HELP...Serious problems with British Gas.

mrs_B_5

Right. Please bear with me as this is a bit a of a complicated story

In May 2008, myself & my partner moved into a property owned by his mum & started renting. We set up accounts for gas & electricity with British Gas in his name, receiving 2 account numbers (one for each fuel).

We then moved out and into our own property that we purchased in August 2009, closing both the accounts with British Gas at the previous property, receiving final statements for both the accounts.

My partners sister then moved into the property, roughly a week after we moved out, and still lives there now.

Still with me?

We then opened a new electricity account with British Gas at our new property. This new account is in both our names and we still live in the property now. Everything is fine, all our accounts are managed and are totally up to date. :A

Still here?

On the 25th March 2011 I received a letter, to my current address, addressed solely to me from BCW (a debt collection agency?), regarding an electricity account at the first address for a period of 2 weeks in August 2010. Now, bearing in mind I was never named on the British Gas account that we held at the first property, they were all in my partners name, I'm rather confused.

And comparing the account reference number given for the account in debt, it doesn't even match either of the accounts we ever held for that property, or our current one.

Apparently I was named as the account holder in August 2010 by someone making a phone call.

I'm trying to sort it out but I don't know what to do. I've run BCW but they can't do anything without British Gas saying so & British Gas are apparently trying to investigate but its madness!

What do you think I should do?

darich

I received somethng very similar a couple of years back.
A letter from a solicitors / debt collection agency came in saying I owed money to the TSB where my current account had been until a few years earlier. I phoned them but they simply wanted payment - it was around £80. They wouldn't explain anything to me.
I spoke to the TSB and even though I'm no longer a customer, I have to say, they were very good. They confirmed I owed them nothing and when I closed the account it was actually in credit and they sent me a cheque. The manager even offered to give me a letter confirming this if necessary.
He advised me to have no further contact with the solicitors.....so that's what I did. I ignored it.

I've heard nothing since.

My advice would be firstly, contact BG to confirm you owe them nothing, and your account was closed and no money was due.
Once you have that, then I'd ignore any future correspondence from the debt collectors.

mrs_B_5

The issue is that I'm still showing as the account holder And its a live account. My name, my date of birth, not my email. And the account does owe this payment.

darich

I would contact BG and ask for evidence of them chasing the debt.
There may be some rule that states a company cannot simply pass a debt to a collection agency without trying to collect it - just a guess though.
I'd also show them the evidence you received of final account and that they were cleared.

mrs_B_5

But I've never had anything about the account in question? Thats why I'm confused!

darich

amy_forster wrote: »

receiving final statements for both the accounts.

amy_forster wrote: »

But I've never had anything about the account in question? Thats why I'm confused!

Ok....so now I'm confused.

Like I said....first point of contact has to be BG....the debt collection agency will simply want paid.
So you either go to BG with your final statements or you pay the agency and move on.

mrs_B_5

We had final statements for both the accounts we held with them (gas & electric). The account with the debt on was opened in August 2010 & used for 2 weeks and then another account took over the address I never held an account with them, until I was added onto our current one.

I'm so confused

spiro

amy_forster wrote: »

We had final statements for both the accounts we held with them (gas & electric). The account with the debt on was opened in August 2010 & used for 2 weeks and then another account took over the address I never held an account with them, until I was added onto our current one.

I'm so confused

Looking at this are you saying the account/debt covers the period between you moving out of the property and your partners sister moving in? If this is the case then any money is owed by your partners mum. DCA will just look to track someone who lived at the property so maybe your name came up before they found your partners.

t0rt0ise

If you weren't at the property using fuel at the time the bill covers then tell BG this and tell them to stop harrassing you. If they continue and take you to court then you will have your day in court to prove that you weren't living there.

mrs_B_5

spiro wrote: »

Looking at this are you saying the account/debt covers the period between you moving out of the property and your partners sister moving in? If this is the case then any money is owed by your partners mum. DCA will just look to track someone who lived at the property so maybe your name came up before they found your partners.

No, the account with the debt covers a 2 week period in August 2010, my partners sister moved in in August/September 2009 and has lived there ever since. It's not the DCA who have simply tracked recent residents, my name is actually listed as the account holder by British Gas

mrs_B_5

t0rt0ise wrote: »

If you weren't at the property using fuel at the time the bill covers then tell BG this and tell them to stop harrassing you. If they continue and take you to court then you will have your day in court to prove that you weren't living there.

But the issue is that the account has been set up in my name, with my date of birth but not my email, and is still in my name. It's no good me telling British Gas to leave me alone, I've never heard from them relating to this account. First I knew of it was the DCA letter last month!