Brit Gas bill: £974.20 for 3.5 months!!

sertav

B]oops! wrong forum! please move to Gas & Elec board[/B

Mature couple friends of mine just got a very nasty surprise: A BG bill for gas from 15/12/2005 to 04/04/2006 for £974.20!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Now, they both work and, as such, are out of their 1-bed flat for most of the day (Monday-to-Saturday) and they use the central heating sparingly.

I very much doubt that even if you left the central heating full blast and on all the time it would ratch up to nearly £1k in 3.5 months but, you never know, I may be wrong about this...

As it happens, they've moved out of that property in the meantime (on 04/04/2006) so I'm now wondering what's the best way forward to contest the charge and to try to bring it down.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Twopints

Has the meter been replaced?

When you say they have moved out, do you mean sold the property or terminated the lease ? Did they get a final reading ?

Had they had the meter read recently or were the previous bills estimated ?

Wig

What 'e said.

Cardew

To contest the charge they will need to establish the charge is incorrect.

Obviously the haven't used that amount of gas in that period but nearly all huge bills like this are due to a large debit balance being built up and carried forward.

Firstly was the reading correct when they moved out on 4/4/06?

Secondly was the reading on 15/12/06 estimated or read by themselves or meter reader? Very probably it was estimated.

Thirdly check back through previous bills(if retained) to see when the last reading by a meter reader was taken.

Fourthly did they pay their previous bill(s) - check cheque stubs. bank statements.

You will find on this forum many cases of several consecutive bills being estimated(particularly as they are at work all day Mon-Sat(and the meter reader cannot gain access) and large debit balances being built up.

If the bill is incorrect due to incorrect readings, there is not a problem as a revised bill will be issed.

If the bill is correct due to a series of estimated readings - which I am afraid is usually the case - they can negotiate with BG to get a reduction as BG must bear some responsibility for not taking action to obtain a correct reading. Although the meter reader usually leaves a card for the customer to complete or phone in the correct reading(I assume this didn't happen?)

However if the latter situation is the case then the customer must bear most of the responsibility for allowing this situation to continue.

Wig

I doubt you can get a reduction, but you can ask that the payments are set at a reasonable level, they cannot ask for it all in one lump sum. There is no responsibility (legally) on the consumer to check the bills coming in are correct. The only responsibility lies with the supplier who must read at least every two years.

* In any event arghuing about who's responsible is irrelevant, the bottom line is they cannot be made to pay in one lump sum.

pickle

That sounds like an outrageous amount. It cannot be correct surely. I'm at home in a 3 bed place all day and mine was about £130, and I can't stand the cold so would have the heater running during winter for most of the day and night. But I'm not with British Gas. Even if it's an estimation it's a ridiculous sum. I'd challenge it. Is there some sort of Ombudsman for this area if they don't get a satisfactory outcome?

[Deleted User]

There must be something wrong, BG charged us £638 from 21/12/05 to 10/04/06 (for gas only) and I am at home with my baby in a 3 bed detached. I thought my bill was astronomical, but you are in a 1 bed flat and you both wrk, that's not right. Good luck!
Oh and I have switched suppliers since then.

flossy_splodge

:rolleyes: This thread is beginning to make me wonder about BG. :rolleyes: I am having to take an increasing responsibility for my fathers life as he is forgetting to pay bills etc and so have been looking at his gas bill. He lives alone and yet in spite of that and paying £95.00 on a DD he was estimated to be £366.00 in arrears. I asked for a meter reader to come out and meet me there and check the meter and it nows appears he in fact owes about £600!! How on earth can one man (who incidentally cannot bear being HOT and always turns heating DOWN) have consumed about £1700 worth of gas in a year??? Does that seem right to anyone? I have no idea as I do not have gas. Could BG be doing anything sus???:mad:

dippy-dora_2

I did a protest with banners and everything against British gas some years back, they are robbing gits.
They thought they could diddle me out of my standing charge that they wern't supposed to be paying and one of the persons I spoke to on the phone refused to give me his name (this was the level of their service!)
Anyway after it was in the paper they coughed up but this was after over a year ogf them promising to reimburse me - I spent more than I was owed on phone calls to them to try and get the money back.

So the moral is if they have made a mistake go to the press as they don't like that

frosty

when we purchased our first house in the eighties we had a large bill of £486.00 from British Gas,we were doing the place up and not actually living in the house.We decided we were not going to pay the bill,we were told we could have the meter sent away and tested .The report that came back said the meter was faulty but they could not tell if was over or under charging British gas decided it was under charging and said we had to pay,we refused and in the end they gave up and we agreed a payment of £110.00,after this long story I just wanted to say maybe if you receive a very large bill maybe you should ask for the meter to be checked.