Should I pay this bill?

[ilovemilton]

Apologies for reposting my AIBU thread but thought I might get more legal advice here.

In Feb 2017, I joined a new energy company. I sent them the meter readings and they sent it to the old company. I received and paid for my final bill in March 2017.

In March 2018, I received a bill for the quarter ending Dec 2017, which I challenged. They told me they would place it on hold and get back to me. There were several phone calls and then I didn't hear anything else.

Today, I have received a final warning for this amount. I have contacted them to let them know it was placed on hold for 30 days and I haven't heard anything since. I repeated my original complaint, that I paid my final bill in March 2017.

They have said that they have investigated fully, that bill was just an estimate, and if I don't pay within seven days, they will be sending enforcement.

Sorry posted too soon.

Does anyone know if this is correct? Do I have to pay?

I have no records from this now, so nothing to prove meter readings or anything. They haven't even sent me meter readings, just a demand letter.

Are you being billed by your new energy company? If so, you clearly don't owe the old one anything for a quarter which started 6 months after you left them.

Sorry - pressed post too soon. Are they saying this is for the final period you were with them?

I had already had my final bill and paid it. Then I got this random one months down the line, this March, ending December 2016, when I had already been paying the new company since Feb 2017.

They've given me seven days to pay or they are using enforcement - I don't feel like I have time to challenge it.

December 2017 sorry - but not received until March this year.

You will have to work this one out for yourself. Look at the meter readings on your old final bill that you paid. Look at the dates for the standing charge. Then look at the meter readings for your first bill on your new supply. The answer is in there somewhere.

Don't give up! I had exactly this with NPower this year. It took weekly calls and SIX MONTHS to sort out, but they had billed me incorrectly and everything is now sorted. Your new supplier can sometimes help as well, so call them too!

Get names of everyone you speak to and ask for email confirmations, then you have a paper trail!

I had a dispute with Economy Energy. Received and paid their final bill. Then, without changing the final meter reading, they reallocated the use of power between two different periods when the charge was different. Billed be around £20 extra. Refused to pay and made a complaint. They backed down.

Have you made a formal complaint using the company's complaints procedure? If not, do this now. Details of the procedure will be on the company web site. You need to state what the problem is and what you want the company to do to resolve it.

If it's still not resolved having gone through their complaints procedure, you can raise the matter with the Energy Ombudsman www.ombudsman-services.org/sectors/energy

I did this yesterday but I'm worried as they say they are sending enforcement of not paid in 7 days - I doubt I will have a response by then.

They can't send bailiffs until they get a court order. They may pass it to a debt collector but that doesn't mean you will have someone on your doorstep in 7 days. You can still dispute the debt. Don't be bullied into paying.

The fundamental question is whether or not you genuinely owe this money. You say they sent you a bill in March. If you still have that you should be able to check the meter reading against that in your first bill from your current supplier (which is almost certainly available online even if you have thrown your paper copy away). That will tell you whether or not you owe them this money.

Of course, you also need to check that any standing charge on the disputed bill relates to the period you were with the old supplier.

The bill in March was the same as the one I got yesterday - just a letter saying that's how much I owe. No meter readings, and I haven't kept anything older than that as I thought it was all sorted.

I did continue to pay my direct debit to them and my new company for three months at the same time, so I'm pretty confident that I don't owe them a standing charge!

In that case you need to chase them for a proper bill.

Lots of arguments later, account closed, apology received and nothing to pay 🌟

That's good news. Was it Tonik by any chance? They are pissing me about in a similar way

It was Co-operative Energy.