Gas Bill after Moving House. HELP pls!

• 

  Hithere on 16/07/2020 - 09:41

  adjusted bill which makes up for all the years of the incorrect reading

  In Victoria they can only back bill you a maximum of 9 months and you'll have up to 12 months to pay the bill if experiencing financial hardship.

  The Energy and Water Ombudsman may get you some action.

  https://www.ewov.com.au

• 

  charzy on 16/07/2020 - 09:42

  +10

  When you first signed up, they should've done a meter read then and thus you'll be paying the difference between the first read and the more recent meter read.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 16/07/2020 - 13:12

    They don't always do this. Sometimes you have to request it and they charge for a reading. The same thing happened to me with Energy Australia when I bought a house, fortunately the estimated reading was pretty close so it wasn't worth fighting.

    Ideally the previous owner should have given a reading on they day they moved out and then the usage would be attached to the previous owners bill. Sounds like they didn't bother doing this.

• 

  Porker on 16/07/2020 - 09:42

  +2

  You told them you just moved in right? and the date of your moving in was X?

  When you moved in, assuming you had gas connected under your name, they would've asked for or performed a reading at that time. They wouldn't typically just send you the bill for someone else or the previous owner.

• 

  MS Paint on 16/07/2020 - 10:10

  +2

  I looked at the meter and then realised that the meter was actual reading much higher than their predicted usage.

  So in short, we have used much less gas than our bill states,

  This does not make sense to me.

  • 

    ajdaisy on 16/07/2020 - 10:38

    +2

    AGL had been charging the previous occupant with predicted usage instead of actual, however this occupant used more than the predictions by AGL. Therefore when OP moved in, the actual meter reading is higher than the predicted value AGL had originally stated.

    OP - AGL should have done a meter reading at the time of move in and based your bills from that moving forward. Any usage prior to that date (including the miscalculation on their side from predicted to actual usage) should be the responsibility of the previous occupant.

  • 

    garetz on 16/07/2020 - 10:42

    Its quite simple really, basic maths.

    So AGL used predictive reading, ie noone actually read the meter in person.

    So over the last 2 years, with predictive reading, ie guessing what the usage was, the charge was much less than the actual usage, so the previous owner was undercharged, monthly.

    Then the difference between the predictive reading, and actual usage was then charged to the new owner, the op, so the difference each month between the undercharged predictive reading, added up together to the difference between the total usage over the 2 years, vs the actual usage on the meter read in person today.

  • 

    Oliviaviv on 16/07/2020 - 11:38

    They’ve been predicting/estimating for a long time due to difficult access with previous owner (gated etc) and we were given a large estimated usage bill. I then checked the meter and sent in actual reading.

    I was then billed according to the reading and given an even larger bill.

    AGL have been billing on estimated usage for longer than we’ve lived here.

    We have used very little gas but now that I’ve provided AFL with the actual read, have been billed a huge amount due to the prolonged estimated reads.

    • 

      whooah1979 on 16/07/2020 - 11:40

      +2

      I’ve provided AFL with the actual read

      Of course you have. We did the same with the NRL.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 16/07/2020 - 10:58

  Bill amount
  $7

• 

  nep on 16/07/2020 - 11:51

  We had the same issue like you. We called AGL and one of the AGL team advised us to take the photo before and after with the timestamp. So I had sent that email to myself so that there would be a time stamp on the photo somehow. He had told us that just in case the same situation like yours happen when we receive the actual bill at least we've got proof what was the actual meter read when we moved in. Do you have something like that to prove them?

• 

  DashCam AKA Rolts on 16/07/2020 - 13:44

  Surely you are not responsible for the previous owner's usage of gas.
  Demand an immediate adjustment based on a current reading and your previous reading (when you contacted them). This should give your daily usage.
  Notify them of your date of first residing there, and pass on contact details of the previous owner for the gas company to forward the bill for previous years' adjustments.

• 

  jason andrade on 16/07/2020 - 14:02

  A conversation with AGL sounds like the best way to move forward but contractually there's really nothing you can do about this (other than rely on their goodwill).

  It's not an option to follow Rolt's advice as the previous owner has nothing to do with the property at this point in the billing cycle and the change of ownership legally moves any issues from them to you (which is often why a sharp lawyer doing your settlement will pickup on all the utility bill issues and clearly spell out all the liabilities at the time).

  What is the worst case scenario - you'd have to pay a large gas bill ?

  If AGL aren't willing to show goodwill then you could look at changing retailers as this will often trigger a retention offer (and the retention team may have more leeway to negotiate with you than the normal billing team).

  You have to actually make a change though - not just threaten to make one..

• 

  Howlingkitten on 16/07/2020 - 19:43

  I wouldn't recommend calling them and demanding they change the bill. AGL is a retailer they don't control the reads. All reads come from the distributor. I don't know how they're done where you are but in NSW and ACT where I'm familiar gas reads are notoriously hard to change because the distributor doesn't approve them easily.
  Again, unsure of the requirements where you are but if they have some control ask for a worked estimate based on daily average usage like Rolts suggested. In my experience they might want a fairly substantive amount of data as gas usage varies a bit so you may be able to request this after a full quarter reading and enter an arrangement so you're paying towards your account in the meantime so you're not disadvantaging yourself.

  Also it's good practice to ALWAYS check the meter reads, when you move and with each quarter. Readers make mistakes they're only human, and estimates can occur for any number of reasons. It is technically the occupants responsibility to provide access and if the reader has determined no access it can be followed up with the readers. Friendly reminder to be kind to any utility retailer employee as they've got no control over your reads and are limited by distributors.

• 

  samfisher5986 on 17/07/2020 - 09:27

  +1

  My understanding is that AGL were required to do a meter reading when you signed up.

  I wouldn't be paying a cent if it wasn't after the meter was read.

• 

  yadupinto on 17/07/2020 - 13:55

  AGL is useless. few years back when i was renting, i was charged for gas meter which was located in Central coast but i was based out of Sydney. they took 7-8 months to rectify whole thing and issue new bills.