Reader question: Which deadlines and documents help me if, after the end of my electricity supply contract, the final bill or payment is missing?
The electricity supplier was changed or the old contract ended after a move. Months later the final bill is still missing. In another case the bill is already there and shows a credit that does not arrive in your bank account. These two situations require different specific demands.
This article deals with your own electricity supply contract in Germany. A heating cost statement through the landlord and a supplier insolvency are not equated with this. In the event of a known insolvency, a separate legal course for claims must be examined.
Prove the end of supply
Collect contract end or confirmed end of supply, customer number, delivery point and the available final meter reading. Add the previous advance payments. A flat handover date does not have to be uncritically the same date as the end of the supply relationship.
If a reliable end confirmation is missing or there are contradictory statements, explicitly name this gap. The bill should not be forced with a self-invented final consumption. Existing meter-reading and payment receipts should be attached in full or specified concretely.
Is the bill missing or only the payment?
§ 40c paragraph 2 EnWG obliges to issue the final bill at the latest six weeks after the termination of the supply relationship. Paragraph 3 requires the payment of a final credit within two weeks. [EnWG40c]
Therefore your request for the first situation is: provide the final bill for the specifically terminated supply contract. For the second: pay out the outstanding credit stated in the existing final bill. A blanket note “Please finalise everything” leaves open which service is still missing.
Fictional case with a documented remaining amount
A final bill shows, in the invented example, a credit of 240 euros. So far 90 euros have been received in the account as the corresponding payment. According to the assumed facts for the case there is no further set-off or correction bill. Mathematically, 150 euros remain outstanding.
The affected person names the bill, the stated credit, the part payment and the remaining amount. They do not demand the entire 240 euros again. If a later correction becomes apparent, it will be examined alongside it, instead of tacitly treating the old bill as the only possible version. The numbers are freely chosen and do not confirm any real claim.
Make a consumer complaint traceable
If the specific matter remains unresolved, a clearly designated consumer complaint can be prepared. § 111a generally obliges the company to reply within four weeks of receipt. If no remedy is provided, reasons in text form and references to dispute resolution are envisaged. [EnWG111a]
Therefore secure content, recipient and receipt. The complaint contains the missing service, the decisive data and existing evidence. An earlier general hotline inquiry is not uncritically equated with the same formal complaint.
After unsuccessful clarification, choose the appropriate further route
§ 111b provides for conciliation after an unremedied consumer complaint and obliges the company to participate if initiation is admissible. The court route remains separately possible. [EnWG111b] Use the current procedural information of the competent body and, if necessary, have the claim and deadlines advised. This article does not provide an original form.
A late bill also does not mean that the consumed electricity may no longer be billed at all. The Federal Network Agency explicitly points this out. [BNetzRechnung] Therefore do not automatically expect cost-free electricity while you demand the bill.
Continue the new contract properly
The outstanding claim against the old supplier will not be offset with invoices of a new company without a verified basis. Keep the final-account case and the new supply organisationally separate. Your completed status is only reached when the correct final bill is available and a confirmed credit has actually been fully processed, not already with the automatic message “Ticket closed”.