Void energy bills are uniquely easy to get wrong. The responsibility for the supply changes hands, often more than once, in a short space of time. Meters may be estimated rather than read. Tenancy dates and billing dates don’t always line up. And because each individual bill is usually small, nobody scrutinises them closely — until the errors have compounded into a year-end surprise.
Structured bill validation exists to catch these errors before they become problems. Here’s what
a disciplined 45-day validation cycle actually checks, and why the timing matters.
Why void bills go wrong so often
A few features of void energy make billing errors almost inevitable without active checking:
• Responsibility changes hands. When a tenancy ends, the supply moves to the landlord;
when a new tenancy starts, it moves again. Each transfer is a chance for the supplier to
bill the wrong party, for the wrong dates.
• Estimates instead of readings. If no reading is taken at handover, the supplier estimates
— and estimates for empty properties are often based on prior occupied usage, so
they’re too high.
• Standing charges on dead supplies. A property whose meter should have been
removed, or whose account should have closed, can keep accruing standing charges
nobody notices.
• Tenancy and billing dates that don’t match. The void period the supplier bills you for may
not match the actual void period in your records, leaving you paying for days that weren’t
your responsibility.
What the validation cycle checks
A structured validation process examines each void bill against what it should be, rather than
simply paying what’s presented. The core checks are:
Is the charge for the right period?
The billed dates are cross-checked against the actual void period from your tenancy records. If
the supplier has billed the landlord for days when a tenant was actually responsible — or vice
versa — that’s flagged and corrected.
Is the consumption realistic?
An empty property should use very little energy. If a void bill shows consumption consistent with
an occupied home, that’s a red flag — usually an estimate based on old data, or a misread
meter. Validation catches these and pushes for an accurate reading.
Are the standing charges correct?
The standing charge applied is checked against the expected rate for the supply, and against
whether the supply should still be live at all. A property that should have had its meter removed
shouldn’t still be accruing standing charges.
Is the tariff right?
Void supplies should be on appropriate rates. Validation checks the tariff applied is correct and
that the landlord isn’t being charged on an inappropriate or out-of-contract rate.
Why 45 days?
The timing of validation matters as much as the checks themselves. Validate too early and the
bill may not have settled into its final form; leave it too late and disputes become much harder to
win because suppliers apply time limits to back-billing and corrections. A 45-day cycle is
structured to give bills time to arrive and stabilise, while still leaving a clear window to raise and
resolve disputes before they age out.
A typical 45-day cycle runs in four stages:
1. Days 1–5 — Receive and normalise. Bills are captured, digitised, and reconciled against
meter readings and tenancy data.
2. Days 5-10 — Validate charges. Each line is checked against expected usage, standing
charge, period and tariff.
3. Days 11–15 — Raise disputes. Anomalies are escalated to the supplier with supporting
evidence, and queries are worked through.
4. Days 16–45 — Release payment. Correct, validated bills are cleared for payment;
disputed items are held until resolved.
What it prevents
The point of all this isn’t to nitpick individual bills — it’s to prevent the slow accumulation of error
that turns into a major problem at year end. Without validation, wrong charges get paid, small
overcharges add up, debt builds on supplies nobody is watching, and the finance team
discovers the scale of it only when they reconcile the year. By then, much of it is too old to
dispute.
With structured validation, charges are caught and corrected within weeks of arising, payment
goes out only on bills that are actually right, and there’s a documented audit trail on every bill —
which matters for compliance as well as cost control.
Without validation, void billing errors don’t announce themselves. They accumulate quietly and surface at year end, when most are too old to dispute.
TSM runs a structured 45-day validation cycle on every void energy bill as part of our service. If
unchecked bills are a worry for your finance team, request a callback.