jane1966:

We believe that this has not been our error and I have read somewhere that they can only claim back for the past 12 months if they have not billed us or used low estimates . Is this true......

.... and is this their error

You are referring to something called the Code of Practice for Accurate Billing. I suggest that you refer to it, in particular the FAQ. The circumstances where it applies are described in clauses (d) - (i). There are also 3 clauses (a) to (c) which apply to you before the supplier is bound by the Code and only you here can decide where you sit on (a) to (c), but if you have ignored a "low estimate" contained in a received bill or statement then its unlikely the Code applies in your favour.

Usually in response to posts in this forum I respond "on the face of it" the Code applies. TBH you will get much better help here by being "complete" with the background. Energy is sold by the "meter reading", whether right or wrong, accurate or estimated. In a long post not a single meter reading, so its impossible to comment on the second question.

That said, the bit about "the meter had been incorrectly read and you owed a further £3500" is interesting. "On the face of it" (in respect of the £3500 only) it's quite possible that you have a case under the Code. Whether that is likely for the remainder of the bill "on the face of it", no.

Presumably they have been billing you on the assumption that you have a metric meter (marked with m3 on the face) but are now saying that it is actually an Imperial meter (reading in 100s cu ft) ?? This would increase your amount owing roughly by a factor of 3. Have you not paid anything at all for the last 4 years? If so, how much have you paid? Seems a very strange case!

You need to check the meter, the readings and the bills that you have. If you cannot find a fault or error, you need to make an offer to pay the bill. This could be at a monthly amount over the next couple of years but it does need to be at an amount that will keep up with your usage. You should have an opening meter reading for when you switched to EDF four years ago and your EDF bills should have started from this reading. They can bill you for usage back to this date and reading because they have been sending you bills, even though they were estimated.

To check the meter, you should turn everything off for a while and make sure that it stops counting. You could also then leave something like a 1kw heater on for an hour to make sure that the meter records one unit (or 1kwh or about 0.1 cubic meter). It is also worth checking your current daily/weekly usage and comparing that to the bills.

If you want to dispute the bill, you need something more concrete than "it could be wrong" otherwise you will be forced into getting prepayment meters which will be loaded to collect the debt. You should certainly take an accurate reading without delay to see whether there is indeed more owing than has been billed. If there is, you need to firstly make arrangements to pay what has been billed and secondly prepare to pay more when the next bill comes. If the meter is showing that there is less owing than has been billed, you need to request an amended bill to reflect this.

Our gas is supplied by EDF. They recently came to our home to try and install a pre-pay meter because we had not paid our bill of £1400. While they were here they told us that the meter had been incorrectly read and that we owed them a further £3500. They have said that they thought we had a different meter. The house is only 5 years old so surely they must have known what meter we had and how could it have been 'misread' for the last 4 years. They are adamant that this bill has built up over the last 5 years (even though they have only been our supplier for 4 yrs) and it must be paid or they will cut us off. I would point out that at time of writing, we have not received a printed bill, only a reading and calculation from the guy trying to impose the meter on us and some rude and threatening calls from their customer services dept. My husband believes from their conversation that they have taken the current reading, deducted what we have paid for and come to the £3500 this way. Has this shortfall been calculated at today's gas price (which is considerably higher than 4/5 years ago and includes the 1st year we were with British Gas. (therefore charging us for that years gas twice) We believe that this has not been our error and I have read somewhere that they can only claim back for the past 12 months if they have not billed us or used low estimates . Is this true and is this their error? They just keep saying they want our repayment proposals and we are refusing to pay. If the meter has been misread wrong for so long, how can we believe that the last bill of £1400 was correct. Help.. what should we do?

The bill for £1400 was made up of estimate bills and is outstanding. We are due to pay it but are reluctant as it could be wrong but they are due to come back soon to force us to have a prepaid meter. They have a magistrates order but my husband is querying if they can do this on only an estimate bill as you may have not owed as much as they billed you for. Obviously, as this big bill has now surfaced (should be with us in the next day or so) they say they are justified.

We feel they are walking roughshod over us and are trying to scare us with their threats. Help!