British Gas problems

Tehya

I'm hoping someone can offer some advice about a problem I'm having with British Gas. It's quite complicated but if I'll try and keep to the events.

Both my husband and I are disabled, he's in receipt of DLA and ESA and I get Carer's Allowance for him.

We moved into an adapted property on the 27st November last year and this is where things went a bit wrong.

Gas supply at adapted house was British Gas so the day we moved we requested it be swapped over to EON (like the electric) as that is who we were with at the old address.

Housing Association gave us a handover sheet with gas/elec readings on dated 24th November 09.

Eon didn't get the handover from British Gas until 5th Jan 2010. So we now realise we have to pay british Gas from 27st Nov until 5th Jan. We were under the impression that we were paying off anything owed through our pre-payment metre as Eon had told us they had taken over the supply/debt and there is also a debt on the metre that we are paying off from previous address.

British Gas sent 3 bills all for different amounts between December and February but have had no other contact from them until a strange letter arrived the other day from a Debt Collection Agency. The letter is addressed to my son, who until 2 weeks ago did not even live with us and he has only just registered as living here so I think these people have been through my bins???? He's only 19 and this has really freaked him out.

So I ring British Gas and told them about this letter and they claim they had had no contact from me although I'd rung them 3 times to tell them we were moving the gas account to Eon when we moved in. Their sales dept have also been ringing my phone (ex directory) for the past few weeks yet again they claimed they have no contact details for anyone who lives here. All the bills were addressed to the occupier.

We aknowledge we owe them something but the overall bill is £106 as british Gas have billed us from a reading that was taken on the 21st September 09 (before we moved in) the problem is the reading taken in September is exaclty the same as the one our Housing association gave us when we moved in on the 27th november so it looks like we're going to have to pay someone else's bill as we have no proof that either reading is/was wrong.

What I would like to know is did British Gas or the collection agency act illegally in writing to my son? Also British Gas have never sent a final demand or asked for payment since Eon took over.

If anyone has any advice on where to take this or should I just offer a payment schedule and forget about the rest? We already have a few small debts from before my hubby became seriously ill. Being on benefits is no picnic what would be the minimum amount we could offer per week?

Thank you for reading this far and for any advice given.