British Gas bill 3 years old - billing code

leopard48

I would be grateful for any advice on how to deal with British Gas. I received a gas bill today covering period 13 Dec 06 to 21 Sep 09. We have been with British Gas since we moved into this flat in Dec 2002. We were paying by direct debit. Our gas meter was read regularly. At some point during 2006 British Gas have accidentally closed our account. They have admitted this over the phone last December but I have no proof of this. We were under the impression that we had paid British Gas continuously by direct debit however we haven't because our account was closed. In December 2008 they have created a new account for us and we have paid our bills quarterly from that date onwards.
The bill I received today is the first bill in our name for the period that our account was closed. British Gas have sent bills before addressed to the occupier and to our landlord but this is the first bill addressed to us. We have only found out recently when we looked at the meter number that those bills where for our gas meter for the period that British Gas closed our account. There is also a bill addressed to the occupier which covers 4 Sep 06 to 12 Dec 06. The two bills together amount to about £600.
We believe that we are not at fault as we have been with British Gas since we moved here and we have not closed our account. The only thing is that we maybe could have spotted that no direct debits for gas were taken.
Any advise on this issue with regards to the billing code would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

I have to say it really does sound disingenous to claim that you hadn't 'spotted' that for over 2 years you hadn't paid anything for your gas - or that you hadn't received any bills(addressed to you by name).

I also don't think your protestations that you are "not at fault" have much validity either.

No matter, the real question you are asking is can you get away without paying for the goods you received on a technicality!

I think the answer hinges on the letters addressed to 'The Occupier'. as well as the bills sent to The Occupier and the landlord. These are very clearly valid bills and you obviously knew that it was for energy you had used.

Under the Gas and Electricity Acts it is a legal requirement for the Utility company to send letters addressed to The Occupier for new occupants, and if the occupier uses any gas and electricity they have entered a legally binding deemed contract.

If you were new occupants, then there is no doubt that by your failure to notify them you were in occupation, you woul be liable for any bill - i.e. the 12 month back-billing rule would not apply.

Any bill owed as a result of your occupation would be valid and follow you if you left the property..

As you are not a new occupant, the 'legal' position seems less than clear. However IMO the 12 month ruling on the Billing code would not apply as you did not take reasonable steps to notify them you were still in residence and most inportantly BG had raised bills in this period(to the occupier and landlord)

You can obviously put your case to BG, but if they reject your appeal, what is likely to happen?

They will probably pass the alleged debt to a Debt Collection Agency(DCA) or take steps to have pre-pay meters fitted. These meters will be set to 'claw back' the debt. If you object it will go to court as it could if the debt is with a DCA.

I suggest that a defence such you have offered above, will not go down well in a court of law.

funky_snow

Hi - not quite the same scenario as you - but I did eventually get a very old bill issued by British Gas cancelled and written off.

Moving from a property where gas and elec were both supplied by British Gas I was persuaded to take on British Gas for the elec supply in my new flat (no gas at the premises). They messed up the handover so eventually about 9 months later the account transferred. By this point I was ready to move again so requested a final bill. This was issued and paid.
Two years later I received another bill for the property. Apparently because it was a dual elec meter property, British Gas hadn't properly accounted for it and only charged me for 1 of the meters and was now trying to chase it. I had lots of exasperated calls that didn't get anywhere - essentially me saying a) not my fault you were rubbish at the process of taking over the account for the property b) I had written invoice clearly stating a final bill for the property/account.

The calls/letters started to get v. threatening so I contacted Gas Ombudsman who gave me a Customer Complaints address, who I wrote to with full details/copies of bills. At this point I also stopped taking their calls - and requested everything in writing. In actual fact they never did call or write again other than thru their Complaints team - who agreed to write off the bill.

Sidenote to this saga - they rebilled again after all this was resolved. Cue threatening letters and phonecalls again - so I restarted the process again with the Complaints team who sorted it again. It seems like the Complaints team are a very different part of the business to the normal staff that answer the phones/chase for payment.

Moral of the story - put it in writing, state facts in the letter - although I did put a bit in about how they were emotionally hounding me and causing me distress and only deal with them by letter/email.

Can you believe my last letter though - an apology and confirmation the amount has been cancelled plus a final paragraph noting that I don't currently have my supply with British Gas and would I consider switching... As if....

I read your story and can see that it is dubious as you didn't make any payments for the time you have been billed - your best angle of approach is that its a long time ago and why are you now being chased for British Gas's mistake alll that time ago... Good luck

Bobfm

I know this has probably been handled before but I am still confused. It concerns Cubic Feet and Cubic metre gas conversion.

I understand that Cubic Feet meter record 100 CF in each unit recorded, and a Cubic Meter records 1 CM/unit.

Given that equates to 31 KWH and 11 KWH respectfully, why is there a 2.83 charging multiplier applied to the CF. Surely the KWH recorded is what is charged for.

Surely the CF unit should be divided by 2.83.

Cardew

Bobfm wrote: »

I know this has probably been handled before but I am still confused. It concerns Cubic Feet and Cubic metre gas conversion.

I understand that Cubic Feet meter record 100 CF in each unit recorded, and a Cubic Meter records 1 CM/unit.

Given that equates to 31 KWH and 11 KWH respectfully, why is there a 2.83 charging multiplier applied to the CF. Surely the KWH recorded is what is charged for.

Surely the CF unit should be divided by 2.83.

1 Imperial gas unit is 100 cubic feet. This is 2.83 times larger than 1 cubic metre(which is 35.31 cubic feet)

So with the formula to calculate kWh you use the 2.83 multiplier for an Imperial meter, but not for a metric meter.