British GasBill from old flat from 14 months ago

cjj9

Hi I used to flat share with 2 other students and my name was on the electric and gas. I have just received debt collection demand at my new address for this flat for £600. I cant remember exactly what I paid to british gas and I threw away all statements with BG and the joint account we used to pay it to has been closed. Is there anything I can do about this as I dont know if I do or dont owe this money. Im not even sure how they found me.

eurmalian

Couple of very important questions: Did you let BG know when you left the property? And did your friends move out at the same time as you?

cjj9

Well the bill is dated for when we left so I assume I did but not certain. Yes we all left at the same time. It jsut doesnt sound right though the bill it is a lot for the time they are stating.

eurmalian

So the bill is for time before you left? Sorry, I'd assumed from the original post that it might be covering time after you moved out. What sort of period of time is it for?

Also, when you were paying from your joint account, do you remember if it was a direct debit or were you just paying bills as they came out?

cjj9

eurmalian wrote: »

So the bill is for time before you left? Sorry, I'd assumed from the original post that it might be covering time after you moved out. What sort of period of time is it for?

Also, when you were paying from your joint account, do you remember if it was a direct debit or were you just paying bills as they came out?

Hi sorry the bill if from May 2010 to July 2010. We where living at this property at this time. However the bill is for £600 for 3 months. That cannot be right as on average now I spend about £30 a month on both gas and electric with me and one other person so I dont know if they have over estimated it or if it is a charge added up because the bill hasnt been paid for so long.
We used to just pay the bills when we got them we never did it by direct debit.

eurmalian

It seems strange. You definitely shouldn't end up with a charge of that size for late payment unless it has gone all the way to a debt collector, and probably not even then. The two most likely options I'd say are that either you had a series of estimated bills prior to that, so you'd been under paying over the winter and it then got caught up with on the final bill, or the final meter reading is out. The only real way to tell between the two is to get in touch and as an agent to look at it though...