© AVPRESS
The Walloon Marie-Laure Delfosse from Quiévrain cannot and does not want to pay her energy bill. Not because the woman has bad will, but because the invoice amounts to more than 40,000 euros.
Her fear now is that she will be without gas and electricity, she tells ‘La Dernière Heure’.
Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 12:49
Marie-Laure Delfosse lives in a small house in Quiévrain, Hainaut, certainly not a gigantic villa with a swimming pool or sauna. And yet her energy bill is 40,000 euros. She has been in conflict with energy companies Engie and Ores about this for months, but she has not received an answer. She recently even received a new invoice, this time one for 10,000 euros. She had to pay that invoice from the suppliers “as quickly as possible”.
“I have always paid my bills on time. So when I received the bill for 40,000 euros a few months ago, I was shocked,” she explains to La Dernière Heure. “And then there was that new bill of 10,000 euros that had to be paid immediately. But I don’t live in a villa. My husband and I live in a small house and are rarely there because of our jobs. So I don’t understand how we got into this situation. I’ve already had a breakdown because of this story that won’t go away.”
“I don’t understand how we got into this situation. I’ve already had a breakdown because of this story that won’t go away”
Marie-Laure Delfosse
Got high energy bills
Higher advance payment
Although Marie-Laure has always paid her bills and provided her meter readings on time, Engie reports that she has no traces of this. “This is probably due to the Atrias service, which should facilitate the exchange of data between suppliers. I submitted my meter readings three times without it being taken into account. Then there were some problems with this service. And as a result, I got these two big bills. But I don’t want to pay for someone else’s mistakes,” he said.
However, according to a response from Engie to La DH, Marie-Laure’s gas and electricity consumption would be three to four times higher than that of an average household. “The monthly advance that our customer pays is only 200 euros, while her monthly consumption would actually require an advance of 600 euros. We must always ensure that this down payment is in accordance with the market price and the household consumption,” the energy supplier responds.
“It is impossible that our monthly consumption corresponds to these figures”
Marie-Laure Delfosse
Got high energy bills
Marie-Laure says she is not satisfied with this answer. She indicates that the meter readings that were provided are those that were on the bill. “However, it is impossible that our monthly consumption matches these figures. A completely different problem, such as a leak or a problem with the exchange of data, could be an explanation,” she responds.
