Free gas no more! Am I in trouble?

ddavis

My mate had the same problem, he didnt get charged so on those grounds im with Ross.

I dont think the OP should have to pay. Not their fault they got it all wrong.

And I dont like British Gas, they send you lies in the post.

BritishGasWorker

Hi guys

I have to say I am curious to see what happens myself, it depends on how difficult it will be to find the supplier....lets wait and see...

hotchokl8

i have to agree with ross myself, sorry bg worker but you overlooked the main point in your law quotation, that actually applies to current suppliers who mistakenly overlook sending their customer a gas bill, so the cust knows they have a supplier but think they are getting free gas when in fact they're not, and it will come as a mighty surprise to them in the not so distant future when the gas supplier realises their own mistake and backdates the bill!!

A supplier can only bill the cust for when it has taken over the gas supply. It is also possible to have an MPRN allocated to a property, but the site may still show as shipperless, i don't know how, but have seen this crop up several times. It's not very common but it does happen. It would be interesting to know if the meter at the property was a new fix or had been there for several years....

Cardew

BritishGasWorker wrote:

OK! its come to law quoting time!!

Consumers are legally bound to pay for their utilities.

Nice to see the ‘experts’ arguing with each other!

Surely it is not in dispute that you are legally bound to pay for gas you have consumed - that wasn't the 'exam' question.

As I understood it, the difficulty comes in determining how much is owed and to whom it is owed?

Unless that amount can be agreed with the consumer, or established beyond doubt, the practical solution will probably be that it will be written off.

Lizzieanne

Hi everyone,

I've been reading these chat forums for a few months now, but this thread prompted me to make my first post.

I moved into my current house 10 years ago and obtained my gas in my last house from British Gas. On the moving day, I telephoned them with both the meter reading at the old house and the meter reading at the new house (which, incidently, was a new build.)

A few weeks later I received a cheque from them with the balance they owed to me from the old account. So far so good. It was about 6 months later that it dawned on me I had received nothing from them in relation to the new house, so I called customer services.

I was told that they had no trace of an account at our new address and that I hadn't called them - puzzling, because I gave both meter readings at the same time and the old account had been closed correctly. But, mistakes happen and so I gave the lady on the phone all the details, including a new meter reading.

Several months passed and still nothing received in the post and no payments taken out of my bank account.

I phoned again, but there was still apparently no trace of my address on their system. I asked to register with them, went through the details again and waited. Several weeks later, still nothing, so this time I put it in writing.

No reply to my letter after another 2 weeks, so I sent a copy of the same letter again, this time by recorded delivery. Still nothing!

So I made another call to the customer services. By now I had had 'free gas' for nearly a year and it was worrying me. They apparently had no trace of my letters and no record of me on their system. I explained that all I wanted to do was pay for my gas and set up an account, only to be given the most puzzling reply, "Your house does not exist". I was, apparently, living in a field!
I asked the lady why, in that case, did British Gas send someone around to service my boiler the month before in accordance with my 3 star policy and she said, "That's a different department"

To cut a very long story short (and to save you all nodding off in the middle of this mammoth post...;) ) it went on for 3 years. We paid no gas at all, sent a total of 10 letters and made 12 telephone calls. We asked the men who serviced the boiler, spoke to the house builder, but no-one could or would help us.

Until one evening when I opened the door to a man with a clipboard,
"Excuse me Madame, may I ask who is your gas and electricity supplier?"
"YOU ARE!!!"
I virtually dragged him into the house, the poor sod! I don't expect he's ever had a reaction like that since! :rotfl:

It transpired that we did not have a MPRN. It was organised within a matter of weeks and we received our first gas bill 3 years and 2 months after we moved into the house. We tried our best to make some sort of payment for the gas that we had used, but since no-one was claiming the supply, it was impossible.

espresso

Lizzieanne wrote:

Hi everyone,

I've been reading these chat forums for a few months now, but this thread prompted me to make my first post...........

Welcome to the forums and thanks for the tale, didn't nod off honest. It does prove that British Gas are simply incompetent beyond belief!

:rotfl:

basketcase

espresso wrote:

Welcome to the forums and thanks for the tale, didn't nod off honest. It does prove that British Gas are simply incompetent beyond belief!

:rotfl:

They're not so incompetent that they forgot to change my payment rate when the tariff went up recently. There again, they were so incompetent that they sent the letter telling me that they were GOING to up the rate about 3 weeks after they had!

Cardew

espresso wrote:

Welcome to the forums and thanks for the tale, didn't nod off honest. It does prove that British Gas are simply incompetent beyond belief!

:rotfl:

Nice tale from Lizzieanne; also welcome to the forum.

I wonder what would be the position if Powergen/NPower etc had been her previous supplier?

The 'free' gas supplied to Lizzieanne for 3 years no more belonged to British Gas than any other supplier - it is not as if the molecules are stamped BG - and BG would presumably have not been paying the producer the wholesale price for the gas?

Presumably that 'lost' gas is just put down as an 'overhead'.

I suspect there are many similar cases across the country and not everyone would have been so diligent as Lizzieanne.

If it had been me I would have sent one recorded delivery letter and then set aside my estimate of the bill, and sat and waited.

Gal

To put another spin on the tale - I have been dealing with an account for a new build that has not been billed for 2 years and the customer changed there account to EDF. Because they changed supplier the only reading that we have is EDFs (COS Reading) and as such the previous 2 years had been written off because we have no way of proving that the gas had been used totally by them - As builders use utilities as well when there finishing off a bulding.

Not saying this happens all the time but on this occasion it has.

[Deleted User]

I moved into my property just over 5 years ago. The house was 5 years old at the time. I contacted all the major suppliers to find out who my Gas supplier was. The previous occupent told me he had never received a gas bill. I was then told by one supplier to contact transco with the meter serial number. They wrote back to me and told me my mprn and that it was currently in a 'Transco holding account' and to contact a supplier of my choice. I was bemused at the time cos as far as I was concerned I already had a supplier and was feeling very frustrated. I was waiting for Transco to send me a bill - which never happened. As time went by it got forgotten about and then the penny dropped - that Transco weren't my 'supplier'. I then got worried that I would get billed for previous occupant's usage and that no-one would believe the meter reading I gave them. Over time I pushed it to the back of my mind and told myself I would deal with it when someone contacted me. After all, I thought Transco would at least follow it up to check I had chosen a supplier and that they weren't still supplying me for free! 5 years later this has never happened. I really want to sort this out now, but I'm too scared that I'm going to get stung for Gas I haven't used. I also don't have a clue how I'm going to pay for it. If I choose a supplier and they ask for my current supplier, what do I say? Also will they ask me for the meter reading the day I moved in or just the current reading?

Confused and worried!