£4300 Electricity Bill!

TheDean · 24 Jun 2008 at 10:36

Janesy B said:
You'll complain when they do a meter reading and find out you own them a few hundred quid.

Nope, as I always compare my meter reading to their estimate one. Can never lose

Dugganator · 24 Jun 2008 at 10:39

TheDean said:
Nope, as I always compare my meter reading to their estimate one. Can never lose

So your estimates arent wrong then :rolleyes:

so how are you saving money

Gooner14 · 24 Jun 2008 at 10:39

You live above a shop? I wonder where there meter is

Could they be using your electric?

Janesy B · 24 Jun 2008 at 10:39

Yeah but you just said you pay £50 less? surely when the meter gets read the difference will be claimed by the energy company?

Abraham · 24 Jun 2008 at 10:43

Ekim said:
All of the bills since we moved in have been estimates. We didn't do a meter reading when we moved in - which we should have done but never got round to. I'm pretty certain the reading I gave was correct.

This is the first reading we have given them but we're not sure when they're last accurate reading was, from talking to the guy on the phone he seemed to be suggesting it was years since they had last had a reading.

you will have had an actual reading when you moved in, you cant just create an account without a reading, like i said, how long is this over, yes if your boiler has been on 24/7 it can cause high bills, I got about £600 for half a year because my flat has a boiler with no timer or anything on it

VaderDSL · 24 Jun 2008 at 10:44

**** I'd better check mine, did a reading at the start of the tenancy, and I think the boiler here is just on by default.

Shadez · 24 Jun 2008 at 10:46

when was the last meter reading if it was more than 3 years ago they cant claim the difference back.

LordSplodge · 24 Jun 2008 at 10:51

Npower estimated one gas bill a and then we gave them a Meter reading. They then sent us a gas bill for £1700.

Turns out their "estimate" was a mistake and the difference between the two was so high we got a huge bill.

Sorted it out and we got a bill £180 in credit

Energy companies are almost as incompetent as BT! Shouldn't have privatised them IMHO!

Ekim · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:00

LeaguePosition14 said:
You live above a shop? I wonder where there meter is Could they be using your electric?

We thought that for a while, but I've been down and seen the meters and there is definately two meters feeding the property.

Abraham said:
you will have had an actual reading when you moved in, you cant just create an account without a reading, like i said, how long is this over, yes if your boiler has been on 24/7 it can cause high bills, I got about £600 for half a year because my flat has a boiler with no timer or anything on it

The account name is in the name of the letting agent so we have just carried on the account from the previous tenants.

Shadez said:
when was the last meter reading if it was more than 3 years ago they cant claim the difference back.

Not sure when the last reading was. We have only been in the property for one year.

Lead_Head said:
Who is you're energy supplier, I may or may not be able to help out...

Its with Southern Electric. If you can help in any way that'd be grand!

Neoni · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:00

tres · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:01

Ekim said:
A few weeks ago I took a meter reading for the electricity company as I am moving out of my flat.

When I gave them the reading they were a little surprised as it was way over what they were expecting. They supplied us with a bill for £4300 and were going to come round to check out the meter as obviously something was wrong. We hadn't heard anything from them so rang them yesterday to find out what the deal was, and apparently there was nothing on our account details saying there was a problem!

We have thought originally that the meter had been running fast and we were unsure when the last accurate meter reading was - could be years as when I spoke to them originally a while ago they said they had tried to check it a while back but the engineer could access it (we live above a shop and the meter is hidden in the basement which you can only access via the shop).

One of my flatmates had been doing some investigation and worryingly it turns out that the boiler may have been on constantly and we don't know when it was last off. The entire flat is electric, there is no gas.

Obviously there is no way we can afford a bill as large as that! Does anyone have experience with this sort of situation?

If it's a domestic property, then legislation is in place to stop suppliers back-charging more than 1 year's worth of charges

i deal with all of our electricity accounts on the island (about 80) and have this problem a lot.. especially as i've just discovered one meter - estimated reading 67,000; actual reading 675,000

Ekim · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:02

Duggan said:
Well I had sort of the same problem but my bill when I left my supplier wasnt that high it was for about £400. Best advice really is that when you moved into your flat you should have been given a reading from your electric meter in your hand over documents.

