Always, and I say always take a picture of the meter reading ensuring you get the meter ref and date of the picture, the mistake you have made is not taking readings straight away, you need them the minute someone leaves and when you sign up a new tenant. The Ombudsman is a waste of time, they are understaffed and too many cases to deal with, as Mickly is finding out.
Pay it and then ride the storm to get it back.
(It is a Smart meter but they are saying it hasn’t been sending the readings properly … so why didn’t they send someone out to sort it?)
because they don't care
The Ombudsman will tell you to follow the energy company complaints process first before they will get involved. Which in itself is a nightmare