|
Can the company bill me back past the current period?Yes, it can issue a backbill or a catch-up bill — but there are limits on how far back it can go.
Water companies can charge back for a year. Even if the undercharging or non-charging has been for longer than that, they're limited to charging for 12 months maximum.
For electricity and natural gas, a retailer can go back only nine months if the backbill is because of something they did or didn't do. However, if the reason for the backbill isn't anything the retailer did, it can go back 12 months (e.g. if the distributor didn’t provide meter reading information to the retailer). There are no limits to how far the retailer can go back if you acted unlawfully (e.g. tampered with the meter) or if you repeatedly blocked access to the meter.
For water, electricity and natural gas, the company must give you equal time to pay — so, if it’s billing you back 6 months, the company must give you 6 months to pay that backbill.
LPG retailers can backbill a residential customer for up to nine months. Please note that the LPG Code does not protect business customers, which means that a retailer can issue a catch-up bill to a business customer for more than the past nine months.
From January 2009, the limits on the recovery of electricity and natural gas undercharges don’t apply for business customers using more than 40 megawatt hours of electricity a year or 1000 gigajoules of gas. The company can go right back to when the undercharge started, subject to the contract terms and the statute of limitations.
Return to Questions customers often ask us
|
|
|
|
|