British Gas sent bill invoices for £0, then now say i owe them £167!!!

Beta89

I got 1 bill from Brtish gas on 6th Febuary saying it was the 'estimated bill',
was the bill from 21st November 08 - 05 Febaury 09, and saying that the bill was for £0.

I also got 2nd letter at same time from them dated to the 5th Febuary,
exact same layout as the other bill,
was from 27th September 08 - 05th Febuary,
said it was the 'actual bill', and that it also was for £0.



Then today i went to my letter box and theres a letter from british gas saying ''This is your final notice, legal action may follow. As of 16/3/09, despite previous reminders (they havent sent me anything!!), we have not receieved your final payment of £166.89 for electricty.

You must pay this bill within 10days to prevent further action.



This is just a ***** joke, as they havent sent me any previous reminders about anything,
they sent me an estiamte of £0, and then they suddenly spring a £166 bill onto me demmanding i pay it instantly,
and they havent even given it in the form of an actual bill!

They have just sent a letter, not telling me what date to what date the bill charges are from, and havent given any explanation about why the bill they have sent me is 16,000% higher than the estimate bill that they actually asked me for!!



Any help with how i should best deal with this will eb very much appreciated, as theres no way on earth that i could ever pay that.

Im on JSA and housing benefits as it is and struggling to even pay for basic food with that.

daveyjp

Did you honestly believe you'd have a bill for £0?

Check the readings now, demand a new bill then pay what is due.

Magentasue

This is obviously an admin error and you would have realised that when you checked your meter against the bill. Contact immediately and set up a monthly payment plan. Work out how much you can afford for elec (and gas if you use it), calculate how many kwh that is a week and read your meter every week.

You need to adapt your use to fit your budget. If you can work out a payment plan that pays for energy as you're using it AND clears your debt, you won't have this problem again.

Keep checking your meters and make sure you budget for winter if money will still be tight then. You either need to make higher summer payments to subsidise the winter (fixed monthly DD) or save over the summer ready for winter bills.

Act quickly - you don't want debt collection charges added to this.

Beta89

Il try finding the meter cupboard and checking it now,
but i live in a block of flats and so i dont know where all the meters and things are.


And while it did seem unsual that i wasnt paying any electricity bill i just assumed that they were billing my landlord for it.

And i didnt really think any futher tbh, since as far as i was concerned when comapnies send me bills i pay the amount that it says.
Simple as that.


If they make errors then they can correct it in future, but cant 'redo my bills'.



I will call them tomorrow to findout exactly whats going on though, and then will setup a weekly direct debit to them for £10 per month, as that is the most i can afford till i manage to get ajob.

Magentasue

It is your responsibility to check bills against your meter so you do need to sort that out. Unless your tenancy agreement says that your rent includes bills? If that's the case, you need to sort this out with your landlord.

More likely that you are liable for the bill. Can't see £10 a month being acceptable so you will probably end up having to have prepayment meters. To be avoided if you can. In your circumstances, may be the only option. Once the debt is cleared, shop around for best tariff. Meanwhile, cut back as much as you can to clear debt more quickly.

Beta89

I looked outside and the meter says it was last checked on the 7th March.

and the number is 3265.5

Magentasue

Well, the relevant thing is the reading - 3265 (you don't count past the decimal point). Compare this to the closing reading on your bill. If the bill reading is a lot lower, you have used more than they think. If the bill reading is much higher, you have used less and so want a new bill. If they have actually read your meter, it should be in line - slightly higher because it's recorded what you've used since the billing.

It would be a good idea to take daily readings for a week and then weekly readings. If you reckon on 8 or 9 units for £1, you can calculate how many units you can afford every week.

Beta89

Thanks for your help.

Ive calmed down abit now and got over the shock of seeing that bill, and now can atleast look at this objectively.


The british gas bills dont say how much in KwHs you have used though,
they just give the bill in £s.

I think this 3265 must be the total amount used since mid August though,
since i only live in a studio flat, so cant be using that much.



Im gna call British gas tomorrow and am going to findout which months they are charging me this £166 for.

Since they already billed me the 'actual bill' uptill November,
and so im so im only willing to pay the bill from then to the present.

As they can argue that they made a mistake on the estimated bill, but now they have done the actual they are going to charge me the actual cost, thats fair enough.


But if they actually sent someone round in November who did the actual reading and then he said it was £0, so i got charged £0,
they cant now try changing the reading they took.



Im gna change electricty supplier tomorrow morning anyways though to a £30 per month one i found on U-switch.

Joyful

As has been said before it sounds like a Computer error so of course you can be charged. Your bill should certainly show you how many KWH you are charged for but the reminder may not. I would certainly call and ask for the original bill to be sent but also to set up a payment plan. This would have to be enough to cover both your consumption plus any balance you add to it.

You said"If they make errors then they can correct it in future, but cant 'redo my bills'.
Of course they can. They are correcting an error which means they have to bill you correctly. Readings get changed all the time for many reasons. Humans are fallible also and mistakes can be made although I think this one was the computer.

I work for British Gas

Magentasue

Beta89 wrote: »

Im gna change electricty supplier tomorrow morning anyways though to a £30 per month one i found on U-switch.

You will probably need to clear the debt before a switch can be processed.

Joyful

It also looks like you are using more than £30 so you would end up in a mess with arrears.When the time comes you have to set up an amount that covers your consumption. As Magentasue has said though you will need to clear off this bill first.