Our energy supplier has billed us for something we did not agree, and eight months of emails have gone nowhere.
Energy billing disputes are won on the paper trail and the deadlock letter, not on persistence. We reconstruct the account, put the complaint properly, and take it to the Energy Ombudsman where the supplier will not resolve it. Almost every business that arrives here has already spent months on it: calls that reset each time, a case reference that changes, and an amount that moves without explanation. The reason those months achieve nothing is structural. A supplier’s complaints process responds to a documented position with a stated outcome. It does not respond to correspondence, however persistent, that has not reconstructed the account.
Dinmore Bell reconstructs disputed energy accounts, puts the complaint through the supplier’s own process to deadlock, and takes eligible cases to the Energy Ombudsman. The scheme covers domestic customers and businesses meeting Ofgem’s microbusiness criteria; larger businesses have a contractual route, which Dinmore Bell runs as a commercial dispute.
How we own it
Reconstructing the account
Contract, tariff, meter readings, estimated versus actual, back-billing limits and any broker commission built into the unit rate. Most disputes resolve here, once somebody has actually reconciled what was agreed against what was charged. That means pulling every bill for the period, the contract or renewal notice that set the rate, the meter technical details and the readings the supplier used, and rebuilding the account line by line. The usual findings are mundane and expensive: consumption estimated for years after a meter exchange, a deemed or out-of-contract rate applied because a renewal notice was never acknowledged, a change of tenancy that was never processed, or a standing charge applied to a supply that was disconnected. None of those are arguments. They are arithmetic, and arithmetic is what a supplier has to answer.
The complaint, put properly
A complaint that states the outcome sought, the basis for it and the evidence behind it, run through the supplier’s own process to deadlock, which is the step that unlocks the Ombudsman and the one most businesses never complete. A complaint has to be recognisable as a complaint and has to ask for something specific: a figure, a correction, a compensatory payment, or all three. It then has to be escalated through the supplier’s published stages rather than restated to whoever answers the phone. Either the supplier issues a deadlock letter, or eight weeks pass from the date the complaint was made. Both open the same door. What closes it is a dispute that was never formally raised, which is where a great deal of well-founded correspondence ends.
The referral
We prepare and submit the Ombudsman referral, respond to the supplier’s account of events, and hold the supplier to the remedy once it is directed. The referral is a document, not a form: the reconstructed account, the chronology, the outcome sought and the evidence, presented so that a case handler can follow it without reading two years of emails. Suppliers respond with their own version and it is frequently the first time anybody senior has looked at the file. We answer it. Where the Ombudsman directs a remedy and the business accepts it, the direction binds the supplier, and we follow through on the credit, the corrected billing and any goodwill payment rather than leaving the client to chase it.
Who the scheme actually covers
The Energy Ombudsman scheme covers domestic customers and businesses that meet Ofgem’s microbusiness criteria. A business qualifies by meeting any one of them: using less than 100,000 kWh of electricity a year, using less than 293,000 kWh of gas a year, or having fewer than ten employees or full-time equivalents together with annual turnover or a balance sheet total of no more than two million euros. Meeting one is enough, which is wider than most businesses assume and is the first thing worth checking. A multi-site operator often qualifies on a site-by-site basis even where the group as a whole would not.
Back-billing and the twelve-month line
Where a supplier has failed to bill accurately, it cannot recover charges for energy consumed more than twelve months before the corrected bill is issued. That protection applies to domestic customers and to microbusinesses, and it is the single most valuable point in an estimated-reading dispute, because the sums in question are usually years old. It is also routinely ignored in the first response. The practical work is establishing when the supplier could have billed correctly and did not, which is a question about meter readings, exchange records and the supplier’s own correspondence.
