No bills for 2 years - what now?
Discussion
We moved recently after having lived at our previous house (which was new) for 2 years.
When we 1st moved to our previous house we knew Scottish Power were our gas provider but nobody at the developers (McClean Homes) could tell who supplied the electricity. The gas was supplied by Scottish Power so we telephoned them to ask if they supplied us and we were told "No".
So, we called All the other electricity suppliers and they said the same thing. We contacted TRANSCO and they didn't know as they are Gas safety only.
Anyway, we never did find any of the suppliers were responsible for our supply. We repeated this 3 times and on each occasion were told that we weren't any of the suppliers customers.
On all occasions we gave the number on the label on the meter, so there was a reference which should have made sense to someone.
We moved recently and 3 months after this we have received a bill for the previous house from Scottish Power for the entire 2 years to be paid in one.
OK, so perhaps we should have put some money aside to pay it eventually but that's difficult when you don't really know what the costs are, anyway ....we didn't!
I've called them to explain all of this and to remind them that we are not really at fault here, after all they didn't send any correspondence to us whatsoever in the 2 years and we did call them 3 times over a period of a few weeks to check and double check whether they had made a mistake.
I think we should offer to pay them over the same period of 24 months and with no interest payments, does this sound reasonable?
When we 1st moved to our previous house we knew Scottish Power were our gas provider but nobody at the developers (McClean Homes) could tell who supplied the electricity. The gas was supplied by Scottish Power so we telephoned them to ask if they supplied us and we were told "No".
So, we called All the other electricity suppliers and they said the same thing. We contacted TRANSCO and they didn't know as they are Gas safety only.
Anyway, we never did find any of the suppliers were responsible for our supply. We repeated this 3 times and on each occasion were told that we weren't any of the suppliers customers.
On all occasions we gave the number on the label on the meter, so there was a reference which should have made sense to someone.
We moved recently and 3 months after this we have received a bill for the previous house from Scottish Power for the entire 2 years to be paid in one.
OK, so perhaps we should have put some money aside to pay it eventually but that's difficult when you don't really know what the costs are, anyway ....we didn't!
I've called them to explain all of this and to remind them that we are not really at fault here, after all they didn't send any correspondence to us whatsoever in the 2 years and we did call them 3 times over a period of a few weeks to check and double check whether they had made a mistake.
I think we should offer to pay them over the same period of 24 months and with no interest payments, does this sound reasonable?
Sounds reasonable - but I doubt they'll go for it.
We had a similar cock-up. About a year went buy and I assumed we were paying out of the house account - then it appeared we hadn't due to an admin cock-up.
Problem is, like many people, we barely check our statements if at all.
So we had to pay them in one go.
>> Edited by alexkp on Tuesday 21st December 16:28
We had a similar cock-up. About a year went buy and I assumed we were paying out of the house account - then it appeared we hadn't due to an admin cock-up.
Problem is, like many people, we barely check our statements if at all.
So we had to pay them in one go.
>> Edited by alexkp on Tuesday 21st December 16:28
Sounds reasonable to me.
You obviously can demonstrate good faith in attempting to pay earlier and are now talking about making an entirely reasonable offer of payment over a period of time.
The odd thing is that SP prefer to send out combined gas & electric bills anyway, so feck knows why they managed to cock up their admin so badly in the 1st place?
You obviously can demonstrate good faith in attempting to pay earlier and are now talking about making an entirely reasonable offer of payment over a period of time.
The odd thing is that SP prefer to send out combined gas & electric bills anyway, so feck knows why they managed to cock up their admin so badly in the 1st place?
pdV6 said:
Sounds reasonable to me.
You obviously can demonstrate good faith in attempting to pay earlier and are now talking about making an entirely reasonable offer of payment over a period of time.
The odd thing is that SP prefer to send out combined gas & electric bills anyway, so feck knows why they managed to cock up their admin so badly in the 1st place?
You hit the nail on the head there, it really is a complete feck up.
When I called them 1st thing today they said they had a record of us from the date we moved into the house.
"So why didn't you bill us" I asked.
"Errr, I'll have to call you back" was the response.
I don't want to avoid paying it or anything like that, I just don't want to in one go having just moved several weeks ago and having been shafted by the previous owners of our new house to the tune of £9k (but that's another story), anyway we can't really afford to pay 2 years in one lump now.
I guess I'll have to call them for a 4th time....
1. Did you ever sign a contract re. electricity supply?
2. Ask them to explain, in detail, how they've suddenly managed to figure out that they were supplying you. Then ask them to provide all data that they hold on you. Then a couple of similar questions that'll take ages to turn around. By the time you're finished, 6 months will have passed, which is probably a fair grace period for repayment.
