£10,000 Electric bill for 8 years

[pelham9]

Clare

 

To be totally honest, it is unlikely the billing code will apply as although you gave them a reading at the start, the fact you have not contacted them asking why you are not being billed will go against you.

 

How do you explain that a utliity can supply electricity to a property for 8 years withouit the utility being aware of it?

 

It is surely impossible to supply gas or electricity without a meter being fitted. The pipes and meters are owned by the distributer who will only allow their meters to be used if a supplier company takes over the supply. The distributer will have a record of the supplier and the supplierr will have a record of the distibutor. Meter numbers and address will be recorded by both.

 

If a supplier has agreed to supply gas or electricity to a property surely it is the suppliers responsibility to take meter readings and to determine whether the the property is occupied. To rely on bulders or customers to do this is incompetent. A supplier who has a property on their books for eight years and who has not taken a meter reading or visited the property to check its occupancy is grossly inefficient. It is this type of inefficiency that the billing code was written to prevent.

 

You might argue that the utility did not know they were suppling the property and that there was 'an error in the databases'. Whose fault is that?- certainly not a customer or a builder.

 

There are bound the be errors in the supplier and disributor data bases. Surely there are regular reconciliations between these databases to pick up these errors - I supect this does not happen.

 

This kind of problem should be very rare but a short perusal of this forum will show you how common it is. I am certain that this state of affairs could be very nearly eliminated if proper systems and investigation departments were in use. So why are these measures not in place? I would suggest to you that utilities do not take on the expense of doing this because it is cheaper to give away free electricity particularly if (as you do) they seek to blame the problem on the customer and get away with it.

[pelham9]

A builder gives you a stack of papers, one with meter serial numbers, one with address's and plot numbers, then drops the stack, shoves them all together and hands them over.

 

There is the problem. You are relying on builders. If you do this you are bound to get into trouble. Does anybody ever get up from their computer screens to sort out problems? It might be worth visiting a newbulid site to check that the builders paperwork is correct and that it has been entered accurately on your databases.

 

If you are supplying a property it is up to you to check that the address meter number and occupant are known and correct. To rely on builders and customers is asking for trouble. Customers have to find out who their supplier is by asking the distributor. Do you ever ask the distibutor what properties you are supplying to check that none (as in this case) have been missed? Do you routinely do onsite invetigations where there are problems?

 

In this case the OP did ring giving his name address and meter reading. Presumably the address was not on the database and there was no account. Instead of this ringing alarm bells the operative just 'forgot' about it or worse still the operative had no way of raising a query. Would you really have us believe that you consider it is the customer's responsibility to chase you. His phone call has shown you there is something to investigate. If you do not do the checks and do not follow up an obvious problem then that is your fault and I have no sympathy with the idea that somehow the customer is to blame.

 

In my apartment block addresses meter numbers were given incorrectly by the builders. I chased the utility with numerous phone calls and letters and this caused a further and enormous muddle - I had at one time six accounts and numbers but all for gas supplied to the flat above mine. I requested an onsite investigation an a number of occasions - the whole situation could have been sorted in two hours - (I had already done this) but nobody ever came. It took 2.5 years for the utility to sort this and it cost them a great deal via the billing code and so it should. They had not even heard of the Royal Mail address database !!

 

Utilities must get there house in order and stop blaming builders and customers for their inadequate systems. That is why there is a billing code and customers must use it fully. Otherwise there is no incentive for utilities to get it right.

 

You are fortunate in working for Eon. Take it from me that they have one of the best systems and customer services in the game. You know the inefficiencies of Eon so think about how bad the rest are.

[pelham9]

On a different note, I agree that if meters were to get turned off when a person leaves and turned back on when new ones arrive, it would make things a lot simpler

.

 

This always was the case in this country too.

 

To do things in a sensible way is fairly expensive. The utilities would again have to arrange for people to be available to got to properties probably twice to get old and new readings and switch off an on. This would entail keeping appointments!! or even an emergency switch on service. We could have proper written contracts instead of nebulous deemed contracts.

 

To save money they have stopped doing this and say that this is a benefit to customers - ' you can rely on utility services as soon as you move in'. It must be that they save more money by not providing this simple service as against the money they lose under the billing code. So when they changed the system they would have already costed in the loss on this OP's account.

 

There is one other point. Those moving in especially to first properties often do not know that it is imperative to read meters and confirm the occupation to the utilities. Many all their lives have simply turned on a switch or turned a tap and just do not know the responsibilities that our utilities place on them. No wonder many get it wrong.

[pelham9]

even if they are only estimates

,

 

How can estimates prove that electricity has been used?

[pelham9]

So what has the supplier been doing for the past six years?

 

They have not (so the OP says) read a meter or communicated with the property's occupants during that time. If the OP is being economical with the truth I would have expected that estimated bills would have been rendered long before 6 years and court action to disconnect would have been taken ages ago.

 

Why has it taken six years to get to this situation? It is because of the inefficient systems that the utility employs and the billing code should operate against them.

 

Of coirse they can render a bill for six years (or even 8 years).There is nothing to stop them doing that. The question is should the OP take advantage of the billing code and only pay for the last year's proven usage. I maintain that he should. It is not a matter of honesty - it is a natter of forcing the inefficient supplier to put in systems that prevent this kind of nonsense.

[pelham9]

NN4

 

Best to start a new thread.

 

They have refused and have said they now want £100 per month which she just cannot afford.

 

She should continue to pay tthe £45 per month and ignore their demands for £100 pm for the time being. Good thing that she cannot pay by direct debit otherwise they would attempt take £100 even though this is not agreed.

 

In your new thread it would be as well to show us exactly what has happened over the past 3 years or longer if this is relevant - when did they last take a meter reading.

[pelham9]

Where the supplier is at fault, consumers cannot be back-billed beyond 12 months from the date on any subsequent bill."

 

Isn't the supplier always at fault?

 

They have made a contract with a distibutor to take supplies through a particular meter at a given address. They then bill the occupier for this supply. It is up to them to make the proper checks otherwise there will be problems

 

a) is the meter number correct?.

b) is the address correct?

c) who is the occupier?

d) has the database got the correct information

 

b) is particularly importaant for newbuilds where the correct postal address has not yet replaced a 'site' address. They should also be responsible for checking that the meter does indeed supply a given address

 

To do these checks requires effort and costs. It may even require a site visit which utilities appear to abhor. In particular it requires accurate databases and properly trained staff to enter data. Intead of doing these checks they rely on builders, agents, the distibuter and finally the customer all of which they will blame if their information is defective.

 

Every problem with lack of meter readings and bills is clearly a fault in the checking of the above and can be nobody's fault other than the utility.

 

There appears to be no checking within the database and computers. The database if the data has been correctly imputted has the meter number. How can it be that the computer does not flag up a no meter reading situation? How can it be that the computer sends no bills for that meter and does not inform anyone of this?.

 

If there is a wrong address the computer should be able to flag this by comparing with the Royal Mail database. What happens to mail returned 'no such address' or 'not at this address' - my impression from my own experience is that it gets binned and no action is taken. When I rang to introduce myself and give a reading to British Gas I was told that there was no such address and nothing could be done about it!!

 

The utilities try to blame the occupier for not informing them of their occupation. It is not the responsibilty of customers to do this - but is is basic common sense that a utility supplier should be resposnsible to find out. They should have sytems in place to do this at reasonable intervals -say six monthly.

 

I can think of no scenario where it is not the utiltity's fault if meter readings are not taken and/or bills not sent. Anybody disagee?