Free electricity - the bill has arrived

I used to live in a flat for 6 years or so. 3 months ago I moved to a new place.

Weirdly whilst I was there the EDF electricity bill went from a normal amount one month down to zero the next. Every quarter I kept getting zero bills for a couple of years I guess. In fact there was a pound or two credit each month.

Needless to say when I moved I did not give them a forwarding address hoping it would be the end of it.

Now a debt collection agency has caught up with me and wants £300. I can afford it but was a bit gutted. The mail found me despite them not having my new flat number.

I have written to them disputing the debt demanding proof of overdue accounts with EDF. I have the zero bills set aside somewhere that I could show them.

So what do you think? Can I get off without paying since they failed to charge for the juice when I was there? or can they say it was a mistake and force me to cough up?

Depends if the zero bills were based on readings or estimates.
If its estimates then they can bill you for it.
If its readings then it means either the meter was b0rked or read wrongly. And I doubt they can bill you.

I think they often work on estimates and then settle the difference when they come to read the meter. If so I think that they do have a right to make you pay.
Not that I know much about it.

doh, how did I not see the identical post above me!

as its EDF fuck em over!

Thanks people. I looked at the bills. They were all put down as actual readings, not estimates! The last bill showed that I was in credit to the tume of £9. So they owe me(!) I would still be interested if anyone knows the likely outcome of this or what I ought to push for.

How do these debt collection people trace you anyway? Is it the electoral role or something?

This happened to a friend of mine, I think they can only bill you for 1 or 2 years back, but I'm not sure

citizen advise bureau?

How do these debt collection people trace you anyway? Is it the electoral role or something?

Magic.

And the internet.

But mainly magic.

yeah multiple routes, electoral roll first. then looking at your credit record with experian or equifax and the like to look for linked addresses. (linked addresses are when you do actually change accounts over e.g. changed the address on your phone bill e.t.c. or if you have ever had to put down previous address for people like housing associations e.t.c.) I looked at my experian recently. had all my previous addresses for 10 years on there.

^ this is true you can fuck them off quite easily if you have the balls, they thrive on people not knowing their rights and get off on sometimes being overly aggressive...

had a bad experience with a well known dca who will remain nameless but got rid of them easily because i was able to convince them they know nothing..keeping the paperwork was a smart move. the more paperwork you can through at them and confuse them the easier it will be

^ spelling throw fail

Don't pay until you get to the bottom of it all!
The same happened to me (apart from the getting free electricity) and I had a debt collecting agency PHONE me up repeatedly being almost threatening. They even told me I should pay over the phone now and give them my bank details. Jokers.
Obv I wasn't too keen on the whole situ and after a few calls it turned out they had made a mistake and in fact owed me money, which they paid in the end.
If the threats from the collection agency had scared me into giving my details and "paying now" I would be a fair few hundred pounds worse off now and I can't imagine it would of been an east task getting it back...

Do you believe in karma? Pay your bills.
Do you believe in getting one over a big corp. Fight.

But his bills are zero....he has paid!
Fight em.

Getting one over 'The Man' & keeping Karma sweet. Win, Win.

Fight the power (company)
YouTube- Public Enemy - Fight The Power

But his bills are zero....he has paid!
Fight em.

Who pays for the electricity used then? They will have to recoup their costs. Guess what, other bill payers like you and me get to pay for it.

Maybe the electricity company will just have to take it out of their "buns & cakes" budget?

Let me ask you a question..

If I ran EDP.. do you think I would be cutting down on my cake budget?

The defence rests. ;)

NB: Personally, I would try and get out of paying using every trick I could think of :)

Ignore it. They will eventually go away. They always do

I'm sure they can squeeze £300 out of their €3.91bn profit somehow
:)

Hi Matty. I like your avatar. Are we related?

They just write it all off!

Hi Matty. I like your avatar. Are we related?

Don't think so...mine came from here:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4142/4751067113_56936353d1_o.jpg

It was cracking me up that much