3 year electricity bill after British Gas mistake

baloobug

Hi

When I moved into my new rental property 3 years ago I signed up for dual fuel with British Gas. A couple of weeks ago someone came to read my electricity meter and then a few days later I had my first electric bill from British Gas for £1200.

As it was their mistake that I hadn't been billed before they have offered for me to pay for only the last year (£470).

Even though they had someone take a meter reading this is an estimated bill which, after phoning customers services to find out what was going on, I discovered is £900 short of the actual amount of electricity used. I am going to have to get my actual meter reading taken into account but it seems they were trying to rush me into paying by offering this reduction and then my next quarterly bill would have included this £900

I have looked on the internet and the average annual electric bill for my property is £750 which with the £900 added over the 3 years is about right (£700).

My question (finally) is do I have to pay British Gas anything as it was their mistake and now my budgeting is completely out the window and I don't know where I will find this extra money.

SwanJon

How much effort did you put into getting an electricity bill? Where did you think the electricity was coming from? You need to take some responsibility for using something without making an attempt to pay for it.
Who will pay for the electricity if you won't?

Yes, they are entirely within their rights to make you pay for the last 12 months usage, but they should allow you to spread out paying it back.

Magentasue

You must have been saving for this bill - if you're only paying for a year, you should have more than enough put by to pay for it. If you don't - negotiate for time to pay. Two years' free electricity would be seen as a bit of a result for most people.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Utility companies can only back charge for the previous 12 months.

Obviously it will have to be an estimated bill. Had they known what your meter readings were you would have had proper bills years ago.

Why is your budgeting 'completely out of the window'. Did you not think you had to pay for electricity?

Thank your lucky stars that it wasn't a water bill or any other bill that you hadn't paid for 3 years as you would have to pay for the whole amount.

I get the impression that having 'got away' with having free electricity for 2 years, you somehow feel you have been wronged!!

spiro

Before you pay the bill I would phone them to give them an actual readings and get them to reissue a bill. This will then give a clear total consumption from when you joined them until now. They can then prorata that to determine how much you over for the last of the 3 years. Otherwise as you say if you pay to the estimate and the next bill is an actual you will end up having to pay all of that.

baloobug

Hi

Thanks for your replies.

Before changing to British Gas this house was supplied by Scottish Power and they sent one bill which covered electricity and gas so I (wrongly) assumed that British Gas would work the same way. After all what is the point of signing up for dual fuel (apart from cost) if you still have two separate bills to pay?

British Gas DID come and read the meter a couple of weeks before the bill arrived but still based my bill on an estimate. An estimate which is £900 short of the actual meter reading which was taken by them. The estimate they provided is also under the national average for this house by £300 a year.

I don't feel wronged that I am having to pay for my electricity I just feel that I was being enticed by a small payment -

a) so that I would then be stuck with a £900 bill at a later date

or

b) because they could only charge for the last quarter as it was their mistake and wanted me to pay before I realised this.

From what I have read here though it seems the best course of action is to have the new meter reading taken into account and pay for the last year in installments.

Pink_fluff

Did you not think it was a bit weird, never being sent a bill for 3 years??

SwanJon

British Gas bills all have either 'Your Gas Bill' or 'Your Electricity Bill' at the top.
They include the breakdown of readings and prices - for the relevant fuel.

British Gas didn't read your meter, a seperate company did, so the reading may not have even reached them.
What did they say when you gave them the accurate reading?

Michael_Nottingham

baloobug wrote: »

Hi


I don't feel wronged that I am having to pay for my electricity I just feel that I was being enticed by a small payment -

a) so that I would then be stuck with a £900 bill at a later date

or

b) because they could only charge for the last quarter as it was their mistake and wanted me to pay before I realised this.

From what I have read here though it seems the best course of action is to have the new meter reading taken into account and pay for the last year in installments.

baloobug I would imagine that either the actual read missed the billing window or the actual meter read was flagged as wrong by the systems so someone took the quick / easy route and decided to bill to an estimate. If you hadn't had your meter read for over 3 years, they wouldn't have anything recent to check the actual read against.

Given that they probably send out over 60m bills per annum they are hardly going to review everyone manually to see how they can squeeze some more money out of you :rolleyes: