what steps you need to take on the ombudsman website first

My electric is about £100-£120 a month. If I am honest we are fairly heavy users - dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer etc for 5 people means a lot of electricity used. Electric shower used once a day (only DH uses that, the rest of use a thermostatic mixer shower) Games consoles, cooker, chargers, teenagers who go between sitting in pitch blackness to not turning lights off.

So having paid £60 a month may not be that far under after all.

I had a similar issue with EON a few years back. Our electric smart meter stopped sending readings through, so they stopped billing at all for electricity. I noticed after a few months. When I queried why they hadn't contacted me they told me they were too busy to call when meters stopped working.

I still had to chase them to bill me after I'd supplied a reading. We were well covered by the direct debit which had accumulated a buffer but that wouldn't be the case for everyone I'm sure. They were utterly disinterested. I still don't understand why they wouldn't revert to the pre-smart meter estimated usage if readings weren't coming through.

It took them two and half years to replace the smart meters and now the electric meter is sending readings but not the gas.

tis is why i wont get one

they ask every few months and i say no thanks too many problems

hope its sorte soon

My gas bill is about £40 a month for a 3-bed draughty house. £300 a month is crazy. The £40 was with the heating on only 2 hours a day though. It'll be more for this month as I've had it on a lot more. Doesn't include much hot water - I have an electric shower but use hot water from the tap for washing dishes and hands. Electricity bill is usually around £40-45 a month - one person, working from home, old laptop where the battery is useless so constantly topping it up. That's is really. Gas & elec bills so far have been less than £80 a month. Expecting more this month and February and then hopefully spring will be here.

I meant to add that I wouldn't have thought I was underpaying either.

OP was the meter still recording what you were using and just not reporting it (like my gas meter, I just read it myself every month.) Or was the meter still showing as zero?

Yep, my electricity usage in a three bedroom house, with somebody working from home most days, dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer on daily, is £57 per month.

Gas is similar tbh, and we live in a ridiculously draughty house (windows need replacing) and had no thermostat on the boiler until earlier today.

In our previous flat, which has other houses below and on either side, airtight windows and very thick walls, we spent £80 per month on both. The flat was empty over Christmas and I had the thermostat set to 10C to prevent mould, and looking at the meter it doesn’t look like it actually ever needed to come on.

Thank you for all the advice. I’ve contacted the company again tonight and asked for information about back billing. They’ve confirmed my meter isn’t working at all, and offered to raise a complaint. They suggested fitting a new meter and would just charge me a monthly cost from October 2023 based on my new average costs. I took advice from here and said I wasn’t happy with that and they couldn’t estimate from future costs. They’ve told me not to pay the new bill and they’re going to look into it. They’ve said I won’t be chased or fined for not paying the bill until it’s sorted. I’ve got it all in writing and taken screenshots so hopefully it’s reliable.

trying to read and respond to all the questions- yes I mean I have electricity and oil, not gas. All heating/hot water/cooking is done through oil so I thought £60 was reasonable for lights/tv/electrical stuff? It’s similar to what I’ve always paid so didn’t think it was too odd. People on here are saying similar so I don’t think I was too stupid trusting it?

the company is E-on and I raised the issue with the meter several times. They knew it wasn’t working, but didn’t fix. I’ve gone through it while on the phone with them tonight and it’s completely broken apparently. It literally shows as 0000 for all options. They sent me monthly bills, but I didn’t actually look through them for details. The emails would say ‘please pay £60 for this month’s bill’ and I’d go on and pay. I didn’t look through to see how much I’d used etc?

@SnowQueenie Eon are totally batshit crazy incompetents. This is why you need to ring Citizens Advice, like I told you. They have a whole section of experts on this sort of malarkey.

In future, you should check each monthly bill that the readings for usage are actual and not estimates. Obviously when the meter is actually working, as if it's been non-functional for over a year then the usage on all your bills is going to be an estimate for sure.

You should have had a build up of credit on your account if you have only been paying the standing charges and no usage. Can you access your account online and see the previous payments and balances? On my provider's website you can see each payment and the subsequent balance going back for many months.

@SilenceInside i can see the information in my account, but they’ve put in a massive bill this month which has wiped out the additional credit I had and now means I owe £170 still. I was overpaying on the bills (so paying £60 on a £50 bill or £70 on a £60 one) so I had a few hundred pounds in credit. All that’s gone now, it just says I owe them more