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Frequently asked questions
Information for community agency workers in Victoria, Australia
- Can an energy or water company estimate the bill?
- Can an energy or water company bill for further back than the
current period?
- What if you or your client can’t afford to pay the bill by the due date?
- What’s a standing contract? What’s a market contract?
- The tariffs have gone up. Can the retailer do this? Does it have to let
the customer know?
- What's the service to property charge?
- Is it possible to change retailer?
- What about bulk hot water? Is it possible to change the gas retailer for
the hot water?
- What’s the difference between a retailer and a distributor?
- Is there a right to compensation for damage or loss of profit because of
a voltage variation?
- Is there a right to compensation for damage or loss of profit because of
an interruption to supply?
- How long should it take to put the power on at an existing property?
- How long should it take to put the power on at a new property?
- Maybe the meter is faulty. Can it be tested? Who pays?
1. Can an energy or water company estimate the bill?
An energy or water company should use its best endeavours to provide a bill based
on an actual reading of the meter. If it can’t access the meter, it can issue an
estimated bill. Where the meter is not accessible, the company should try to take an
actual reading at
least once every 12 months.
If the bill is estimated, that must be noted on it. Some companies put ‘E’ next to the
reading on the back—others show it in other ways.
The estimated bill is based on the historical usage, but that might not be the same
as the actual usage. Where there have been estimated bills, be aware that the next bill
based on
an actual reading could be higher or lower than expected—depending on
whether the estimate was lower or higher than the actual usage.
2. Can an energy or water company bill for further back than 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 just the 12 months.
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 customer repeatedly
blocked access to the meter).
For all of water, electricity and natural gas, the company has to give time to pay,
equal
to the period in which the undercharging occurred. For example, if they're billing
back for
six months, they have to give six months to pay.
These limits on the recovery of undercharges don’t apply for larger users of electricity
(>160 megawatt hours a year) or gas (>10,000 gigajoules). The retailers can go right
back to when the undercharge started in that case (subject to the customer’s contract
terms and the statute of limitations).
3. What if your client can’t afford to pay the bill by the due date?
It's important to tell the company—so the first step is to ring it. All the water, electricity
and natural gas retailers have hardship programmes. They're used to dealing with people
in financial difficulty. If the issue can't be resolved with the person in the contact centre,
ask to be put through to the hardship team.
When discussing a payment plan, it's important to agree only to an amount that's
affordable
on an ongoing basis. Ideally, it will be an amount that can cover usage
and start to reduce any arrears that may have built up.
If it’s difficult to budget or work out how much is affordable, it may help your client to see
a financial counsellor, who will look at the whole financial situation, not just the utility bills. Financial counsellors are free. For the name and number of a financial counsellor in the
local area:
For more information, see our webpage on Need help paying your bills? and our
fact sheet on payment assistance.
4. What’s a market contract? What’s a standing contract?
See our webpage on Energy and water prices.
5. The tariffs have gone up. Can the energy or water company do this?
Does it have to let the customer know?
For energy, the simple answer to the first question is ‘yes’, the electricity or natural
gas company can do it. Whether it has to let the customer know will depend on the type
of contract. If it's a market contract, there will usually be a clause about price increases.
It might say that it's possible to exit the contract without penalty for a certain period
after notice of a price increase.
If it's a standing contract, the new price will be published in the Victorian Government
Gazette, and a notice will generally appear on the first bill with the new price.
For water, a water company must publish a notice of a change in its charges in a
newspaper generally circulating in the water business’ area. However, it's limited in how
much it can increase its charges—because the Essential Services Commission (ESC) sets
prices for several years in its Water Price Reviews. These allow for price increases within
that period. (For 2008/09, the Minister for Water, rather than the ESC, decided how much
the metropolitan water companies could increase their prices.)
For more details, see our webpage on Energy and water prices.
6. What is the service to property charge?
The Service Charge (or Service to Property Charge) generally covers a customer’s
contribution to the following services: reading the meter, maintaining the network which supplies the property, printing the bill and the customer enquiries service.
As there's a service charge on each bill, there will be a bill to pay even if no water,
electricity or natural gas has been used. On water bills, the service component of the bill
(paid by the owner) is generally larger than the usage component (paid by the occupier,
where different) although this is starting to change. On electricity and natural gas bills,
the usage component of the bill is bigger than the service charge for most households.
Where electricity usage costs less than the service charge, eligible concession card
holders
can get the Service to Property Charge concession. This reduces the service
charge to
the same price as the electricity usage cost. See our webpage on
Government concessions and grants.
7. Is it possible to change retailer?
Yes, for electricity and natural gas, but not for water.There's just one water retailer
in each area so it’s only possible to change by moving to the area of a different water
business.
For more information, see our webpage on Choosing an energy retailer.
8. What about bulk hot water?
Is it possible to change the gas retailer for the hot water?
