Please help me with this £1,900 bill!

[legalhomehelp]

We've been living at a private rented property for a little over 2yrs. Our electricity supplier is SSE who we are up to date on bills with.
I get a call yesterday from another energy company saying we are behind on our bill. It's news to me. Apparently a separate energy supplier provides our heating and cooling system. They told me the managing agent didn't inform them there were new tenants in the property until January of this year and had been billing the landlord all this time (who wasn't paying, obviously). They said they were sending me bills since January but I haven't received anything so told them to resend hard and soft copies.

The bill is £1,900 (for the 2yrs since we've lived there)!!!!! No way can I afford this. Especially not with being self-employed during coronavirus pandemic. Where do I stand? Please help.

Look up back billing rules. There is a time limit for how far back they can claim. You’d also be entitled to ask for a payment plan.

HI this is the regulator, Ofgem. Iwww.ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/household-gas-and-electricity-guide/who-contact-if-its-difficult-paying-energy-bills/energy-backbilling-guide-your-rights
I think it’s max a year.
It could be a fraud. If you contact them, look up the contact details yourself and dial from a different phone.

Have you contacted your landlord? Personally I would find it extremely odd that a landlord wouldn’t contact the tenants to let them know about this sort of thing. Is it a well known company?

Thank you so much for your replies. I've been really stressed out by this. Had no idea about back billing rules so will check it out.

Not a scam - have checked with our building management that there is a separate supplier for the heating/cooling system.

Never met or spoken to landlord. He lives abroad and has a property portfolio in London, we are just one of many of his tenants. All contact is made through the managing agent.

Under 'back billing' rules, your supplier cannot send you a bill for energy you used more than 12 months ago.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/not-received-energy-bill/

My Dad has something similar with SSE. He was calling quarterly to provide meters, making payments on the phone etc and in December received a bill combined at approx £3k. When I looked into it, they had back billed him for 37 months! It took 4 months to be corrected but in the end I got him his money back - as he paid the bill thinking it was correct - and further compensation.

If you haven't already, work out the average monthly usage and offer to pay 12 months in line with back billing. Ensure your numbers and calculations are tight though.