british gas contract

What do you mean by 'contract'? Are you business or domestic? If you have a fixed price contract or something similar then maybe there is an exit clause (notice period). You say the contract starts 3/10/08 which means its in force 1.5months in advance, sounds strange to me.

Is this a commercial supply contract? A follow on from an existing contract? (You say it's a renewal)

If so, refer to the existing contract and see if it includes a term such as requiring you to provide 60 days notice to terminate else you'll automatically be be issued with a further 12 months contract.

British Gas Business' Sme contract terms from 2005 state that a mimimum of 90 days notice are required to terminate a contract. Although not stated in your renewal notice the wording used is

" I have included your new prices on the next page and enclosed a copy of your updated terms and conditions. They will apply from X date. Your contract will automatically renew for X years unless you tell us otherwise by X date."

I think that this is self explanitory however customers do expect suppliers to send renewal letters out with massive warnings all over them or in big bold writing.

The problem is many people think the renewal letters are junk mail and dont read past the first few paragraphs. And it easy to see why when suppliers send letters with headings such as

" Protect your new contract prices for X years and you don't have to do a thing" - British Gas Business

"Annual Review - Exiting new services from Opus Energy Ltd" - Opus Energy

"Protect your new contract prices for and you don't have to do a thing" - Edf Energy

" Even 12 Annual Review - X date to X date - Please find enclosed documentation covering usage and charges for the previous and next annual period of contract" - Electricity 4 Business"

I am sure people would prefer

" Warning ignore this letter at your peril! Doing so may cost you thousands of pounds"

But thats not going to happen is it.

The really sly company to watch out for is Npower. In most instances they issue the renwal letter notifying customers of new prices after the window of opportunity to terminate has passed. They expect a customer to be aware when the contract is due for renewal.

It all goes back to reading the original terms and paying attention to letters that suppliers send.

If Liz/Gill or Alm721 wants to PM me then I may be able to offer some assitance.

There are loopholes that can often be exploited but it depends on the individual cases.

BusinessEnergyBroker.

Its a bit like obtaining a credit rating isn't it billsavings. If you havent had credit previously then its difficult to obtain and so the cycle goes on.

I dont operate in the domestic market and have absolutely nothing to gain (other than credibility) by offering advice and assitance to anyone wishing to seek it. Try looking at some of the other posts from the last 24 hours and you may conclude that I know my oats.

If you wish to tell people to be wary then I can understand that as the world is full of rogues and its hard to tell one from another without having the experiance of dealing with them.

Believe me my business has been built around destroying rogue brokers and fly by nights.

And its pretty successful too.