Someone else has been paying my gas bill

JimmyTheWig

I can believe it, I'm afraid.
It happened to us a while ago.
We were with British Gas and they stopped charging us for electricity. We switched to them and direct debits started coming out for both gas and electric. I'd always check the bank statements for things going out that shouldn't have done, but never checked that everything that should have gone out went out. Was always a direct debit going to British Gas, so didn't notice anything was missing.
Whenever a bill came I would check we were roughly on target and file it. Got bills from British Gas. Always on target. No action required other than filing. Never realised that they were always gas bills and not electric bills.

All came to a head when we wanted to switch. Should be a thread on here somewhere about it!

In conclusion they only charged us for the last year's usage, because it was their fault they hadn't billed us. I don't know if that's the rules, or it was goodwill, or just something British Gas do.

macman

But it says on the bills what fuel it's for.
And if you cross check your billing against the meter readings, as you should, then it's even more obvious.
Even if you receive a combined dual fuel billing, then gas and electricity will be completely separate entries, billed at different rates.

Curryeater

Same thing happened to me when I moved house and tried to clear everything down.

I did some research and due to an Energywatch super complaint some regulations were brought in that meant the Shipper could only charge you for 2 years worth of usage (if it was their fault) or and this is the bit I used 1 years worth of usage if you actively bring it to their attention and try to get it resolved.

Of course NPower(who it was with me) told me it was out of the goodness of there hearts but I knew this was not the case.

Cardew

undaunted wrote: »

I find it impossible to believe that you didn't know you were being billed for gas & suspect that so will anyone else to be honest. I tell you this because you will need to convince them that you have behaved reasonably if you wish to try and invoke any back billing regulations.

What I find difficult to understand is why the OP was attempting to switch from E-On to NPower.

Getting bills, that didn't include gas, would have meant they were extremely low for a Dual fuel household.

So why change supplier? - surely any 'research' would have revealed that any tariff, from any company, would have resulted in higher bills!

The back-billing clause in the billing code expressly excludes customers from benefiting if they haven't taken reasonable steps to inform the company etc

So, leaving out the morality of the situation, I suspect that the 12 month back-billing ruling will apply. The OP was not getting bills and if he 'thought' that the electricty bill was dual fuel it could be argued that hadn't wilfully avoided payment; and in any case he wasn't aware that Southern Electric were supplying the gas.

Kildare

timbo58 wrote: »

macman: similar situation: after a right kerfuffle with edf changing my meters, they eventually did the electric one some 6 months+ ago but despite emailing them 6 times, their ceo twice and phoning a couple of times also, I haven't had a bill yet!

EDF have had lots of problems since changing to their new online system. I've been at my property and with EDF for several years, read the meter when I received the email reminder in June - no bill. I had to call them several times to explain that I would like a bill (don't want some nasty big bill in the future) before I finally got someone who solved the problem in early October and generated the bill. Hopefully the next one will work ok!

macman

Cardew wrote: »

What I find difficult to understand is why the OP was attempting to switch from E-On to NPower.

Getting bills, that didn't include gas, would have meant they were extremely low for a Dual fuel household.

So why change supplier? - surely any 'research' would have revealed that any tariff, from any company, would have resulted in higher bills!

The back-billing clause in the billing code expressly excludes customers from benefiting if they haven't taken reasonable steps to inform the company etc

So, leaving out the morality of the situation, I suspect that the 12 month back-billing ruling will apply. The OP was not getting bills and if he 'thought' that the electricty bill was dual fuel it could be argued that hadn't wilfully avoided payment; and in any case he wasn't aware that Southern Electric were supplying the gas.

But not in the OP's case, as they as they seemed to have remarkably low gas consumption. Cold showers and presumably no central heating.
I suspect that for the many who don't properly check their bills, they only notice them when they're high-not when they're low.

Cardew

macman wrote: »

But not in the OP's case, as they as they seemed to have remarkably low gas consumption. Cold showers and presumably no central heating.
I suspect that for the many who don't properly check their bills, they only notice them when they're high-not when they're low.

My point was why change supplier!

macman

Maybe the OP has considerable electricity usage instead?

[Deleted User]

:think:...

Perhaps they should have TV ads about how to pay bills...

:coffee:

undaunted

Cardew wrote: »

What I find difficult to understand is why the OP was attempting to switch from E-On to NPower.

Getting bills, that didn't include gas, would have meant they were extremely low for a Dual fuel household.

So why change supplier? - surely any 'research' would have revealed that any tariff, from any company, would have resulted in higher bills!

The back-billing clause in the billing code expressly excludes customers from benefiting if they haven't taken reasonable steps to inform the company etc

So, leaving out the morality of the situation, I suspect that the 12 month back-billing ruling will apply. The OP was not getting bills and if he 'thought' that the electricty bill was dual fuel it could be argued that hadn't wilfully avoided payment; and in any case he wasn't aware that Southern Electric were supplying the gas.

There was a typing error in my original post (now corrected) but that aside wouldn't the multiple bills they received over two years plus have shown exactly what was being billed?

If they didn't check them closely that was their choice / right but surely not reason enough for back billing rules to apply here?

Wouldn't it be quite reasonable for the supplier to argue that they could have been reasonably expected to have contacted Eon to find out why there was no being billed & that this error would then have come to light?

Given that the meter number quoted seemingly isn't in London at all isn't it more likely that Eon are still supplying this property (unbilled) than that it was actually switched to Southern and that computers at both suppliers are holding inaccurate information?