The commission inside the unit rate
Where a broker arranged the contract, the broker’s commission is normally built into the unit rate rather than invoiced separately, and the business frequently has no idea of its size. It is a legitimate part of the price when it has been disclosed. Where it was not, or where the rate was renewed at a commission the business never agreed, it belongs in the complaint. Brokers themselves fall within the Ombudsman scheme in defined circumstances, so a complaint sometimes runs against two parties rather than one.
Where the business is too large for the scheme
Above the microbusiness thresholds there is no Ombudsman, and the route is contractual: the supply agreement, the disputed-invoice provisions within it, and the ordinary remedies for overcharging. The work is largely the same. The account is reconstructed, the position is put in a letter that states the outcome sought, and the matter is pursued as a commercial dispute rather than a complaint. What changes is the leverage, which comes from the contract and from the prospect of proceedings rather than from an independent scheme.
What a remedy usually looks like
Rarely a single number. A resolved dispute normally combines a corrected account, a credit or refund of what was overcharged, the removal of charges outside the back-billing window, a correction to any adverse credit reporting, and a modest payment for the handling itself. The last of those is small and is not the point. The corrected account is the point, because an uncorrected account keeps producing wrong bills after everybody has stopped paying attention.
Where a specialist is needed
Metering and consumption questions that turn on engineering evidence are referred to an independent metering specialist. Court proceedings, where a contractual claim goes that far, are conducted with instructed litigation specialists. Where a disputed account has consequences for filed accounts or VAT recovery, that is work for the accountant, and Dinmore Bell coordinates it rather than advising on it.
Where specialists come in
The Energy Ombudsman accepts complaints from domestic customers and from microbusinesses as defined by Ofgem. Where your business falls outside that definition, the route is contractual rather than the Ombudsman scheme, and we pursue it as a commercial dispute — with litigation, if it becomes necessary, conducted by instructed specialists. We assess and tell you which route applies before any work starts.
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- Does my business qualify to use the Energy Ombudsman?
- If you meet any one of Ofgem’s microbusiness criteria: under 100,000 kWh of electricity a year, under 293,000 kWh of gas a year, or fewer than ten employees with turnover or a balance sheet total no greater than two million euros. Only one has to be met, and multi-site businesses often qualify at site level.
- How long does the process take?
- The supplier stage takes up to eight weeks unless a deadlock letter is issued sooner. The Ombudsman stage typically runs a further two to three months depending on complexity and on how quickly the supplier responds. Reconstructing the account first shortens both, because it removes the rounds of correspondence spent establishing basic facts.
- What is a deadlock letter?
- A letter from the supplier confirming that its complaints process has concluded without an agreed resolution. It is the trigger that allows a referral to the Ombudsman before eight weeks have passed. Suppliers do not always volunteer one, and asking for it explicitly is often the fastest step available.
- Can a supplier bill us for energy used years ago?
- Not where the supplier failed to bill accurately and you are a domestic customer or a microbusiness. Charges for energy consumed more than twelve months before the corrected bill cannot be recovered. Establishing when the supplier could have billed correctly is the work that makes the protection bite.
- Should we keep paying the disputed bill?
- Usually you continue paying the undisputed element and withhold the disputed part, in writing and with the reason stated. Stopping payment altogether tends to produce disconnection notices and credit consequences that are harder to unwind than the original dispute. The right position depends on the contract, and it is one of the first things we set.
- What if a broker arranged the contract?
- Broker commission is normally built into the unit rate. Where it was not disclosed, or where a renewal carried a commission the business never agreed to, that belongs in the complaint, and in defined circumstances a complaint can be brought against the broker as well as the supplier.
- What can the Ombudsman actually direct?
- A corrected account, a financial award or refund, an apology, and practical remedial action such as removing charges outside the back-billing window or correcting credit file entries. If the business accepts the decision, it binds the supplier.
- What does Dinmore Bell charge for this?
- It sits inside the retained function on a fixed monthly fee rather than being priced as a case. Where a business comes to us for this alone, it is scoped on a Scope Analysis call against the size of the account and the period in dispute.