# Massive Outstanding ESB Bill



## eavan1

My boyfriend was up to recently living in an apartment on his own, in January his electricity supply was cut off and he was sent a bill for €4,000.  Up until then he had never received a bill (and no he never requested one either)  He has since moved out of the apartment but gave the ESB a forwarding address, he has yet to make any payments to the ESB and he recently received a solicitors letter.  I have tried to get him to start paying the bill but he doesnt seem to realise the seriousness, can anyone advise what will happen if he does not begin to make payments


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## bond-007

The next step will be a district court judgement for the €4000 and costs. That will then open the way for enforcement proceedings in the courts. Installment orders and the county sherriff will then follow.


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## Sherman

bond-007 said:


> The next step will be a district court judgement for the €4000 and costs. That will then open the way for enforcement proceedings in the courts. Installment orders and the county sherriff will then follow.


 
And with the above comes the virtual impossibility of ever getting a mortgage, credit card, personal loan etc.


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## CCOVICH

Is the total €4,000 liability in relation to his time in the apartment?  That sounds like 3 or more years of (high) bills to me.

As the above to posters say, the consequences could be quite serious.


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## eavan1

Yes it is for about two years as far as I know, if he offered to start making regular payments would this ease the seriousness of the situation?


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## Lorz

TBH I'd question the bill of €4000 - guy on his own in apt for 2years - that's about €333 every 2 months.  Was he in the apt all day or was he out at work?  Even if he was at home fulltime, I don't believe a family house would have a bill of that size!  Is it possible the previous tenants didn't pay either or were their appliances purchased on the account too?


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## ClubMan

eavan1 said:


> I have tried to get him to start paying the bill but he doesnt seem to realise the seriousness


What does he think might happen!?


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## eavan1

as far s I am aware there were no appliances bought on the account and he checked out the dates for the bill and the dates are correct, I did think that it seems a very excessive amount but they say that it is correct.


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## eavan1

ClubMan said:


> What does he think might happen!?


 
he doesnt seem to be thinking of the consequences, I have explained about the effect that it will have on his future - bury his head in the sand technique!!


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## liteweight

This bill really seems excessive. It won't do him any good to bury his head in the sand, as other posters have already stated. However, I think he's entitled to a copy of his account from the ESB. I had a tenant in an apartment for six months and her bills were very high. She just paid them and didn't mention it to me until the day she was leaving.  The same was true of her gas bills. When I looked at them, I realised immediately that both companies were sending her estimated bills! I got the management company to take meter readings and she was due hundreds back!

When your boyfriend left the apartment, his landlord should have given him the final meter readings. I would insist that ESB provide me with a copy of my account, especially if I had never received a bill. He should check that the balance on the account was zero when he took it over and that these bills were not just estimates. The ESB AFAIK are usually good about making payments when customers make an effort to pay. From their perspective, your boyfriend has ignored them for years, so they might be understandably tetchy with him initially!! He should definitely not ignore this situation as it really has got potentially dire consequences.


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## bond-007

I used to work in the ESB many moons ago. It was standard procedure not to have tennants names on their ESB account, ie the account was in the landlords name and it was up to the landlord to collect the money. This was the policy where I worked because tennants were considered a flight risk and many bills were never paid.

It is possible that the account was not clear when he took over the place or he had loads of estimated readings or someone was hacking in and stealing the electricity. All possible imho. Maybe he likes having the place warm and the bill could be correct. My average ESB bill is around the 300 mark.


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## eavan1

Thank you to all for your help.....have persuaded him to call the esb for copies of the bills and to start making payments every week.


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## Bosshog

bond-007 said:


> My average ESB bill is around the 300 mark.



what?? mine averages about €32 per month. do you live in funderland?


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## bond-007

Bosshog said:


> what?? mine averages about €32 per month. do you live in funderland?


I have loads of reptiles and such creatures that need constant heat to survive. I have nightsaver too. I don't think 300 every 2 months is that excessive.


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## Lorz

Our bill is ~€70 every 2 months but we're both out during the day.  TBH I thought €300 was excessive but those electric heaters are usually very expensive and I would imagine the incubators are too.


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## Bosshog

bond-007 said:


> I have loads of reptiles and such creatures that need constant heat to survive.



aha! but not everybody has reptiles and such creatures. so im sure your bill would be considered above average.

maybe the OP's boyfriend was running a snake farm from his apartment??


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## ClubMan

I must update my summary some day - and fix the _"EBS"_ typo!


