Many people have been hit by utilities companies with this kind of thing... Bottom line is many customers are not on the ball about their utility supplies and when bills arrive estimated or not at all they don't chase it up. That being said sometimes it almost seems wilful that utility companies should allow bills to build up to such huge levels for their own agenda but to think that would be silly and the premise of paranoid people which, of course, we tied licensees tend to be.

Utility contracts usually have an automatic renewal clause unless they company is notified of the customer's intention to move 30 days (or more) before the end of the contract. One might think it is in the interests of utility companies in a volatile highly competitive market where consumers move accounts at the drop of a hat to keep their clients in arrears so accounts cannot be shifted and contracts are extended without negotiation and price haggling.