British Gas Harassment

Premier_2

boots174 wrote: »

My in laws are 90 years old, they have moved from their bungalow in to sheltered accomodation. The bungalow is up for sale, British gas were informed of the situation.British Gas then sent an estimated bill for the EMPTY property. When I contacted them to point out that the property was empty and all final readings had been submitted and paid off they replied that as no one had taken over the gas and electric they would keep sending estimated bills to that address.The last bill was a final demand for over £300 with the threat of debt collectors being sent, the bills are being sent to the sheltered home!
Despite numerous phone calls to British Gasthey keep sending final demands. I fear this harassment will kill my in laws with the stress.
Can any one please help?

Final readings cannot be submitted until the property is sold (or the services disconnected, but don't do that as it will significantly reduce sale price)

boots174 wrote: »

Hi Guys, should have mentioned all readings have been submitted as zero when requested. The bills have in the past been for £0.00 but now are being sent for an estimated usage of £300 dating back to 2010.
Having been assured two weeks ago that all was settled and as long as the readings are submitted when requested and haven't changed then all would be fine.
This is clearly not the case!
Doe's any one know the Email address of someone in charge who can actually do something.
Thanks for all your advise, much appreciated

That's why the supplier would estimate the readings. They need the actual ones to use, not 00000

I see no harassment by the supplier here; they are just doing what they are supposed to do.

Google British Gas complaints procedure (or the details are on the bill) if you wish to complain, but I see no valid grounds for a complaint.

Complaints/discussion of the account will normally only be permitted from the account holder unless they have provided the supplier permission for you to deal with the account (in which case you can have your address as a mailing address on the bill if you wish)

spiro

boots174 wrote: »

Hi Guys, should have mentioned all readings have been submitted as zero when requested.

Just spotted this. The reason for estimated bills is that a reading of zero is likely to fail validation unless the previous reading was something like 99880 so 00000 would imply use of 120 units. 50000 to 00000 (50k units) would be rejected. Maybe therein lies the issue of why you are getting estimates bills if you really mean you actually said Zero not Zero advance i.e 50000 again.

undaunted

Whilst arguably technically acceptable / "correct" It does seem to verge on harrassment to me. This is an elderly couple who are using no gas. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to estimate the usage as 0 by re entering the last / "final" read.

As to disconnecting I guiess it depends what (if any) standing charges they may be but it surely wouldn't be that expensive to reconnect afterwards / have that big an effect on property value?

Failing that could you not have the bills sent to your address & thus shield your parents from it?

I fully appreciate why they may feel stressed but there really isn't anything to be stressed about in reality though - if they send "debt collectors" to an empty property so what? If they go to Courts on an estimate and you can show there is no consumption / standing charge they lose - and it costs them.

Just put your complaint in writing and then let them tell you what they think they can do about this nonsense in reality.

macman

OP has not confirmed that they are on an NSC tariff. If not, standing charges will apply regardless, as pointed out in post 6.
If it was an NSC tariff, is it possible that this has come to a end and they have been reverted to a Standard tariff with standing charges?
OP needs to clarify this.

Terrylw1

What concerns me is a bill for consumption in 2010 since by receiving bills at £0.00 you wouldn't have a debt brought forward. This suggests an error or some form of back billing. You need to clarify this and what its for, what has been paid, why are later bills settled, etc.

In terms of zero reads I take it you mean a zero advance instead? Just be aware a supplier may see this a a stopped meter to investigate so it worth them noting the situation on the account.

DVardysShadow

Let the debt collectors continue and waste their time. Let British Gas take it to court. Without a real reading, their bill will not stand up in court and if they are stoopid enough to fail validation on the bill because of this, then falling flat on their faces in court would be a good result.

C_Mababejive

Why worry about it? simply intercept the letters,bin them and forget about it.

If it ends up in court,just go along and embarrass them.

cing0

Highlights the importance of switching suppliers if your not happy while your complaint is being dealt with. Because you are not consuming anything, the old supplier will dispute the opening (closing) meter read as it won't conform to the 12m mean consumption and so you can screw both of them for comp when they silently ignore your meter reading and make up one to use.
This will continue for a year till your average consumption is close to zero (Or indefinitely if they used average figures for your area and property size).

Terrylw1

cing0 wrote: »

Highlights the importance of switching suppliers if your not happy while your complaint is being dealt with. Because you are not consuming anything, the old supplier will dispute the opening (closing) meter read as it won't conform to the 12m mean consumption and so you can screw both of them for comp when they silently ignore your meter reading and make up one to use.
This will continue for a year till your average consumption is close to zero (Or indefinitely if they used average figures for your area and property size).

An industry process came into place a couple of years ago to allow suppliers to send a nil value into the data collectors so the supplier can also receive a nil estimate and provide a nil estimate to the account.

Its primarily aimed at vacant sites as suppliers couldn't get in but were being overcharged to estimates themselves for years. However, keeping settlement inline to cover holiday homes and situations like this would keep records aligned and benefit the customer.