Never received an electricity bill....

[jmsw1982]

Hi. I have not long moved in with my Fiancee. She has told me that she has never had an electricity bill since being at the address. She has been sent water, phone and gas bills, but never one for electricity. We've done some phoning around, and the impression I get, is that the meter has never been registered.

She and her brother have been living at the house since it was built about 14 months ago, and are the first residents. The house is rented. Who is responsible for registering the utilities at rental addressed? The tenant or the landlord?

I had a nose about on the net and as yet, have found nothing to answer my questions. All I have found is a website that calculates your bill, and if the prices per unit are right, the bill will bounce in at about £780, for a mater reading of 6704.

anyone got any tips?

Many thanks and kind regards, J.

[MrShed]

I think there is a one year rule for chasing backpayment of utilities - someone more knowledgeable will correct me here.

It is possible that the landlord is getting the bills sent directly to his property. Have you spoken to the landlord about this?

[jmsw1982]

As yet, we haven't spoken to the landlord as we rent via an agency. The agency have no involvement with household bills. We have already approached them, I'll contact the property owner and see if he or she knows anything about it. If there are any electricity bills, they will have been estimated, as the meter is indoors and nobody has been to read it.

[pelham9]

Was this a newbuild? If not the previous tenants should be able to give information and particularly the meter reading when they vacated.

Why would the landlord be paying only the electricity bill ? If the agent does not deal with household bills I do not think the landlord will be involved - after all the landlord has handed over the business to them.

It is correct that in the absence of bills you will only be expected to pay for one year's supply before the date of the first bill you do receive. Presumably your fiance read the meter when she moved in? If not you should record it now and attempt to get the reading when the previous tenants left. But perhaps they did not pay anything for electricity !! There is inevitably going to be some kind of averaging of usage to arrive at a bill so the more information you have on your usage the better - I would record meter readings monthly from now onwards.

Almost certainly National Grid PLC will own the suppy lines and meter and you should enquire of them. If you do this in writing and they do not have the correct address meter number or know who is supplying your electricity there is nothing further you can do - it is up to them. The longer you are without a bill the less you will have to pay.

Note that National grid will probably have your gas supply on their books - so check that your gas supplier is charging for the correct meter.

If your premises are new build almost anything can happen as the systems they have in place are notorious for startling errors . In my case they had the wrong meter number connected to my flat. We eventually ascertained that British gas was supplying us but British gas said they were not as the address was not on their database and they insisted that we pay for the supply to the flat above going as far as threatening disconnection if we did not pay. They actually sent bills and legal threats to ny address (number 10) for they gas used at number 12 !!

[pelham9]

See post below

[pelham9]

I have just read your first post today and it WAS a newbuild so do not be surprised if everything is wrong! My apologies! The previous tenant will be builders/landlord.

Have you got a water meter - if not how are they charging you?!

Are the gas meter readings for the correct meter reading point and meter number?

Check everything!

The people who connected the supply who are usually National Grid or their agents are responsible for 'registering' the meter but they can and do get it wrong. Make sure that from now on you do everything by post and recorded delivery and keep copies. You need to have a full writtem record of your attempts to sort this. Do not forget that post will delay matters which can only be to your advantage.( no need to hurry with replies)

[jmsw1982]

We don't have a water meter, we pay a standing charge every month for water. I will have a look this evening at the gas bill and make sure everything is correct.

I don't think my Fiancee read the meter when she first moved in, this isn't a mistake we'll be making again any time soon.

Thank you for all the leads so far, naturally, I don't relish the thought of having a bill of hundreds, or possibly thousands of pounds come rattling through the door. Incedentally, does anyone know the cost of the average unit of electricity these days? If the meter read zero when we moved in, I reckon our outstanding bill is going to be nigh-on £800!

[wino]

I did not get an electric bill for 9 years. (not through lack of trying - the electric companies denied I was a customer!!! The meter has been regulary read all this time) Anyway we have recently got a bill for the last year a bit less than £700. We have been given 12 months to pay this on monthly direct debits. We are in a three bed semi me, hubby and 2 teenagers (the type that do wash)

[Bookworm]

jmsw and wino, if you haven't had a bill for over a year, you can not be pursued for the amounts.

energywatch: Billing Basics

I haven’t had a bill for ages – do I still have to pay?
Consumers are legally bound to pay for their utilities. However, the Limitations Act 1980 prevents charges being recovered if the electricity or gas was used more than six years ago. In Scotland this period is five years.

Suppliers should at least offer a payment plan that allows you to repay any debt over the same length of time that it has built up. In other words, if you have not had a bill from your supplier for three years then, when a bill does finally appear, you should be able to spread the repayments over three years. However, if you accept a payment plan then you will not be able to change your supplier until you have cleared the outstanding debt.

However, as a result of the ‘super-complaint’ submitted by energywatch in April 2005 to the energy regulator, Ofgem (see below), energy companies have been told that, as of July 2006, they should no longer bill for any energy used by consumers more than two years previously where the company themselves has failed to provide a bill. As of July 2007, energy companies will be expected not to bill for any amount that dates back longer than a year.

and

When it made its decision Ofgem set out three requirements on energy suppliers:

1. By July 2006 they have to set up and fund an independent body to resolve disputes between individual companies and consumers. This body will have the power to award compensation to consumers who have received particularly poor service.
2. From July 2006 they should no longer seek payment from consumers where they have not billed a customer for two years. From July 2007 this period should reduce to one year.

[jmsw1982]

Hmm, I'll look into this too. So far, nobody has admitted to being our supplier.

[pelham9]

Water charges. I speak from experience!

Unless it is impossible all new properties must be fitted wth a meter. New properties do not have a rateable value -council tax banding is not rateable value- so they use a stadard charge which you will find is way above charges for a metered supply. No wonder they connect new properties without putting in a meter - they can charge much more.

You should insist that a meter should be fitted (free of charge) and that an average usage after the fitting should be backdated to the day you moved in. My water company fitted the meter (0 reading) then took a reading only three weeks later to get this average. We had taken the precaution of being economical with usage so this average was fairly low but of course if we had taken an extended holiday it would have been much lower - I wonder what they would have made of zero usage. In your case up to recently there was only two person usage and inevitably the average they will try to use is for three person usage. You should also insist that they cannot apply the average for any time that the premises were unoccupied - after all they cannot claim that the average was used during holiday periods.

It is their fault that no meter was installed and they must not be allowed to benefit from this 'error' as indicated in my first paragraph.

[wino]

Just to follow on from Bookies post. I was only billed for the last 12 months not the other 8 years previous usage.

[Bookworm]

That's not too bad then. £700 for a year is actually pretty good, I pay £55 a month at the moment for 4 of us in a 4 bedroom house.

[wino]

Originally Posted by Bookworm

That's not too bad then. £700 for a year is actually pretty good, I pay £55 a month at the moment for 4 of us in a 4 bedroom house.

£700 per year is not too bad but when your paying that along with this years bill as well £116 per month.... ouch!

[ozzywizard]

Yeah good point Wino, the price of energy today is crazy. Their profit margins are way too high.

[Bookworm]

Surely not, I thought they were all struggling with the wholesale prices, that's why they so reluctantly have to pass them on to us???

[ozzywizard]

Are you reading from a text"book"

Or maybe audio typing from a well trained CSC Advisor . . . .