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## liteweight

Mine is between 450 and 470 for two month period. Don't have any reptiles but I do have two daughters who also need constant heat, never turn lights off, employ many electrical appliances. I also have cheap night rate electricity.


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## CharlieC

liteweight said:


> Mine is between 450 and 470 for two month period. Don't have any reptiles but I do have two daughters who also need constant heat, never turn lights off, employ many electrical appliances. I also have cheap night rate electricity.


 
That is an incredible amount. Have you storage heaters etc?


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## liteweight

CharlieC said:


> That is an incredible amount. Have you storage heaters etc?



I have one storage heater in the hall. The hallway is very tall and open, so we found storage heater to be the best method of keeping it warm. We have a power shower and an electric shower for when there's no hot water. We have a thermostat on the immersion and it's also on a timer, so we know it doesn't run all day and night. I use a tumble dryer at night on the cheap rate. We've tried all in our power (no pun intented) to keep this bill down but nothing seems to work!! I turn off the storage heater from May to September but still when I average out the bills the amount is 450-470.


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## Lorz

From my experience storage heaters are very expensive and they take forever to heat the room!  That bill also seems very expensive but I suppose we also have a gas bill for ~€80 every 2 months...


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## ClubMan

For what it's worth my _ESB _cost summary referred to above relates to a _GoldShield _home using two storage heaters and immersion all on _NightSaver_. I'll update it when I get a chance just to cover the last year or so.


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## chihiro

I once rang in a meter reading to ESB as all our bills were estimated. Turned out we were underpaying and owed ESB about an extra €500.
As we were renting there for only a year or two and the last reading was at least a year or 2 before that we questioned whether we should pay it all. ESB could not tell you when last reading was if it was before 2002. It was in landlady's name all through that time so we had to pay it all back to ESB.

Might be worth checking was the account under estimated from the year dot when it was in another person's name and then recently they checked the meter? Therefore he might only owe a portion of the bill i.e. from when they changed a/c to his name.


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## efm

Most of those bills seem very high!

I have gas central heating and electric for everything else in a 1700 sqft detached house with two small children at home all day with wife and my total energy bills (ie gas + esb) are €325-375 bi-monthly.

Are most of the posts in relation to esb supplying heating as well as general electricity ?


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## ClubMan

efm said:


> Most of those bills seem very high!
> 
> ...
> 
> Are most of the posts in relation to esb supplying heating as well as general electricity ?


My summary does if you are including it in the "high bills" category. However perhaps you are referring to the c. €400 per month (or two month billing period?)?


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## liteweight

My bills do not include heating. As stated we've one storage heater, the rest of the house is heated by oil fueled central heating. Don't even get me started on those costs! I'm usually alone in the day and although I do use the washing machine and dishwasher, the only other electrical appliance in constant use throughout the day is a laptop.


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## ClubMan

Just for the record I've updated my ESB bill summary.


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## liteweight

Think I'll call the ESB and have ours checked. Thanks Clubman.


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## ClubMan

First thing might be to correlate your meter reading (readings if you hae dual day and night meters) against your bills. If the readings and estimates are more or less correct and you still think that your bills are too high then it might be time to get things checked out.


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## liteweight

Well I tried each individual electrical item in the house to see if they caused the meter to race...no joy! I turned off everything and meter did move, but only slightly. On checking the bills, I was surprised to find that the night time rate was almost equal to day time, despite the fact that the storage heaters are turned off for summer.


I normally put my tumble dryer on at night, plus dishwasher and perhaps washing machine. I checked out these when I had them on during the day and they didn't seem to use an inordinate amount of electricity. I was on the point of ringing ESB until....I put the tumble dryer on this evening for an hour, went out for about 2 hours and when I came home, tumble dryer was still going. It appears to be getting stuck at some point in it's cycle, so now I think this may be happening for a long time, except it was during the night so I never noticed it. It has a safety cut off if it overheats and this was probably what stops it eventually. I await the next (hopefully much smaller) bill!!!


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## ClubMan

The tumble drier is probably a heavy load at the best of times. Check the machine for details about its electrical rating/wattage. Can you not dry clothes any other way? We dried clothes for years on a clothes horse mainly indoors and it worked fine. Obviously an outdoor clothes line and some fine/breezy weather helps though.

The other applicances are probably relatively heavy loads too. Can you not hand wash your delph/cutlery for example? And make sure that you only put the washing machine on for a full load unless it has a half load setting for lighter loads.

By the way - putting such heavy load appliances at night (especially when you retire to bed) or when you go out is probably not a great idea due to the risk of malfunction and fire. For example if your drier was getting stuck then it might constitute a fire hazard.


