A woman has come under fire after she admitted to not paying her energy bill in three years.
As the price cap is set to rise by 80 per cent and the average yearly Direct Debit will hit £3,549, millions are looking at ways to save on electric and gas. Those on prepayment will see their average yearly bill rise to £3,608.
Remaining anonymous, she explained on Mumsnet: "I haven’t paid for any gas for three years. How to get out of it? I know I have been unreasonable, looking for advice.
READ MORE- Martin Lewis issues energy bill warning to anyone thinking about cancelling their Direct Debit
"I had a smart meter fitted three years ago since then and despite the company sending out meter readers all bills I have received for gas say £0 usage.
"I want to get out of this situation, ideally without having to pay it back and before the price hikes mean that I may have a debt I can’t even afford, also before government help starts. If I switch supplier, do you think this will fix itself? What would you do?"
The post naturally gained a lot of attention with over 200 comments.
One replied: "Why on earth have you not notified them in the last three years? It's obviously an error on their part, but you should have at least done the moral thing and alerted them to their error."
A second asked: "Why have you never queried this with your supplier? You knew it was wrong every time you received a bill for nothing."
"OP clearly lacks some morals and probably won’t notify their energy company safe in the knowledge that once it is discovered they’ll only have 12 months bill to pay for," another slammed.
Meanwhile one tried to give some advice: "Would it be worth making a note of the meter reading and maybe updating them before the price cap increase at the start of October? You don’t want to be charged for a whole years usage at the new unit rates."
Another shared she was in the same situation: "I was with an energy supplier and another supplier took over my line in error, I hadn’t requested to switch. They then apologised and gave it back to original supplier.
"Since then I’ve not been charged any gas. I’m paying the daily standing charge for gas, submitting meter readings to them but they just aren’t charging me for usage on my bill. Not sure what to do either as the error has been going on 12 months now and I’m terrified of a huge bill."
According to Citizen's Advice: "If you haven’t received an accurate gas or electricity bill for over a year, you might not have to pay for all the energy you’ve used.
"Under 'back billing' rules, your supplier cannot send you a bill for energy you used more than 12 months ago."
READ NEXT -
Energy crisis: How much will your bills rise and how to get financial help
'Petty' woman slammed after wanting to return her neighbour's parcel
Cost of Living Payment dates confirmed as energy bills set to soar in October
Edinburgh has 'worst traffic in UK' according to new research
Energy price cap: All the household appliance running costs after October increase
