Who's right to pay the bill?

Tinkerbell_Lily

Hi all

This is gonna sound abit confusing but here goes. Me and my OH moved into our house at end of Nov, we read the gas meter as soon as we moved in and rang EDF, we then rang again to give them the next reading at end of Dec and she told us that we'd used £36 of gas which was fine, we got a bill through for that amount to. During this time, our Gas Safety was out of date so we kept on at the company managing our property as i know its illegal not to have one. Eventually they sent out their gas/boiler man (sorry, dont know what he's known as) and he did it and everything was fine. Then at the end of Jan we gave a meter reading again and got a bill through for £228 for one month!! We knew something wasent right so rang and rang them for an explnation but to no avail other than thats the amount we used and we had to pay it! A few days ago, my OH put some stuff up in the loft (bearing in mind, this is where the boiler is and where the gas man had been servicing) and the thermostat was on the highest it could be! He turned it down and then we had another meter read a few days ago and low and behold its gone back down to £34!

We rang our management company and the boiler man who came back out yesterday and looked at it and basically, took responsibility without owning up to it, by saying he may have touched it and caused the numbers to move etc....but he couldnt work out how we had got a bill for that much! he looked like a rabbit caught in headlights! He left after been here for an hour and a half, then an hour later he came back 'just to check he'd left everything as he wanted as this was a mistake he couldnt afford to make'!!!!!

Were having a baby next month and cant afford a bill like that, but am not sure where we stand, its just abit coincedental that the bill was ok till he paid a visit, then went up, and now have come back down since we turned the thermostat down!

I know its our name on the bill, but do you think we have a leg to stand on to make him or the management company foot the bill?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Thank you
Emma

Premier_2

Errr.... no.

You see, if the thermostat was higher, you should have realised something was hotter which would therefore mean you were using more gas.

Next time, keep an eye on people who come into your property. And more importantly, keep an eye on your metered consumption if you are worried about the bills.

Andy_WSM

Baby_girl_due_April_2010 wrote: »

I know its our name on the bill, but do you think we have a leg to stand on to make him or the management company foot the bill?

The thermostat on the boiler only controls the temperature that the radiators run at. If they are hotter then the house will heat up quicker, using approximately the same amount of gas. Unless you were opening windows to regulate the temperature in the house then his "mistake" could not have cost ~£200 in gas!

brewerdave

Forget the thermostat - sounds much more likely that he's left the boiler on "continuous" instead of putting back on timer. Same thing happened to my daughter in her new build when a service engineer came for a fault on her combi - fortunately I noticed that the switch had been left in the wrong position on the timer, so it only ran for a couple of days like that.

beecher2

You have no chance of getting someone else to pay the bill as ultimately you used the gas and are responsible for noticing that the heating has been left on permanently, or that the flat is extremely hot and turning it down.

Cardew

As said above the thermostat on the boiler only controls the temperature of the water,(for radiators and/or Hot water for taps) and often is more efficient at the higher settings.

That will have a marginal effect on the bill.

I think it is more likely that you are misreading the gas meter - especially if it is one of those dial meters i.e. not a digital display.

It is highly unlikely that the gas bill for a winter month in a house will be as low as £36 or £34.