Billing standards

Back-billing is when a supplier sends you a bill to account for mistakes that have been made in calculating historic bills.

We realise how much strain back-billing can put on businesses, and SEFE Energy adheres to Ofgem’s guidance on back-billing. This differs depending on the size of the business.

For large organisations, the UK legislation is set at six.

For our customers, in line with Ofgem regulation, you cannot be charged for gas and electricity used more than 12 months ago if you have not been correctly billed for it, or informed about it via a statement of the account before.

Both SEFE Energy and our micro-business customers have responsibilities when it comes to billing.

• When micro-business customers fulfil their responsibilities, we’ll limit back-billing to 12 months, as per the Ofgem guidance.
• Upon discovering that a micro-business customer has been incorrectly billed for their energy consumption, we’ll get in touch as quickly as possible. We’ll correct the billing rates and, where appropriate and possible, we’ll contact the customer before issuing a back bill.
• We’ll treat customers fairly when it’s necessary to issue a back bill by taking into account the age of the bill, the length of the contract, the customer’s payment history and the circumstances that resulted in the back bill when setting repayment terms.

Find more information on the regulation for back-billing of micro-business energy customers here.

You can also contact any of the statutory bodies below for free advice if you have any concerns about your bills or payments.

• Citizen’s Advice Extra Help Unit
• Business Debtline