Do you own the flat or rent it. If you own the flat it should have been given to you as part of the documents that you got when you completed on the flat via your lawers. Its called different things but normally its something along the lines of "hand over doc" basically contains all details about your flat. If the flat is rented I think the land lord should have take a reading when the last people moved out.

If you have the start reading its the best way to be sure that you have in fact used that much power. You may have not used the amount due to a meter problem or realised the amount of power you are using but 4300 sounds crazy. I would think that either the reading they have from the people that lived there was wrong or a system error. Who is the enegry company you are dealing with? some are right R tards so make sure to call them all the time as it took me 4 months to get my dispute resolved.

Good Luck

It is a rented property, the previous tenants should have taken a reading and if not then then the letting agent should have, but to be honest our letting agent is generally a fat waste of space so I'm not holding out.

Juniper · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:05

I'd get straight on the blower to EnergyWatch and discuss these timescales with you and they'll be able to put pressure on SE to get this sorted out for you. IIRC it's 2 years, not 3, that they can't claim anything past and they should aim to be checking your meter every 6 months.

Over Clocker · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:06

Ekim said:
We thought that for a while, but I've been down and seen the meters and there is definately two meters feeding the property.

The account name is in the name of the letting agent so we have just carried on the account from the previous tenants.

Not sure when the last reading was. We have only been in the property for one year.

Its with Southern Electric. If you can help in any way that'd be grand!

I'm afraid you have been extremely naive in not taking a reading when you moved in.

You're letting agent has also been pretty stupid by not making you register it in your own name!!

Dugganator · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:08

Ekim said:
It is a rented property, the previous tenants should have taken a reading and if not then then the letting agent should have, but to be honest our letting agent is generally a fat waste of space so I'm not holding out.

I would still contact your landlord he should have a reading if he doesn’t or didn’t provide you with one from when the last people left then you could always blame him. But It might also be your responsibility as your renting I'm not to sure as I’ve never rented only had mortgage.

jas72 · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:08

Ekim said:
A few weeks ago I took a meter reading for the electricity company as I am moving out of my flat.

When I gave them the reading they were a little surprised as it was way over what they were expecting. They supplied us with a bill for £4300 and were going to come round to check out the meter as obviously something was wrong. We hadn't heard anything from them so rang them yesterday to find out what the deal was, and apparently there was nothing on our account details saying there was a problem!

We have thought originally that the meter had been running fast and we were unsure when the last accurate meter reading was - could be years as when I spoke to them originally a while ago they said they had tried to check it a while back but the engineer could access it (we live above a shop and the meter is hidden in the basement which you can only access via the shop).

One of my flatmates had been doing some investigation and worryingly it turns out that the boiler may have been on constantly and we don't know when it was last off. The entire flat is electric, there is no gas.

Obviously there is no way we can afford a bill as large as that! Does anyone have experience with this sort of situation?

Same thing happened to my colleague here in Belgium she was told to talk to her insurance company about it. Losses due to a faulty boiler (supposing you had it serviced) should be able to be claimed (just like if your boiler burst and spilled water). However this would deffo require a good service record before any payout.

She aslo said her leccy company was willing to negociate payment (she wasn't moving though).

pitchfork · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:09

You son need to run.
You're moving out, it's not your problem, it's the landlord, he is responsible for maintenance of the flat and if the boiler was ****ed you don't need to pay for it.

Over Clocker · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:12

pitchfork said:
You son need to run.
You're moving out, it's not your problem, it's the landlord, he is responsible for maintenance of the flat and if the boiler was ****ed you don't need to pay for it.

To be honest, this is possible what I would do, especially if the account is in letting agent's name.

If they have been stupid enough to leave it in their name, it's kinda their problem!

Ekim · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:12

Its all well and good saying to run, but I would quite like to get some of my deposit back.

yak.h'cir · 24 Jun 2008 at 11:13

TheDean said:
We've always been on estimates and they tend to estimate about £50 lower than our usage so I can't complain

Until you move and they send you a bill for £4300