Help! Being charged 19 months after cancelling gas!

rozieuk

Hi all,

I have received a letter from southern electric saying that I owe them £44 from a gas supply that I stopped paying for in April 2007. I was a tenant in a property and the landlord changed my water heating from gas to electric so I told Southern electric that I no longer needed gas and stopped paying them in April 2007. I then moved out of that property in June 2008 and obviously have never thought about the gas supply since.

Today, I have received a final payment notice, as they had been sending them to the old address even though they know I have moved as I still get electric from them! Obviously I was completely confused as I have not used gas in 19 months so I rang them straight away.

I spoke to a less then helpful adviser who said that a meter reading has been given, either from me or my old landlord, which is higher than the one they had charged me for. Even though I was on a prepayment meter they are saying that £16 is a service charge that I am definitely liable for and the rest is usage that is unaccounted for that I can dispute but I have to try and prove against.

I have no idea where I stand legally with this bill as it seems so crazy that 19 months after I stopped paying for gas (on a prepayment card) that I have to pay them this money. If anyone has any advice or know who I can contact to get advice then please let me know.

Rozie

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

The legal position is that they can bill you, like any debt, for up to 6 years.

I am surprised they haven't 'sold' the debt to a Debt Collecting Agency by now.

You should get them to send you a final bill with meter reading and dates, so you can dispute it - or not.

If you make a big enough fuss and cause them lots of work, such a small sum might get written off!

rozieuk

Thanks for the reply. They are now sending me details of the meter readings and exact details of the bill. I am just unsure how they can charge a service charge and unbilled amounts if I was always on a prepayment meter. Surely on that kind of meter I pay for the service before I use it so how can I owe them money?

Magentasue

rozieuk wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. They are now sending me details of the meter readings and exact details of the bill. I am just unsure how they can charge a service charge and unbilled amounts if I was always on a prepayment meter. Surely on that kind of meter I pay for the service before I use it so how can I owe them money?

I wonder if they're billing you for a period just after you moved out? They may have been charging you a daily standing charge and, because you weren't putting money into the meter, it wasn't being paid. Could it have been that you had to give so many days' notice of cancellation and those days attracted a standing charge?

rozieuk

When I moved house I had stopped using gas 14 months beforehand so they should not have charged me at any point after April 2007. After cancelling my gas service from them I did not hear anything from them about the gas supply and this is why I am so confused.

Cardew

rozieuk wrote: »

Surely on that kind of meter I pay for the service before I use it so how can I owe them money?

Unfortunately that isn't the case.

On a pre-pay meter you can simply be paying 'something on account' and it is very common for people to run up debts on a pre-pay meter, as scores of posts on MSE will verify.

filmnoir

Yes and you cant just 'Cancel' your gas service because your not using it. If the facility of the meter is present and the service still live you still have to pay service charge or standing charge and PP meters are more expensive to lookafter and thats regardless of a deemed contract or contracted supply. Also PP meters can be set to take debt by charging a set fee each week or extra to reclaim debted monies.

However If you were on a deemed contract and not in debt with them prior ask them to provide a copy of their deemed contract 'stating' you are liable for a service/standing charge. I know most suppliers when pushed find they have not legally included it in deemed contracts and will be reluctant to push any further than a few complaints.