Bulk hot water is the exception to the statement that it's possible to change natural
gas
retailer. Where a person lives in a block of flats with bulk hot water, they have to stay
with the provider of the bulk hot water. This is because apartments using bulk hot water
are not individually metered for the gas used to heat the water. However, a collective
choice about the retailer could be made via the Owners’ Corporation (formerly called
the Body Corporate) or building management.
If there's natural gas for cooking or heating, there will be an individual meter for that
—so there is choice of gas retailer. This could mean that gas bills come from two
different gas retailers.
9. What’s the difference between a retailer and a distributor?
Retailers and distributors have different roles in bringing electricity or natural gas to
our homes and businesses. Retailers provide billing and customer service. They buy
electricity from generators and pay transmitters and distributors to transport the
electricity.
Distributors are responsible for the local distribution network, either electricity or natural
gas. They must maintain the local infrastructure (gas pipes for gas distributors, the
‘poles and wires’ for electricity distributors). They're also responsible for reading the
meters
(they usually outsource this job) and providing retailers with the data that
enables
retailers to bill their customers.
10. Is there a right to compensation for damage or loss of profit because of
a voltage variation?
Where there has been a voltage variation (either low voltage—a ‘brownout’—or high
voltage, normally called a surge) and loss or damage has occurred because of it,
compensation can be claimed from the electricity distributor. The Voltage Variation
Compensation Guideline covers this. For more details, see our webpage on
The legal framework protecting consumers.
11. Is there a right to compensation for damage or loss of profit because of
an interruption to supply?
For a normal power outage, there isn’t a clear right to compensation. (If the property
had a power surge when the power was restored, please look at the question above.)
Guaranteed Service Level payments
However, the electricity distributors are subject to a Guaranteed Service Level (GSL)
Scheme, under which they must make payments in recognition of bad service.
The
payments are not intended as compensation. They are:
- $100 where the customer experiences more than 20 hours of unplanned
sustained interruptions per year (or $150 for more than 30 hours or $300
for more than
60 hours
- $100 where a customer experiences more than 10 unplanned sustained
interruptions per year (or $150 for more than 15 or $300 for more than 30)
- $25 where a customer experiences more than 24 momentary interruptions
per year (or $35 for more than 36).
'Sustained' means it lasts for more than a minute, while 'momentary' is less than
a minute. These GSL payments are made automatically—customers don't have to
apply for them.
They have to be paid ‘as soon as practicable’ and they're usually
credited on
the customer's first account of a new calendar year.
Some, but not all, water companies also have a Guaranteed Service Level scheme
that makes payment to customers in recognition of inferior service. For City West
Water,
South East Water, Yarra Valley Water and Central Highlands Water, there's a
payment
of $25 for failure to restore an unplanned water interruption within five hours
(four for
Yarra Valley.) Barwon Water pays $50 to customers experiencing more than
5 unplanned water interruptions in any 12 month period. (Some of these standards will
change
from 1 July 2008.)
EWOV’s role
More broadly, EWOV handles complaints about damage and loss of profit resulting from
one or more interruptions to the electricity, gas or water supply. Our role is to consider
what is 'fair and reasonable' in the particular circumstances of the complaint and, in
some cases, the company does make a payment—for example, if the company could
reasonably have done more to prevent or reduce the length of an interruption to supply.
12. How long should it take to put the power on at an existing property?
Electricity retailers have an obligation to connect the property ‘as soon as practicable’
after connection is applied for. The connection is actually done by the distributor,
but
a customer has to apply via a retailer. After the customer has asked the retailer
to get
the power put on, the retailer must make a connection request to the relevant
distributor
no later than the next business day. The distributor must use its best
endeavours
to connect the property within one business day (unless the request was
made after 3pm). So, getting connected at an existing property can take up to three,
or even four, business days.
13. How long should it take to put the power on at a new property?
The retailer must pass the request onto the distributor. Then, the distributor must use
best endeavours to connect the property on the date agreed with the customer.
If no date has been agreed, subject to safety and other requirements being met, the
distributor should connect within 10 business days of the request.
If this isn't met, the distributor may be required to make a GSL payment of $50 for
each day the new connection is delayed, up to a maximum of $250.
14. Maybe the meter is faulty. Can it be tested? Who pays?
It's possible to ask to have a meter (electricity, natural gas or water) tested,
but if
the meter is tested and found to be operating within standards the customer
who
requested it from the company must pay for the test. In our experience, most
meters
tested are operating within standards. And, if they're not operating within
standards,
they more often run slow than fast, meaning the customer has been
undercharged, not overcharged. However, there have been cases where the meter
has been found to be running fast. We suggest trying to eliminate other possible
causes of high bills before asking for a meter test. For more details, see our
fact sheet on electricity, gas and water meters.
Last updated: 13 June 2008
Feedback about this webpage: website@ewov.com.au
For enquiries and complaints, phone 1800 500 509 or see our enquiries and complaints webpages.
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