No gas bill for 2 years

LittleMisssunshine_2

I moved into my New property 20th July 07. I informed British Gas of meter readings etc. They said they were NOT my supplier. Despite numerous calls , emails and face to face , they still maintained they were not my supplier. Only Today do i have correspondence stating they are. How on earth do they go about billing me from 2 years ago. I read somewhere they could only bill from July 08, however, how can they tell what units were used since then ??? Any advice would be fantastic

jd87

It is correct that they can only bill you for the past 12 months. They might try to bill you for more at first so you will need to explain your rights to them.

To figure out how much to bill you for they will have to estimate it. Do you have any meter readings at all, perhaps the initial readings when you first moved in? If you don't, then they will look at your current usage and work backwards.

LittleMisssunshine_2

my reading when i moved in was 000175, now its 02337, so thats 2162 units used in total.

jd87

Yeah so you'll probably pay for roughly half of that. I'm not sure how it'll be worked out exactly because there have been price changes over that time that need to be accounted for too.

Lottebear

My SIL has the same thing, it appears that when the buliders left, they did not hand over the developement to a specific compnay therefore no one can bill them, she has been told they can only ask for 12 months and to keep quiet and see what happens, although it does mean if something goes wrong they are on their own.

ALIBOBSY

Lottebear wrote: »

My SIL has the same thing, it appears that when the buliders left, they did not hand over the developement to a specific compnay therefore no one can bill them, she has been told they can only ask for 12 months and to keep quiet and see what happens, although it does mean if something goes wrong they are on their own.

My understanding of the 12 month thing is you have to make efforts to confirm who your supplier is and they have to fail to bill you. If she has tried to find out and can't get any info she should keep a note of when and how she did it. Also worth keeping regular meter readings to ensure any final bill is done correctly.

ali x

lemontart

When you move into a new property if there is no registered gas suppler then the onus is on you to register with a suppler, in this case it sounds that the op could not find out who the supplier was and did not register.

to find out who your current registered gas supplier is call 0870 608 1524, or if the property has an independent gas transporter you will need to call them, their name should be on the meter.

Never make assumptions that there is a registered gas suppler to a property when you move it even if the gas is on you need to find out for certain.

With new builds or new conversions if you are the first people to occupy there is unlikely to be a registered gas supplier but check first then register asap.

jd87

The OP knew who her supplier was and she did contact them. Did you people even read the first post?

lemontart

jd87 wrote: »

The OP knew who her supplier was and she did contact them. Did you people even read the first post?

she called who she thought was the supplier and the post clearly states she was told they were NOT her supplier so yes I did read it ,

olly300

lemontart wrote: »

she called who she thought was the supplier and the post clearly states she was told they were NOT her supplier so yes I did read it ,

Well either she is missing something from her first post or she has stated everything she has done.

She has clearly stated that she sent emails etc arguing they were her supplier. So obviously someone i.e. the builders told her they were the supplier and some employee at BG decided not to do their job properly.

So as long as she has some of that evidence that she did everything to get in touch with them and pay for the supply then she is in the clear and the only issue is sorting out the bill for a year.

lemontart

olly300 wrote: »

Well either she is missing something from her first post or she has stated everything she has done.

She has clearly stated that she sent emails etc arguing they were her supplier. So obviously someone i.e. the builders told her they were the supplier and some employee at BG decided not to do their job properly.

So as long as she has some of that evidence that she did everything to get in touch with them and pay for the supply then she is in the clear and the only issue is sorting out the bill for a year.

When new properties are built and gas meter is installed the builder will have to arrange the meter installation via a gas supplier, however whilst they install the meters in MOST cases they are not actually the registered gas supplier they are merely the meter installers, It is always the person who is moving in who has to register with a supplier, if for any reason they find there is no registered supplier after calling 0870 608 1524 or the independent gas transporter company who is named on the meter then they choose a supplier and register an account with them.

Certain suppliers will insist that you have your MPRN - meter point reference number so you can register - with new builds the builder may have a record of this as supplied to him by the company they appointed to install the meters , if not then it is the responsibilty of the Gas supplier you register with to arrange for a new one to be generated on your behalf - do not accept them telling you that either you or National Grid have to do this. National Grid do not generate MPRN'S.

Finally with new builds and new meter installatons you may be able to locate the MPRN number by looking at the pipe going into the meter - IT WILL NOT BE ON THE METER. This number identifies the property to the gas supplier and is unique to the property, whilst the serieal number that is on the meter is unique to the meter and idemtifies the meter.

If you have a meter outside your property in a box make sure you have a key to the cupboard too so you can access to read and for safety reasons in case of an emergency . It is scary how many folk do not have a key especially in rented properties