Help moving from British Gas business to residential electricity

R320

Hi

When we moved into our house in 2007 we tried to move the Gas and Electic across to our previous supplier.

Gas transer was fine but the previous house owner was on British Gas Business for the electric and the move was blocked by them due to a contact being in place.

At the time explained it was a house and not a business and they told me I had
been moved to a residential account

Over the years have tried to move and always been denied by BGB this escalated at the end of last year when I was hit with a revised direct debit and various bills from the last 12 months which they said I had not been paid and hence the revised dd.

To cut a long story short I rang them today to pay off the outstanding ammount and initiate moving to another supplier. (tried this before but had no luck)

This time I was told that they could issue a proforma and send to British Gas Residential to move me to them (which could take up to 40 days) but I cannot directly go to another supplier and its possible I may have to enter a contract with residental before being allowed to move elsewhere!

I am just trying to find out if i'm being fed correct information or if there is anything I can do about this as I really dont fancy being with BG once I pay off the outstanding amount?

Regards,

Paul.

spiro

You dont need to move from British Gas Business to British Gas Residental before you can switch supplier you just need British Gas Business to agree to allow you to switch. Write a letter of complaint to BGB providing all the details about calls etc you have made to sort this out. If they claim there is a contract issue, tell them you are (a) a domestic customer and (b) you have never signed a contract with them. If they then say you have a 'deemed contract' advise them that this should be a domestic 'deemed contract' as it is a residential property and you are not operating a business from the property. The classification for elec is based on useage i.e. if more than 50% is used for business you are classified as business, if more than 50% domestic you are domestic. Gas is different because it also uses volume.

R320

thanks Spiro I'll get in touch with BGB and try and sort it out.

Paul.

kjsmith7

You've got to remember that the two companies, British Gas (Residential/Domestic) and British Gas Business, are two separate companies: switching between them is exactly the same as switching to an alternate supplier, and that takes 4-6 weeks.