Should I refuse to pay?

[pjmama]

A uk utility company has just landed us with a bill for a large amount of money, which we apparently owe them for an underpayment. They said it was due to an error on their part when they changed computer systems and dates back to a 3 week period in early 2007. Initially the bill they sent was 10 times bigger, but when we queried it they said that was a mistake and gave us the new figure instead. This is after we had a number of issues with this company a couple of months ago when they stopped us from taking our custom elsewhere, saying we hadn't given appropriate notice - this was not true and I had their acknowledgement letter to prove it. It transpired that they had made a mistake and seemed to be holding two different account numbers and sets of records for us. This was supposed to have been sorted out.

So consequently, given the facts that;

• there have been mistakes in the past due to duplicated records

• the amount they say we owe is far more than we could have possibly used in the 3 week period they say this is owed from

• this is their mistake and is from 4 years ago

... I have totally lost any confidence in them and am extremely reluctant to hand over this money just on their say so. We have always been model customers and pay by direct debit and have never missed a payment.

Has anyone had similar experiences or have any idea where I stand if I refuse to pay this?

You're entitled to demand that they prove what they claim. If they can prove you still owe it though, then you owe it.

I'm happy to cough up if it's correct, I'm just concerned as to how I'm going to be able to prove it if they have made a mistake - they're the ones holding all the information and presumably could tell me anything they like? I'm planning on pulling out our bills from that period and going over them myself, but if that's inconclusive then where do I go from there? Is there an independent body I can go to, to have it investigated by a third party?

Going out for a couple of hours so will check back later - thanks in advance!

If this is a British Gas, npower, eon, EDF, Scottish Power or SSE remind them of the Code of Practise for Accurate Bills produced by the Energy Retail Association. This is a voluntary code and is therefore not enforceable in law but the members of the ERA (the companies I have listed above) have agreed to abide by it. One of the provisions says that they should not attempt to bill customers for energy used more than one year ago where the debt is due to their errors. Even if they are not a member it may be worth asking them if they comply with the code.

The onus is on them to prove that you owe the money, not for you to prove that you don't.

That's really useful, thanks very much!