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Hi,
We moved back into our house 4.5 years ago after some building works. Since we moved back in we have only received estimated bills from EDF despite their meter readers visiting the premises on at least 3 occasions to take accurate readings. We continued to pay the bills we received without giving it much further thought knowing that they were in receipt of accurate readings. In February of this year, they sent us a bill for in excess of £25k having applied the latest reading to the account. When we queried this with them we were advised that they would apply the back billing code as they had received readings and not applied them to the account because they believed them to be too high. Subsequently, they wrote to us and stated that they would NOT apply the back billing code as in their opinion they had attempted to read the meter on other occasions. They supplied a list of about 7 occasions they state they tried to gain access but I can categorically say that on at least 3 of these I was home and they did NOT make any attempt. We complained to the ombudsman but they sided with EDF stating EDF had made attempts to notify us of the usage (letters we did not receive!) and read the meter on other occasions. We dispute the facts provided to the ombudsman but obviously have no evidence to prove one way or another. We are now in the position where they are demanding we repay in excess of £25k which we believe to be extremely unfair when they knew the usage was high and, by their own admission, ignored the readings.
Any advice on what we do next?
We moved back into our house 4.5 years ago after some building works. Since we moved back in we have only received estimated bills from EDF despite their meter readers visiting the premises on at least 3 occasions to take accurate readings. We continued to pay the bills we received without giving it much further thought knowing that they were in receipt of accurate readings. In February of this year, they sent us a bill for in excess of £25k having applied the latest reading to the account. When we queried this with them we were advised that they would apply the back billing code as they had received readings and not applied them to the account because they believed them to be too high. Subsequently, they wrote to us and stated that they would NOT apply the back billing code as in their opinion they had attempted to read the meter on other occasions. They supplied a list of about 7 occasions they state they tried to gain access but I can categorically say that on at least 3 of these I was home and they did NOT make any attempt. We complained to the ombudsman but they sided with EDF stating EDF had made attempts to notify us of the usage (letters we did not receive!) and read the meter on other occasions. We dispute the facts provided to the ombudsman but obviously have no evidence to prove one way or another. We are now in the position where they are demanding we repay in excess of £25k which we believe to be extremely unfair when they knew the usage was high and, by their own admission, ignored the readings.
Any advice on what we do next?
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