PLEASE HELP £1500 Gas Bill!!

kerinsoph

Hi there,
This is my first time posting here. Today i got in from work and received a gas bill from Atlantic Gas (who also supply our electric). I opened the bill up to see that we apparently owe £1530.46 from Sept - Dec 2008...!!
Me and my partner live in a privately rented small terraced house in Leicester, 2 bedrooms and we have the heating on for a few hours a day during winter. We have a gas cooker which we use max of 45 mins a day.
We have been receiving estimated bills for nearly 2 years now, they have always been very low, around £40-£50 every quarter. We assumed, with this being our first house, that was probably correct. We always pay the bill online. We never had anyone come round to read the meter until December 2008.
As soon as i received the bill today i was immediately on the phone to Atlantic. The advisor laughed and told me 'not to worry' as it was 'definately a mistake' when i explained the situation.
He then asked me to read the meter, which, i will be honest, i didnt know how to. He talked me through it and i gave him the readings. He also asked for the serial number on the meter.
He then proceeded to tell me it was correct. After much panicking and explaining to him that i simply cannot pay that he explained why it was so much.
Apparently the estimated meter readings were obviously estimated extremely low, as this has been over 2 years, the actual ammount we now owe has been calculated over 2 years.
He then told me my gas bill should be £70 a month, which i still think is very high for just two people. He spoke to his manager and told me they will accept a payment plan over 2 years instead of 1 year, and i will now be charged £70 per month plus £1530 divided by 24 months which is £63 so in total they want to charge us £133 a month for gas alone!!
I told him there is still no way we can afford that, and there really isnt. We are both in our early 20's with full time jobs which only bring in 12k and 10k each. On top of all our rent, and various other bills, we would have to starve to even get near that ammount each month. He didnt have a lot else to say, except he would give me a couple of days to think about it, and to call them back.
Im extremely stressed out, and have no idea what to do next. First off, i assume they cannot get away with estimating our quartly bills that low, and then hitting us with a huge bill 2 years later??
Any advice will be greatly received and i will reply to all questions asked.
Thank you.

Magentasue

kerinsoph wrote: »

First off, i assume they cannot get away with estimating our quartly bills that low, and then hitting us with a huge bill 2 years later??
Any advice will be greatly received and i will reply to all questions asked.
Thank you.

I'm afraid they can. If they send you a statement with an estimated reading, it is your responsibility to read the meter and correct it. Of course, some people might keep quiet and stick the money away and pay when the real amount is charged.

Whichever way, you have to pay for the energy you use. Only by checking your meter, can you know how much this will be if you have a series of estimated readings.

Premier_2

Hi & welcome to MSE, kerinsoph

You're not going to like this, but I'm not going to mislead you.

You used the gas and yes you will have to pay for it. Estimates are done when no actual meter reading is available. You bills will show it was an estimated reading. If you had checked at the time, you could have gave them a customer reading and they would have rebilled you.

Now they have an actual reading and have every right to ask you to make up the shortfall between the previous estimated reading and the actual now.

They are only obliged to inspect the gas meter once every 2 years - and that's for safety reasons more than anything else. They also seem to have allowed you the same period the debt accrued over in order to repay it - again the best they normally offer.

They seem to have been more than fair. Sorry it's not what you want to hear but I don't want you to get any false hopes. You will have to repay the amount owed.

kerinsoph

Wow. I didn't really expect that. Why would they estimate the bills so low then if the actual bills were a lot higher? It just doesn't seem to make any sense.
I have no idea where the money is going to come from.
I read somewhere earlier that if the gas company hasn't taken the correct readings themselves from a meter within 2 years, then they are only liable for 1 years catch up payments as they should have told us a lot sooner?
It may be wrong but that is what i read.
Thanks for your help.

KimYeovil

How do you know the estimates were low? You may just be more reckless than the previous occupiers. If you have never bothered to check the meters then you may just be using a lot more than necessary.

If the two of you with a salary of £22K (plus two lots of working tax credit) can not afford to pay £133 per month then you are clearly spending too much money on something else - £133 is a trivial amount. You have been negligent but have generously been given two years free credit.

The twelve month limitation does not apply to estimated bills.

Magentasue

kerinsoph wrote: »

if the gas company hasn't taken the correct readings themselves from a meter within 2 years, then they are only liable for 1 years catch up payments as they should have told us a lot sooner?
It may be wrong but that is what i read.
Thanks for your help.

If you hadn't received any bills at all, this would be true - as it is you received statements so had the opportunity to correct the readings. Sorry.

savemoney

As others have said you will have to pay the charges. I know it may be disappointing for you its surprising how many people seem to make this assumption that estimated bills can be relied upon. Some people also make the mistake when changing suppliers that its a good deal because there direct debits are lower sometimes the supplier does this to entice customers

The best bet in future is to always take meter readings regularly say once a month and tell your supplier so you dont get any nasty shocks

Cardew

Have to agree with the above, it is your responsibility to check your bills.

You should bear in mind that the average household uses approx £1,300 a year on gas and electricity. - the majority of that on gas.

However you have a chance of getting a reduction if they have charged you for all the outstanding units at today's prices.

Over the last 2 years gas prices have increased dramatically and they should have estimated some of the units at prices 2 years ago, and others at the various charges over the 2 years.

When you call them back, ask to speak to a supervisor and see if they will make a reduction in your outstanding amount to account for this factor.

If they don't agree, say you will take your case to the Regulator and get their opinion.

Assuming that they haven't adjusted prices back over the last 2 years I would hope for a 30% reduction.

filmnoir

Couple of things to check to be on the safe side. What was the openning read on the account. What is the read now? Have they invoiced estimates through the zeros, i.e rolled over? 89896 to 01000? Is the opening and any actual in between reads up till now in line to support this through the zeros.

Is the invoicing in metric and the meter metric or is the invoicing imperial cubic feet and the meter cubic feet? Are they invoicing in one but the meter reading in another?

If all that is ok then unfortunately as above, you are liable for the invoice. And looking at what youve paid for two years on that property it looks in the right ball park.

Stardust

KimYeovil wrote: »

If the two of you with a salary of £22K (plus two lots of working tax credit)

If they have no children and are under 25 they dont qualify for WTC.

kerinsoph

Thanks for all the advise especially Cardrew, i will be calling them first thing tomorrow.
I expect that we will have to pay it, but a reduction considering the amount gas prices have risen should be given, i will post back to let you know how i get on.

KimYeovil - It may seem like a trivial amount of money to others but is an awful lot extra for us, amongst the car, rent, electric, council tax, petrol money, insurance etc and we do not spend too much on everything else, in fact we dont have ANY spare cash to treat ourselves to anything.

It was a huge shock though to say the least!