Massive Outstanding ESB Bill

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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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.

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

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

Taximan said:

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

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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!

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.

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

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.

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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

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?

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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!!

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??

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??

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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.

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

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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?

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.

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

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.

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.