A woman has been left devastated after being hit with a $12,000 electricity bill that will leave her in debt for almost 30 years.
The 62-year-old mother amassed the bill over several years, but her family is now asking why the power company, Contact Energy, let the bill get so high instead of cutting it off at $500.
The family didn’t discover the bill until the home was sold in 2016 and the power was finally disconnected, according to Stuff.
The woman’s daughter, Katherine, said she was cleaning the house to prepare it for potential buyers when she found a bill from 2014 for $8,500.
Her worst fears were confirmed when she realised the bill had not been payed and instead, had continued to increase.
‘In two years it had jumped from $8,500 to $12,000 and I don’t think she paid anything, they just kept the power on,’ she said.
Katherine says she knows the debt is her mother’s fault for not paying the bill, but wants to know why the company didn’t just cut her power off.
‘Mum is to blame, she should have paid it but they shouldn’t have let it get that high. Over those two years only about $600 was paid. Why wasn’t it turned off?’
The debt, which is from Contact Energy, has crushed her 62-year-old mother. She has organised to pay back $20 a week to the company, which will take her 28 years.
The debt, which is from Contact Energy, has crushed her 62-year-old mother and will take her 28 years to pay it back at a rate of $20 a year
‘You hear of people owing $500 and having their power cut off,’ Katherine said.
‘I don’t get how they can justify it. I thought somewhere someone would have said ‘maybe we should talk to someone.’
Katherine said the debt has also given her mother a bad credit rating so she can’t access a loan to pay it off.
She wants the family to come to some agreement with Contact Energy to settle the debt, saying repaying it at such a low rate isn’t in anyone’s benefit.
Contact Energy has been approached by Daily Mail Australia for comment.