British gas - do you think we have a leg to stand on?

Grimbo_Green

Hi

I am wondering if anyone here has experienced the same issue as we have, regarding a final electricity bill from British Gas......

Basically, we moved out of our last rented house on the 31st December 2008.
We had previously recieved a bill on the 10th December 08 which was fine, we had given them the meter reading for that so paid occordingly.
21 days later on the 31st December we gave our final meter reading and moved out.
We moved into our new house and didn't hear anything from them until now (6 months later) and we had completly forgotten all about it.
Anyway yesterday we finally received our final bill for the last house.
They claim that we owe them £292 in electricity for the last 21 days of living at the old house!!! This is completely ridiculous as we used on average £270 every 3 months and they are trying to say we used over that amount in just 3 weeks!
The previous meter reading that we gave them on the 10th of December was: 03723 and the meter reading we apparently told them on the last day 31st December was 05887.
So they are claiming we used 2134 kilowatts if electricity over 21 days!
Now we usually write our meter readings in pen on the top of our bills, but this time we didn't and it was 6 months ago now so we cannot be sure what the exact meter reading was. But I am certain that they have the figure wrong and the meter reading on the 31st should have actually been: 03887 (not 05887) as that would make sense and be in line with what are average usuage would have been for 21 days.
We called them and said that clearly there has been a mistake and that if they look back at the history of our bills they can see that this last bill is significantly higher than the others and they must have recorded the reading we gave them incorrectly.
The final meter reading was never checked by themselves and only what we gave them over the phone.
They said that their company policy is that whatever we tell them goes! (this is ridiculous because the what is stopping people just pretending they only used 1 kilowatt of electricity per year - as they said their company policy is 'what we said - goes'!)
Anyway they refuse to look into it and said we must pay the £292.
So now it is just a case of their word against ours.
They can't prove we gave that exact figure over the phone so how can they make us pay this?
I am going to phone them again and tell them that this was not the reading that we gave them and that they obviously took it down incorrectly and I will offer to pay them £37 (which is how much the bill would have been if the reading was 03887 not 05887) and if they aren't happy with that then we will have to see them in court.
Do you think we have a leg to stand on? as I said it is clearly a ridiculous amount and significantly higher than are average usuage and it was a mistake on their part.
Surely this must have happened to other customers, its human error, and their word against ours.
What do you think?
I am also going to contact 'Energy Watch' and see what they say but in the mean time does anyone here know if we will get anywhere?
Many Thanks

Cardew

There seem to be two issues.

1. Was the meter reading of 03723 that you gave them on 10 December correct? i.e. could you have made a mistake?

2. Was the reading of 05887 correct?

Can you find out the current reading from the new tenants and/or letting agents - or have BG read the meter since you left?

The problem for BG is that the final reading(which you gave??) will be the start reading for the new tenants. If BG try to now claim their start reading was 2,000 units less, they might object.

Personally I think the onus will be on you to prove the error.

Grimbo_Green

Hi Cardew

Yes the meter reading on the 10th December was correct because because they had read our meters themselves on the 4th Dec and it was 03652. (the bill on the 10th dec was only for 6 days dont really know why that happened but anyway!)
Also we did ask them what the new tenants meter reading was and they actually stated about 700 watts LESS than our final reading which doesnt even make sense and just clarifies further that there has been a mistake somewhere.
Also we know the new tenant as he was actually our landlord who moved back into his house after we moved out. We had extreme mould and damp issues when we lived there so he moved back in and hired about 4 dehumidifyers and had them running constantly until the damp went away. We know this as we actually know the landlord personally (we know him through a friend of a friend and to be honest he isnt very trustworthy) But I dont want to make any accusations although I am starting to think he may have given a bogus meter reading on the day he moved in so that he wouldnt have to pay for the electric he used when using the dehumidifyers.
I think BG saw a big difference between our last meter reading and his apparent initial meter reading so upped ours instead. They did take 6 months to bill us, so who knows?

Grimbo_Green

Hi again,
I just called BG again and the lady I spoke to this time was much more helpful! She agreed that the bill was substantially higher than previous ones and clearly a mistake has happened somewhere along the way.
She said she will send us an amended invoice with the meter reading 03887 instead of 05887.
so all resolved now!

Thanks

trsn500

This exact thing happened to me with nPower, but they were helpful and immediately agreed that it was probably a mistake, and changed the reading to what we said it was most likely to have been. I guess it just depends on the mood of the drone/gremlin/real, reasonable person on the other end of the phone!!