Old Bill from British Gas

kerry32

Hi,

Today I recieved a final bill reminder letter from British Gas for electricity. The amount was £116. I immediatly rang them to ask when this was for, as we have not been supplied by BG for a long time, I was told it was from August 2006. I was furious because, we were indeed with BG very briefly in 2006, and when we changed back to our previous supplier, BG gave us a final bill from 2002! I did not ever believe that we owed them money from 4 years previous because when I moved to this property, the previous owner was with BG but I changed immediatly to a different supplier, and paid what I owed, which couldnt have been very much. So this bill was a bit if a shock. We were forced to pay it as I had no proof and was being threatened wit court. So, to now recieve another similar final bill today concerned me. I have since been looking around on the internet and have read that they are not allowed to send bills more that 2 years old, I am wondering if this is true? Also, was it legal for them to imply I was legally bound to pay the bill in 2006- for energy used in 2002?

Thanks for your help.

GeorgeUK

Tell them to go whistle.
That 2 years was changed to one year a while back.

http://cfe.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/cfe.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5406&p_created=1210073284&p_sid=S1mB74uj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD02MTIsNjEyJnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1

Just noticed the link changes, here is where that is taken from.
http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/en/content/cms/Energy_Help___Advice/Your_energy_question/Your_energy_question.aspx

A_Star

kerry32 wrote: »

Hi,

Today I recieved a final bill reminder letter from British Gas for electricity. The amount was £116. I immediatly rang them to ask when this was for, as we have not been supplied by BG for a long time, I was told it was from August 2006. I was furious because, we were indeed with BG very briefly in 2006, and when we changed back to our previous supplier, BG gave us a final bill from 2002! I did not ever believe that we owed them money from 4 years previous because when I moved to this property, the previous owner was with BG but I changed immediatly to a different supplier, and paid what I owed, which couldnt have been very much. So this bill was a bit if a shock. We were forced to pay it as I had no proof and was being threatened wit court. So, to now recieve another similar final bill today concerned me. I have since been looking around on the internet and have read that they are not allowed to send bills more that 2 years old, I am wondering if this is true? Also, was it legal for them to imply I was legally bound to pay the bill in 2006- for energy used in 2002?

Thanks for your help.

This could be complete rubbish but I thought energy companies only had 2 years to bill you, after that they can't make you pay it.

kerry32

Ok, you are right, I do not have to pay this at all. I cannot believe that during my phone call to them yesterday, they still insisted I had to pay up, knowing that the law has changed, but what is also annoying me is that they have done this to me before...and I paid the bill. The most annoying thing about it is that I simply dont use BGto supply my energy, but they keep sending bills from years before and I cant remember whether they were paid or not. Is it possible to claim the money back that I paid to them before?

fermi

That says:

where suppliers were at fault for not billing a consumer, they will not backdate (or back bill) more than two years

That is "backdate" isn't it? NOT how long they have to recover such a backdated bill?

Or am I reading that wrong?

GeorgeUK

Fermi, totally agree with what you say. If they had been using BG as their supplier and after 3 years if no bill had been received, they would have been liable for 1 years worth of bills.

I have since noticed that under the Billing code, it states:

Under what circumstances will suppliers agree not to charge customers for energy used?
Energy Suppliers have a responsibility to ensure Customers are accurately billed for
energy consumed. Likewise, Customers have a responsibility to pay for the energy they consume.
The Supplier is completely within its rights to bill in full for any energy consumed where it can demonstrate that;
a) use of supply has been made by a Customer but that no attempt has been made by a Customer to contact a Supplier to make or arrange payment, or
b) the Customer is wilfully avoiding payment, or
c) the Customer has not co-operated with attempts to obtain meter readings or resolve asset queries required to facilitate accurate bill production.
Unless the above clauses (a) to (c) apply, Energy Suppliers will not seek additional
payments for un-billed energy consumed over 12 months ago if they have:
d) received the necessary industry notifications but have failed to set up a record on their billing systems, or
e) failed to set up or maintain accurate meter and metering data, or
f) failed to use valid readings provided by the Customer or data collectors, or
g) failed to reassess regular payments within the previous 15 months based on accurate information available to them, or have failed to communicate the need for and use of a Customer own reading at this time, or
h) failed to attempt to obtain a valid reading during the previous 15 months, or
i) failed to send a bill to the Customer or billing address during the previous 15 months, unless their express agreement with the individual Customer allows for this.

Where Suppliers issue a bill which has these principles applied, they will credit the
account with the value of the unbilled energy consumed over 12 months ago, taking into consideration any payments already made by the Customer or credits applied to the account, so that the Customer is not required to pay any additional sums towards this previously unbilled energy consumption.

As Kerry tried to arrange payment of the final bill in 2006, part a) does not apply. The customer has not wilfully avoided payment as they made payment in 2006 after contacting BG so part b) does not apply. I am going to assume thet if BG had tried to take meter readings, Kerry would have allowed them to so part c) also does not apply.

In my opinion, BG has not complied with parts e) to i) of the code.

I had not fully read this first time around so my assumption that bills older than 1 year were not valid was incorrect - thanks for spotting that Fermi.

I would however argue that Kerry has met all the requirements of the code but as She has not had any dealings with BG in the last 15 months, they are in error and should do as the code states: 'Energy Suppliers will not seek additional payments for un-billed energy consumed over 12 months ago' as Kerry has complied with parts a), b) & c).