Final bill based on estimated reading - Is there anything I can do?

ech

I moved out of my previous property in October. Apart from a few !!!!-ups from the rental company, it all seemed to have gone well. Until it came to ringing BG with my final meter reading: it wasn't in the documentation I'd been given.

So I called the rental company, and they said they'd get it from the person who did my final check-out and call me back. But after I called them several more times, they finally told me that no-one had taken a reading.

This might be all right, if BG hadn't decided on estimations (based on one actual reading just after we moved in) that we owe them over £130 pounds. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that's my food allowance for over a month. (only just got this from them, due to the delay in getting the account moved over because of no meter reading).

The rental company started by saying that they advise people to organise their own meter reading if one can't be taken at check-out, but I didn't find out that one hadn't been taken 'til long after moving. Now they say they'll "speak to BG" if necessary, but they're so ridiculously incompetent (I could give a long list) that I'm really not sure if this would achieve anything, assuming that they ever got around to calling.

Is there anything I can do about the bill? Should I ask the rental company to call BG? Any advice would be appreciated.

dogshome

I regret to say that there is very little you can do, but you are not alone as 100's of people get caught this way all the time,and not because they are daft, but because they don't know the rules and nobody including Letting Agents bothers to tell them.

Rule No1 is never, ever rely on someone else to take your meter readings for you - At the end of the day it is you who pays the bill, not them.

OK, on the presumption you have moved on to another property - Did you take the meter readings, ( Including water ), when you moved in and give them to the suppliers, or did you leave it to the Agent? - If it was the Agent, ask them today what those readings were and keep the record safe.

Check that the Start & End readings on every bill follow on from the previous bill - NEVER accept an Estimated bill - phone in with your actual readings and get a new bill

On the day you move out, take all the meter readings and phone them in to the suppliers, then keep them to use when checking the Final Bills

macman

It's nothing to do with the rental agency. It's your account and your responsibility to read the meters on arrival and departure. BG have no relationship with them and won't speak to them about a third party account, even if they have offered to call them.
PS: puzzled by your reference to 'moving the account over' to the new property. You can't do that. You are in a deemed account with the existing supplier from day one, and you can't begin a switch until you have registered with them. If you didn't take opening reads on arrival, then you'll be in the same position again.