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## liteweight

We have two daughters!! The amount of wet towels hanging around the house would be unbearable. We do have two clothes horses (besides the daughters) but it's just not enough for 4 adults, 2 of whom change clothes at the drop of a hat because some other eejit  will wash them!

I try to just use the tumble dryer for towels and thought I was great being so organised that I use it on cheap night rate most of the time. Clubman, I take it you've small children and the washing probably feels endless.........oh for that control again, when they grow, it's not only endless, but mountainous!!


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## ClubMan

liteweight said:


> Clubman, I take it you've small children and the washing probably feels endless.........oh for that control again, when they grow, it's not only endless, but mountainous!!


One small child and the washing is more than it was when it was two of us but still quite manageable. We don't have the space or inclincation for a tumble drier. I'm just trying to point out possible savings/optimisations for you. But the safety issue is relevant too. Putting heavy load applicances on timers or on at night when there are potentially four people in the house is not a good idea.


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## liteweight

The tumble drier has an inbuilt timer which should count down. As far as I can see it's not doing so. Probably better to replace it rather than try to have it repaired. I wouldn't feel right about it now. 

More worrying, is that if it's overheating, why didn't the trip switches in the house cut the electricity supply to it? The house was re-wired by the ESB. The sockets, lights etc. have their own trip switches. Also each section of the house e.g. kitchen, living room, bedrooms has their own supply which cuts off automatically if anything goes wrong. On top of this, each floor of the house has it's own 'box', so if there's a fault in anything the power in the room should shut down. The machines are located in a new utility area and I'm afraid the electrician didn't tie it in to the system in the same way. Normally it's nearly too sensitive, e.g. if you point the kettle anywhere near a socket, the power in the kitchen sockets turns off as they detect water.


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## ClubMan

liteweight said:


> More worrying, is that if it's overheating, why didn't the trip switches in the house cut the electricity supply to it?


Trip switches and RCDs only trip if they detect a suspect current leakage or a short not simply when a device overheats. It's quite possible for a faulty device to combust without the trip switches saving the day. This is why it's a bad idea to leave heavy load appliances running at night or when you're out.


> which cuts off automatically if anything goes wrong.
> 
> ...
> 
> so if there's a fault in anything the power in the room should shut down


 Not anything - just the above. Don't depend on the switch box to protect you from electrical faults and fire hazards. It's just one line of defence but it's not failsafe.


> Normally it's nearly too sensitive, e.g. if you point the kettle anywhere near a socket, the power in the kitchen sockets turns off as they detect water.


 I'm no electrician but that sounds very dodgy to me!


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## liteweight

The steam from the kettle, if it's beneath a socket makes the switch trip. You make some very interesting points Clubman. We were told 'anything' going wrong would switch off electricity. The house, as I said, was re-wired by the ESB so I think I'll give them a ring just to check out some of what you said above.  Thanks.


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## RiceCakes

Tumble dryers drink electricity, the landlord here has an esb metre which you feed coins to power the tumble tryer, a euro doesnt last long, if liteweights one has being going hours on end then not suprised at all at his jumbo ESB bills!
Definately would get it fixed or replaced with a newer model which probably is more electricity efficient anyhow (than the old one when its timer worked!).

I remember a boss I had years ago telling me about his massive home bills. He had the esb out to test the meter , the whole nine yards, he couldnt understand it.
Then one day he was doing some diy in the same room as the freezer and noticed that the motor was running all day long. Turned out it had leaked most of the gas and the motor had to run constantly to keep the food frozen. When that was fixed he saved hundreds , I'm sure he exaggerated a bit to make the story seem like he was a super sleuth!, but malfunctioning ordinary goods are probably the cause of lots of these massive bills imho.


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## ClubMan

Might be worth buying something like this and then leaving it connected to each heavy load appliance in sequence for a period of time (e.g. drier for a few days, then the washer for a few days, then the fridge, then the cooker (although this may not be so simple since they are wired in rather than plugged in) etc.) in order to get a better idea of the actual electricity usage rather than trying to calculate this from the wattage rating of the appliance etc. Then you can deal with each applicance (e.g. repair or replace) in order of actual usage.


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## clareG

If there was electric storage heaters installed that are not set properly the bill could be correct.  Best to talk to ESB account and come to an agreement, or contact MABS and one of the advisors can advise.  But don't delay.


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## ClubMan

clareG said:


> If there was electric storage heaters installed that are not set properly the bill could be correct.  Best to talk to ESB account and come to an agreement, or contact MABS and one of the advisors can advise.  But don't delay.


