Advice on Electricity bill and rights please

relhuk1

Hi all,
I have fallen behind in my electricity bill payments due to personal reasons and such. As a result I received the first "late payment" warning from British gas. then 6 days later a "very late" notification letter and that it may be passed onto collection agents etc.
I fully intended to pay them the outstanding £80 on payday 3 days later, so I rang and told them this. They told me unfortunately its been handed over already. I received the collection agents letter 2 days later from "Richburns".
I have now contacted them to arrange a repayment plan for the total amount owing of £248. They contacted BG to arrange a payment plan and took my meter reading. They called back to say BG will accept a direct debit payment of £130 on 10th February and then 9 further payments of £130 for the year??

I know tariffs have increased but that sounds ridiculous (just for electric)!!:eek: Granted this is a large family with 4 kids but even so!! I am now desperately trying to scrape the full amount together to pay the total debt and tell them to whistle. I just cannot bring myself to pay that amount upfront each month especially through the summer months?? What are my rights here?
please only respond if you can offer advice and not criticism thanks!

macman

What is your existing DD payment-£80? If so, and they want you to pay off the debt of £248 over 9m, then that is approx £28pm on top of your existing £80-making £108. So £130 seems too high. But remember that your DD at £80 may not currently be enough to keep up with your actual consumption, hence the extra £22. Once you've cleared the debt, your DD will drop back to reflect your actual consumption. You are not just paying back the debt, you are paying for ongoing consumption.
They are not obliged to give you any kind of repayment plan for the debt, if you refuse to pay anything or negotiate then they can move you onto a PPM and recover the debt that way. The fact that they've sold it onto a DCA would seem to indicate that you have failed to contact them in the past to arrange an agreed repayment plan (or you have breached an agreed plan), so you've not really done yourself any favours.
£100-£130pm would not be at all unusual for an all electric property-what is your actual annual kWh consumption?
If you are having difficulty budgeting, then a voluntary PPM might be the best solution.
You''ll also need to check out the damage to your credit record.

jalexa

relhuk1 wrote: »

6 days later a "very late" notification letter and that it may be passed onto collection agents etc.

Did the "very late" letter give any indication of timeframe (other than "may")? How long did you "sit" on the "very late" letter?

Did the timeframe the account was passed to the DCA conform with any timeframe given in the "very late" letter?