Eon Back Billing

[Jeffinatelymaybe]

My daughter co-rented a student flat whilst at university, Her and her flatmate paid monthly for their electricity and gas at a paypoint, The bills were based on estimated readings due to the fact that the estate agent were the only ones with access to the meters. The bills varied between £35.00 (summer) and £200.00 (winter). Both my daughter and her flatmate vacated the property on July 1st 2011. The meter readings were taken in their absence on july 1st 2011. The final bill was sent out on 13 july and was roughly £35.00 which was promptly paid.

On 13 sept 2012 her flatmate recieved a bill from EON for gas totalling £403.00.

My daughter queried this bill and was informed it was for under-estimations, When she questioned WHY it had taken 14 months for them to bill her, They have no explaination. My daughter is now looking for some advice and would be grateful if anyone could help.

[E.ON Company Rep: Helena]

Hi Jeffinatelymaybe,

 

It sounds like what we call a catch up bill, this is where an account is underestimated and when we receive an accurate meter reading it can cause a big bill.

 

We always advise for customers to read their meters if they get an estimated bill to avoid this sort of thing happening, especially as we are only obliged to read the meters once every 2 years.

 

Did they ever provide accurate readings whilst living in the property? Or did the letting agent take any?

 

However, it has taken over 12 months to produce this accurate bill. This could be because the property was empty so no one has provided accurate reads till now. Or because they didn't have forwarding addresses maybe?

 

Who took the readings for them on 1 July when they moved out? This could be an error.

 

I think you need to have this looked in to in much more detail, If you have authorisation to discuss the account on there behalf then contact E.ON again and ask for this to be escalated, escalation details are also on the bill.

 

If you don't have authorisation to discuss this then your daughter or flatmate will have to speak to us.

 

Helena

[Jeffinatelymaybe]

Hi Helena,

 

I have discovered today that the meter was read on the 1st March 2011, however, due to the "meter validater" rejected these readings apparently and this is why I continued to get estimated bills. I have also discovered today that the meter was not read by an engineer when I moved out, but the figures were provided to them by the letting agent upon complaint by a later tenant. This tenant moved in to the property on the day that I moved out. Eon had a forwarding address given to them when myself and my flat-mate informed them that we were leaving, our final "estimated" bill was sent to this address, this was for £35 pound on the 4th July 2011.

 

If you require any more details please do not hestitate to ask.

 

Many thanks.

[E.ON Company Rep: Helena]

Thanks for coming back to me.

 

This is starting to sound a bit like a third party issue.

 

So the letting agent provided the final reads to us for the move out date, but we still produced a bill to an estimated reading?? This isn't right, you need to establish what read they gave us and why it was not used.

 

The closing reads for your account and the opening reads for the new account should be the same, if there is dispute with this and you didn't actually read the meter then we have to use what we have been given to be an accurate read.

 

However, you say this has come about from a complaint to the letting agent.

 

I think the only way to get this resolved is to speak to us, let us investigate the account. Then you may also need to speak to the letting agent again.

 

Helena

[Jeffinatelymaybe]

All of my bills were estimated readings, up until July 1st 2011, even though the meter was read on March 2nd 2011. My final bill on 4th July 2011 was £35. This was also an estimate. The reading that Eon have was provided by the Letting Agent. None of my bills have been based on an accurate reading by an Eon engineer. The 2nd March reading was rejected, as the validater said it was too high. The complaint from the new tenant was apparantly made to Eon, who then contacted my letting agent, who gave them her final meter readings. As far as I am aware this reading wasn't given to Eon until the new tenant made this complaint.

[Jeffinatelymaybe]

Also, I am unsure how readings add up on the account. The readings I have been given for the account is

1st July 2010 2335

1st July 2011 3157

 

Total units used - 822.

 

Could you give me a rough idea of what my yearly bill should be for this?

 

Many thanks.