british gas contracts

mal1972

can anyone shed any light on how to escape british gas . they put me on a rooling 2 year contract after my old contract ended but now they say i have to stay till contract end but i havent signed up with them .now my rates have just rocketed and cant do a thing :mad:

dogshome

Hi mal1972 - From your post I gather that you are a business on "Business" Utilities supply contract.

All the major suppliers have been guilty of telephone selling these contracts to small businesses by talking up the low prices, whilst not mentioning the down sides and relying on on small business owners not to have the experience, nor the time to read the contract in fine detail when they get the hard copy in the post.

In Jan last year, Ofgem the regulator put in a few rules - Visit thier website and type microbusinesses into the search window on the opening page

From previous posts on this site, there are appears to be only two ways to get out of these contracts
1) Check that the address they have been sending their mail to is exactly right in every detail, if it is not, Complain that you have not had the letters they must send about the contract and changes at it's anniversary dates.
2) Change the legal title of your business - You will need a legal eagle's help to do this - So Brit. Gas are left holding a contract with a closed business that does not use any Elec or Gas
If you go down this route you will need to get a new business contract with another supplier, but be pro-active by phoning round for offers, and make it clear you want to see and read the contract before you accept what is offered

Premier_2

Unless the postal address is completely wrong, then RM will probably have delivered your correspondence anyway. If it was so wrong that is was undeliverable, then the correspondence would have been returned as such. There may be a possibilty of incorrect delivery if, e.g. you were located at 1a The Street and the address on the bill was 1 The Street, but you'd have thought your neighbours would have given you the bills, and you should have alerted the supplier to correct the address.

It isn't just changing business name either that will help. You don't say if you are a limited company or not. If not, you will be liable anyway whatever trading name you may use. If limited, a change of name does nothing - you would still have the same registered number. What you would need to do is dissolve your existing business and start anew. The issue is you must have ceased trading for at least 3 months to get the old company struck off, and even them you need to inform the creditors (don't hide, there's a public notice given in the London Gazette). The supplier, as a creditor, will probably oppose the striking off until you pay them the money you owe.