Q) ENERGY company Scottish Power has been chasing me for £9,200, but I have cleared any debt I owed.
Can you help me fix this issue and stop the constant letters and calls?
Adam Rock, Worcestershire
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A) Following a massive billing blunder four years ago, you have been locked in a battle with your supplier that had become a “daily torture”.
Scottish Power stopped taking your direct debit payments after a system error in November 2018.
Before this, your bills varied between £70 and £180 a month.
Neither you nor your wife noticed the payments had stopped and you both admit you should have been monitoring your outgoings more carefully.
But Scottish Power never contacted you about the missing payments until October 2021, you told me.
Then it sent a massive bill of around £9,600 covering November 2018 to October 2021.
But it should never have demanded so much.
Ofgem’s rules state that suppliers aren’t allowed to charge you for energy that was used more than 12 months ago if they failed to correctly bill you for it at that time.
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You complained to Scottish Power, but reached a deadlock, so you went to the Ombudsman last October.
It told Scottish Power to recalculate the debt based on these back- billing rules and the supplier sent you a bill for £1,040.
Once you paid that, you thought everything was done.
But Scottish Power continued chasing you for different amounts.
And last year you received a demand for £9,200.
When you started receiving debt collectors letters and couldn’t get a response from Scottish Power you turned to me in desperation.
When I asked Scottish Power to investigate it found that you owe no money – in fact your account is nearly £500 in credit.
Scottish Power apologised.
It’s so important to keep an eye on direct debits to nip issues in the bud.
Remember that if you do owe money, an energy company needs a court warrant to enter your home and install a prepayment meter.
But Ofgem has banned suppliers from forcing customers on to prepayment meters until the end of this month.
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