Do mistakes with energy bills happen? Cast your minds back a year, before the cost-of-living crisis kicked in and before 27 energy firms went bust.
The energy Regulator announced that over a few years previous, 1million people had been overcharged £7.2million by 18 energy firms. And that was just as a result of switching suppliers.
So before the current situation, in just one aspect of energy billing, things were already going very wrong.
Energy bills are really complicated and how they are calculated isn’t particularly easy to understand. Energy firms often automate the process of calculating bills – which means you only get an actual human being checking the calculation if you complain.
Add in to the mix estimated readings, faulty meters, different energy tariffs and human errors and you can see why there might be a lot of inaccuracy with the bill you receive.
Yet in recent months, there’s been an explosion of complaints about billing errors as people receive demands for payments that clearly can’t be right. So what’s going on?
What causes the billing errors?
There are three main reasons for the big growth in billing disputes:
- The pandemic meant that many bills were estimated as meter readers and engineers were largely grounded by lockdown.
- Millions of people were switched to new providers, carrying over all the old problems with their bills to a new energy firm, making it harder to figure out what’s gone on.
- The increase in energy bills by 54% has meant it’s much, much harder for people to know if their bill is wrong or just increasing in line with all the warnings of doom we’ve all been hearing.
How do I know if there’s been an error with my bill?
Don’t try to become an energy expert overnight! Despite my two decades as a consumer champion the mysteries of energy bills still confound me from time to time.
So go with your gut. Your energy bill should not have gone up more than 54% - so if the following things have happened, you could make a complaint.
Did your bill go up dramatically before the price cap came in to effect in April? It’s likely that your fixed rate deal came to an end.
Many people have reported that they were then hit with a huge increase in their bill before the maximum price hike kicked in.
This practice has been sharply criticised by many consumer champions, politicians and commentators.
If you’ve been hit with a price rise that increases your bill over the 54% you should ask the firm to explain in writing why it has done this and what other options were available to you. If you’re not happy with the answer, take the matter to the Energy Ombudsman.
Have a look on your bill under the ‘energy usage’ section. This will show if your supplier has been relying on estimated readings.
Chances are they have been doing this for a while. So when you give an actual reading (or when someone comes to check your meters) estimation errors will become apparent.
Even if the firm was underestimating by a small amount, this can add up dramatically over the years of the pandemic.
The business should not just pass on estimate errors to you in costs – they have an obligation to get things right too. So push back and make a complaint.
Take a common-sense view. If your bill was £800 a year and now it’s £3,000, then clearly something is amiss.
That’s way over the price cap and though there are lots of reasons why this might be, you should be asking the energy firm to explain what’s going on in straightforward terms.
So what can I do?
First things first, take a proper meter reading from both gas and energy meters (if you have dual fuel). Sense check the readings with your bill.
If you’ve got an old analogue meter (with dials like clock faces that go in different directions) it’s easy to make a mistake so don’t rush.
If your smart meter display is playing up or not transmitting, then report that too. Make sure you photograph the meters so you have another record of the reading. In fact, why not take a picture and email it to yourself under the subject ‘meter reading and ‘date’ so you can find it if there’s a dispute.
If you think your meter is faulty, your energy provider may ask you to take daily meter readings for seven days to see if there’s an obvious problem.
But ultimately, if the readings make no sense, it’s for the energy firm to sort out the problem. This can involve sending out engineers to assess the meter’s performance or even a forensic analysis of your bills.
If your bill has increased dramatically because the business was reliant on estimated readings, make a formal complaint. The firm should not be ‘back billing’ you for longer than 12 months from the date on the bill.
Back billing is where a bill is recalculated (or sent for the first time) over a year before the current bill.
Unless you’ve been deliberately dodging the meter reader when they visited, then the business shouldn’t be charging you for the first time for errors with energy consumption that are over 12 months old. Here’s what the regulator says:
If you’ve moved to a new supplier, don’t panic. Your new energy provider should have the information they need to look in to errors or mistakes with the firm that isn’t in business, though they may have a backlog.
Speed things up by photographing old bills and attaching them to your complaint, along with any other supporting documents.
How do I make a complaint?
Resolver can help you make a complaint for free about anything energy related, from incorrect billing to switching errors. Get started here.
There is a free Energy Ombudsman too if you still aren’t happy. Resolver will automatically refer you to them if your complaint isn’t sorted out.
