Scottish Gas Billing

martin84

Got a bill in last year from scottish gas stating my mother owes them over £6000 for the last 3 years, problem is we did not receive a bill from them in these 3 years. we have now been put on a key method meter that is usuing £10 per day and my motehr is on benefits and cannot pay this. 1st thing can scottish gas justify billing us for 3 years ?, also should my mother go to someone else regarding this, as this is killing the family

tanith

Are you saying that you didn't pay anything towards your gas bill for over 3yrs? You say they have put you on a key meter that uses £10 per day this for a normal household this seems way over the top unless they are charging something towards the arrears, my daughter uses about £10 a week for a 2 bed house with 5 of them ... at the end of the day if its gas that you have used but not paid for I guess you will have to work out a payment plan with them

Clive_Woody

martin84 wrote:

Got a bill in last year from scottish gas stating my mother owes them over £6000 for the last 3 years, problem is we did not receive a bill from them in these 3 years. we have now been put on a key method meter that is usuing £10 per day and my motehr is on benefits and cannot pay this. 1st thing can scottish gas justify billing us for 3 years ?, also should my mother go to someone else regarding this, as this is killing the family

On one hand I have to think why did your mother not think she had to pay for the gas she was using for the three years she even though she didn't receive a bill. Did she move into the property three years ago or did they just stop sending bills? Did she ever contact them to ask why she wasn't receiving gas bills?

On the other hand I am surprised at how high the bill is. £2000 per year for gas strikes me as rather a lot. I would ask to see a copy of the bills and whether the initial reading from three years ago was an estimate.

Petmidget

I dont know the procedure but this isnt an uncommon ocurrence and you can often get the company to write off a large proportion of the bill, due to the hardship it causes and that it is generally their fault that no bills were sent.

I would hazard a guess that CAB is your best bet so find out how to apporach them to cancel at least a proportion.

As you say £10 a day, which would I assume include recouping part of the debt is unreasonable for an elderly person on benefits.

Glad

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

tripled

If your mother has used £6000 in 3 years, nearly all of that will be paying for ongoing electricity usage, not recouping debt. Check on the meter what the weekly recovery rate is, for someone on benefits it is rare for them to set it to more than £10 a week.

Also she should register with energy care to see if she is eligable for the winter rebate and the new 'essentials tariff', which could save 10% off her bills.

martin84

tripled wrote:

If your mother has used £6000 in 3 years, nearly all of that will be paying for ongoing electricity usage, not recouping debt. Check on the meter what the weekly recovery rate is, for someone on benefits it is rare for them to set it to more than £10 a week.

Also she should register with energy care to see if she is eligable for the winter rebate and the new 'essentials tariff', which could save 10% off her bills.

she spoke to energywatch today, they said such a bill for electricity is extremely high, they are looking to find out by law how many years they can go back and bill her for, also there was 6 kids living in the house at the time so electricity bills was the least of her concern, she just said she did not even think about it

tanith

Hopefully your Mum will get a good outcome and maybe her bill will be reduced . It might seem harsh but your Mum must of known that eventually her electric bill would have to be paid and it would of been so much better if she had investigated , 'why no bills' , years ago.... maybe you can convince her to keep a check on such things so it never happens again.... and to save her all this worry...