2. Ask them to explain, in detail, how they've suddenly managed to figure out that they were supplying you. Then ask them to provide all data that they hold on you. Then a couple of similar questions that'll take ages to turn around. By the time you're finished, 6 months will have passed, which is probably a fair grace period for repayment.
www.energywatch.org.uk
"energywatch is the independent watchdog for gas and electricity consumers. We provide free, impartial advice on a range of energy issues. We also take-up complaints on behalf of consumers who are experiencing difficulty in resolving problems directly with their energy suppliers."
"energywatch is the independent watchdog for gas and electricity consumers. We provide free, impartial advice on a range of energy issues. We also take-up complaints on behalf of consumers who are experiencing difficulty in resolving problems directly with their energy suppliers."
Many thanks for all the advice folks!
TO be fair, Scottish Power have been reasonable once I actually got to speak with somebody who was able to make a decision!
We'll just have to wait and see whether they are adding any interest. Needless to say I won't be interested ....in paying any!
TO be fair, Scottish Power have been reasonable once I actually got to speak with somebody who was able to make a decision!
We'll just have to wait and see whether they are adding any interest. Needless to say I won't be interested ....in paying any!
los angeles said:
I think we should offer to pay them over the same period of 24 months and with no interest payments, does this sound reasonable?
Absolutely correct ... so long as you have acceptable proof (usually written evidence - that you contacted them earlier about the anomaly and they did nothing to rectify matters.
We did actually only telephone to ask them about the supply but they now have accepted that we were registered as a customer from day 1 and that they had not sent any previous demands for payment. So, I'm hoping we should be OK.
If not ....it's over to OFFWATT!
KentishS2 said:
I think we should offer to pay them over the same period of 24 months and with no interest payments, does this sound reasonable?
Absolutely - it is their fault that you received no bills at the due time. They cannot reasonably be expected to pay 2-year's worth in one lump.
24 months sounds good to me. In fact, don't ask them if you can, tell them that you WILL (by DD if that cheers them up)
maxf said:
I know for business rates some legislation was passed that bills must be issued within a reasonable amount of time - which after a court case transpired to be 12 months (basically).
Not quite correct! The legislation has always stated that the Charging Authority must bill the ratepayer in a reasonable time period. There was a couple of years ago a case involving a company called Encon, who were in a property that was in the Rating list but they never received a bill. The local authority inspector had been out to look for the property and failed and therefore the local authority levied empty rates ie 100% relief.
The local authority then became aware that Encon had been in occupation for years and sought to charge back rates. The court determined that it wasn't Encons fault that the local authority had been unable to find their property when it was in the list, and it was reasonable to assume the local authority should check who was in where onc a year, therefore ony one years back rates were payable.
The problem arises when the property is not in the List, or is in the List as something else. The Valuation Officer has the power to merge or divide something going back to 1 April 2000. Therefore if you are in a property which is included in someone elses assessment the VO can split it back to 1 April 200, the local authority couldn;t have billed you earlier as no assessment, so you suddenly have best part of 5 years back rates to pay. Only option is to try the VO for compensation.
I'm sure you are correct, and it was Encon I was referring to. However, I didn't realise they had levied empty rates relief? I thought it was simply not billed due to an oversight, then retrospectively billed for the entire list (plus a year IIRC)?
The real problem occurs (aside from crafty VO splits/mergers/recons) when someone has been paying, such as a landlord, but not the responsible person - the BA at the moment seem to be able to charge as far back as they like, by refunding the LL and charing the Tenant.
I'm still pretty shocking on Rating though, and will be giving you a call when I sit my APC in March!
The real problem occurs (aside from crafty VO splits/mergers/recons) when someone has been paying, such as a landlord, but not the responsible person - the BA at the moment seem to be able to charge as far back as they like, by refunding the LL and charing the Tenant.
I'm still pretty shocking on Rating though, and will be giving you a call when I sit my APC in March!
TheLemming said:
Have they conducted any sort of meter reading over this time?
Have you a record of the meter reading at the times you moved in and out?
If you dont, and if they dont, its pretty likely they are also overcharging you for the period.
Oh yes indeed I took readings when we bought the house and first moved in and when we moved out to our new house.
The supplier has the opening reading but the closing reading is well over what ours was. I also photographed the meter.
KentishS2 said:
Many thanks for all the advice folks!
TO be fair, Scottish Power have been reasonable once I actually got to speak with somebody who was able to make a decision!
We'll just have to wait and see whether they are adding any interest. Needless to say I won't be interested ....in paying any!
Same happened to me with 3.5 years of bills, managed to get a 15% discount and 3.5 years to pay. Keep on at them, tell them what you want as long as it is reasonable you will get it.
Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff