Never received an electricity bill

[Ks26]

A bit of advice and guidance please. My daughter has been living in her flat with her little 3 year old as a single parent for about 3yrs. She is on income support and housing benefit. Bills always paid apart from the fact she has never had an electricity bill. No phone calls, no meter readings and no letters in the whole period of time about non payment or otherwise. Out of the blue she told me that a letter from some solicitors had come addressed to the executors of my late daughter regarding her estate and an outstanding balance of £2,600 it was quite a shock to her as she is fit and well and very much alive and this is the first kind of any correspondence she's had.

How do we play this?

Any help or advice is appreciated.

[slainte caragh]

Re: Never received an electricity bill

Hi,

I need to ask a few questions, firstly did your daughter ever inform any energy supplier she lived at the property?

Is the property single fuel? If so, is there any reason for her not seeking to pay electricity rates? I.E are they included in her tenancy, and more importantly can she prove it?

With regards to the "Late Ms X" I am assuming a land registry has been done and the solicitors have put 2 and 2 together and made 17, and decided the reason she has no account is due to her sad demise.

Once I know if she has made any attempt to organise an account I can advise further.

Callie

[Ks26]

Re: Never received an electricity bill

Thanks for your reply. When she first moved in she contacted the energy supplier and was paying by direct debit. She hadn't realised that the company hadn't been taking the money after some time. She has never received a reminder letter or even a meter reading the only contact she's had is a generic email sent to every customer about how to save money etc.

[slainte caragh]

Re: Never received an electricity bill

did she ever enquire as to why?

[Ks26]

Re: Never received an electricity bill

No because she assumed the payment was being taken by direct debit as was originally set up like that

[Amethyst]

Re: Never received an electricity bill

I wonder if the direct debit details were taken down incorrectly and they've been trying to take the monthly payments by DD from an account of someone who actually is deceased, but then you'd think she'd have received some letters from the electric company saying her DD was bouncing .... ? and of course if the bank notified they'd have used the account holders name....

Has your daughter checked back her bank statements to see if any successful payments were ever made by DD to the electric company ?

Could she have opted for paperless billing and is meant to have an online account set up?

Has she ever checked her credit file? ( I believe most utility companies report now to equifax )

[MENTION=99495]slainte caragh[/MENTION]; is it still the case they can't bill back more than a year if it is their error ? or is that only if the customer has made an enquiry in the meantime as to why they haven't received a bill etc?

[slainte caragh]

Re: Never received an electricity bill

[MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION] this is where the problem starts.

Back billing does in fact show you cannot be charged for more than a years bill UNLESS...

The fault lies with the customer, i.e you have never enquired as to why you are not being charged.

If for example your daughter had been paying (for want of a figure) £10 a month and the cost of electricity was £30 a month but the company had never changed the DD then you can fight them and say hold up, this is your issue you said you were going to change it etc.

If the customer was fully aware they were not being charged and did nothing, the energy company can and will claim it back!

The actual stipulation is, the supplier has never supplied a bill.. AND THE CUSTOMER HAS REQUESTED THEM.

If as Ame has suggested, they are trying to obtain funds from a deceased person's bank account you may be able to have some charges waived, but to be honest I doubt it as your daughter never queried why there were no monies being debited from the account. If she never received a bill at all the first thing she should have done is asked why.

I know hindsight is a glorious thing, but that is the attitude not only of the company but of OFGEM too.