What do you mean "set properly"? If you mean that they may not have been set to the correct input/output and thermostat level by the owner then that's hardly the _ESB's _problem or a reason to run to _MABs_...


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## smree

I have a 2 bed apartment with electric storage heaters with night saver and I find the cost very resonable. Had a look at Clubmans figures and mine would be close enough (approx 10-15 euro cheaper but there's only 1 adult in my place)

When I was renting a number of years ago we were told by the landlady that our storage heaters were on night saver rate but after receiving a very large bill we found out from the ESB that the nightsaver meter hadn't been switched on so everything was being charged at the day time rate. I can't remember the exact details of this situation as it was a long time ago.


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## liteweight

clareG said:


> If there was electric storage heaters installed that are not set properly the bill could be correct.  Best to talk to ESB account and come to an agreement, or contact MABS and one of the advisors can advise.  But don't delay.



No need to go to MABS...I pay the bills, just don't like it!! 

The storage heaters in question are turned off for the summer months.


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## Taximan

This sounds like an estimated Bill fiasco, my mother lives on her own  and recently received an o/s ESB bill for €3000 we were all obiviously very shocked but on further investigation it turned out they were estimating the bill based on previous large consumption as far back as 10 years ago. But they did'nt think of the possibility that there was five people in the house at that time. they agreed to cut the bill  to €1500.  When we explained the situation.

Moral of this tale ring in your ESB meter reading. Are get your meter switched to outside your house for the bargain basement price of €350 from the ESB.

Lightweight r u sure your not running a tanning shop out the back are maybe your daughters r growing plants under lights... orchids r somthing a little stronger. the FBI would be visiting you if you lived in the states. We are a family of five r bill is 225 a month.


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## liteweight

Taximan said:


> Lightweight r u sure your not running a tanning shop out the back are maybe your daughters r growing plants under lights... orchids r somthing a little stronger. the FBI would be visiting you if you lived in the states.



  No tanning shop but I do like my tropical plants! In point of fact, we aging hippy types, have a tendency to produce sensible children!! It's like role reversal....  




			
				Taximan said:
			
		

> We are a family of five r bill is 225 a month.



Same as mine then! 450 -470 every TWO months!! What are you lot up to then???


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## Taximan

Apolagies 225 bi-monthly. But saying that we do not have a Big Hall !!


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## liteweight

Taximan said:


> Apolagies 225 bi-monthly. But saying that we do not have a Big Hall !!



In fairness, I can't blame the big hall, cos the storage heater has been off since May!

I've invested in a new tumble dryer so we'll see if that makes a difference. Also trying not to use it so much but the place looks like a bl**dy Chinese Laundry!


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## liteweight

Update...got latest ESB bill and it's 159 euro. Storage heaters aren't on yet so I suppose next one will be higher but I'm delighted with the reduction. Looks like the old tumble dryer was the culprit after all.


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## Irishchappie

Jeez some of the ESB bills here are bloody massive..

Im renting a 3 bed house with 2 mates who consistantly refuse to turn off lights, switch off TV at night (Leave it on standby) and generally have no concept of energy conservation whatsoever. 

One even has to have the bedroom window open every night as they like having a cold room to sleep in (instead of turning off the radiator) and insists on leaving all lights on in the bedroom while they are doing this which could be up to 6 hours a day during winter. Then add landing light, bathroom light and every other bloody light in the house!!!  

We have an electric shower, clothes dryer, 2 computers and 3 TV's which are used almost everyday.

Yet our biggest ESB bill in 3 years was €120. 

I.C


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## earwig30

Taximan said:


> Moral of this tale ring in your ESB meter reading. Are get your meter switched to outside your house for the bargain basement price of €350 from the ESB.



Check that the ESB has somebody checking the outdoor meters in your area before you fork out €350, we have an outside meter but they have not been read for over 3 years as the ESB no longer has anyone employed to do that in our area - so we get estimated bills despite the fact that our meter is outside


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## Sn@kebite

eavan1 said:


> Yes it is for about two years as far as I know, if he offered to start making regular payments would this ease the seriousness of the situation?



Hi eavan1, sorry to hear about the problem. My mum and dad had a bill from the ESB for €918 about 5 months ago were still paying it off slowly. You have to ring the customer service/debt section & they make a deal with you.
They offered to allow us to pay €50 attached onto a current bill. (ie. if we get a bill for €100, at any given time there is a mutual understanding that we pay €150 for that bill and so on.)
As i said we still owe money about €200 of the €918. But because we contacted them it shows that we are not trying to get away with it.
And they haven't bothered hassling us at all because they know we intend to pay.

