How long should bills be kept?? Doubt is common and the answer simple: five years. This is the term beyond which the statute of limitations is triggered for many payments: not only electricity, water and gas bills, but also telephone bills, ordinary condominium expenses, rents and mortgage payments.
However, starting this year the Rai fee arrives together with the electricity bill. And this, unfortunately, changes things, given that the jurisprudence has always recognized the nature of the fee as a tax, confirming the applicability of the ten-year limitation period. This means that the user, to avoid disputes over the payment of the Rai license fee, will be able to get rid of the electricity bills only after 10 years, no longer five.
Quite a nuisance, as many of us are already inundated with boxes and binders overflowing with forgotten invoices. Unfortunately, however, there is no other way to validly dispute any double payment requests by suppliers.
In other words, if they ask us for more money for bills that we have already paid, the only way to settle the matter without putting a hand in the wallet is to demonstrate beyond any doubt that we are already in good standing. And to do this we need material proof: the good old paid invoices. Paper, possibly. And originals If, on the other hand, payments are made via direct debit, account statements should also be kept.