So if your boyfriend fails to contact them it will seem as if he does not intend paying.
However if he contacts them and pays something off it, it will look better for him in court if he is taken, as the judge will see he made an effort. He may need his dignity in future like a personal loan, mortgage, car loan etc., as i think someone mentioned in a previous post.

Good luck!!


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## georgey

Just received a ESB Bill for 800 Euro for a 2 month period. We have been living in this apartment for nearly 3 years and on avearge each of our bills has been 90 euro. How in the world could our bill have come to this price? We have checked everything in the house to make sure that nothing could have been left on all this time. 
  Has anyone experience of the above and how have they approached it. We checked the meter readings and they seem to be correct. Could somebody be feeding of our electricity??


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## Dreamerb

georgey said:


> Just received a ESB Bill for 800 Euro for a 2 month period. We have been living in this apartment for nearly 3 years and on avearge each of our bills has been 90 euro. How in the world could our bill have come to this price? We have checked everything in the house to make sure that nothing could have been left on all this time.
> Has anyone experience of the above and how have they approached it. We checked the meter readings and they seem to be correct. Could somebody be feeding of our electricity??


 
Have you definitely had meter readings before, or have they been estimating bills for a significant period? If you have had a lot of estimated readings over a year or more, the discrepancies can mount up to quite scary sums - especially if you have storage heating. I have first hand experience of this, having many years ago suddenly been landed with an enormous bill having had four or five consecutive estimated ones: storage heating is really not your friend in these situations! On the other hand, if previous bills have routinely been based on actual meter readings that does seem phenomenal. Check previous bills, if you've retained them, otherwise contact the ESB bill queries line. 

Since it's so out of line with previous bills, they may also be amenable to (1) checking how it arose in the first place, whether your meter is correctly set, etc., and (2) arranging for the bill, if assessed as valid, to be paid over a period - if it would cause you hardship in the short term, do discuss options with them. Whatever you do, don't just leave a portion unpaid without either registering it as "under dispute" until you resolve the issue, or making a formal payment arrangement with them, or they could cut off your supply.


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## jake108

eavan1 said:


> My boyfriend was up to recently living in an apartment on his own, in January his electricity supply was cut off and he was sent a bill for €4,000. Up until then he had never received a bill (and no he never requested one either) He has since moved out of the apartment but gave the ESB a forwarding address, he has yet to make any payments to the ESB and he recently received a solicitors letter. I have tried to get him to start paying the bill but he doesnt seem to realise the seriousness, can anyone advise what will happen if he does not begin to make payments


 
Not sure if anyone has asked this but did your boyfriend not think it was strange that he lived there for 2 years and never received a bill?? Did he not think that one day this would catch up with him?


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## Sn@kebite

Exactly, I don't understand how he never got one.
Sometimes my mail gets lost in the post, but let me tell u, bills and other state mail never gets lost.


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## blinkbelle

Hi,

Just thought id add my tupence worth.

To the OP I would defo ring the ESB because when I was renting an apt and left (gave them new address) we got sent a bill for €500 and we were just after paying one before we left so we were in shock and did not have 500 to pay all at once so i started paying bits of it. then we got another letter demanding payment so finished clearing it.

A couple of weeks later got a letter saying Sorry it was there fault, there fella read the metre wrong and we got the money back.  I know 500 not alot compared to 4000 but just letting you know what happened us.


Our bill  2adults,1child is about €70 every 2 months. Me and child at home all the time.  

Heating bille about €100 every 2 months.

I would turn on the diswasher and washing machine at night not because to save money but i flippen hate the noise they make (all in the kitchen).

I dont have a tumble dryer just put stuff on the line (when I can) in the hotpress, raditiors (know am not ament to but do ).

Got some interesting reading from the ESB with our last bill,  eg try and not use stuff between 5 and 7??? like surely thats when people home from work and start cooking, watchin tv etc


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## liteweight

Did you not take a final reading of your meter when you were moving out? You'll know in future eh? You were lucky they gave it back.


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## Chamar

I think it is really, really awful they way they can send you a bill for a huge amount because of innacurate meter readings. If they read the meter and it's wrong they should stagger the difference over your next 12 bills without sending out this huge invoice. It happened to me about 6 months ago and I had a really hard time trying to pay it off even with an arrangement. It is just so depressing when you get your bill with this huge outstanding balance on it!

I've since been calling in meter readings and the bills they send me are still way under-estimated. Like, what the hell are they estimating the bill off? It can't be last years usage because they STILL get it wrong with me and i'm not using anymore electricity than before.


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