Gas Bill debt collection

The_Mansie

I have just received a letter from a debt collection agencyacting on behalf of one of the main gas/electric suppliers and am looking foradvice.



Some background – I bought and moved into a flat around 4years ago, and had no info regarding who my suppliers were, I used the ‘whosupplies my utilities’ telephone line and managed to establish who supplied my electrifyand setup the appropriate contract and direct debit. After a few calls no onewas able to inform me who supplied my gas, so I waited for a supplier to get intouch, no contact was ever made and I sold the property and moved earlier thisyear.



About a week ago I received the letter mentioned aboveasking for payment. I’m happy to pay, but feel aggrieved that there was nocontact and indeed passing it directly to a debt collector. Since the situationis not down to me dodging a bill I feel I should be afforded some reduction in the sumgiven the elapsed time and inconvenience.



Any thoughts? How should i approach the situation?



Thanks

spiro

Was the flat new, in which case there may not have been a registered gas supplier?
If no gas supplier is registered to that address then you could have contacted any gas supplier, which you did not do.
If as a customer you fail to tell a supplier that you have moved in then you are liable for the cost of the fuel used and they can go back 6 years, the back billing rule does not apply.

The_Mansie

thanks for the supply, no the flat was old and they couldnt give me any info on the incumbent provider.

spiro

The_Mansie wrote: »

thanks for the supply, no the flat was old and they couldnt give me any info on the incumbent provider.

So yuor option was to contact any gas supplier and ask them to be your supplier. If there was a supplier registered to the MRPN they would have soon been in contact.

You dont say which gas supplier is chasing you for money.

The_Mansie

yeah it is british gas, the problem was that the gas meter and address were not recorded anywhere on the national system, so they couldnt tell me who supplied me. although it seems i should have just contacted a gas supplier and let them sort it out.

spiro

The_Mansie wrote: »

yeah it is british gas, the problem was that the gas meter and address were not recorded anywhere on the national system, so they couldnt tell me who supplied me. although it seems i should have just contacted a gas supplier and let them sort it out.

In that case I would contact BG and explain the situation especially that you tried to find out who supplied you without success, any phone bills which can back up who you called could help.

Given that they are supposed to do a gas safety check on the meter every year, did you never receive any letters from them addressed to 'The Occupier'?

chanz4

spiro wrote: »

In that case I would contact BG and explain the situation especially that you tried to find out who supplied you without success, any phone bills which can back up who you called could help.

Given that they are supposed to do a gas safety check on the meter every year, did you never receive any letters from them addressed to 'The Occupier'?

Safety checks are once every 2 years

undaunted

Have a look at back billing rules & see what evidence you can provide of your efforts to identify the supplier.

Have a read of the gas act & requirements re deemed contracts and keep an eye on the thread npower versus the vulnerable.

An Npower customer is arguing that the deemed contract system is being abused and there are obligations placed upon suppliers by the electricity act to make reasonable efforts to properly inform customers served under deemed contracts of options and other legislation also applies. They argue it is simply not lawful to "deem a contract" on anyone whilst providing no terms & conditions, opportunity to accept or cancel etc and then seek to rely upon it later in the event of dispute. A trial is due to take place shortly

antrobus

chanz4 wrote: »

Safety checks are once every 2 years

I thought it was an annual requirement?

Never mind, landlords are required to carry out 'periodic' safety checks, nowt to do with the gas suppliers. At least I've never had a gas supplier carry out a safety check!

[Deleted User]

companys vary how often they do an inspection, most do the legal limit of two years, Brit Gas attempt to undertake their own one year checks and mostly achieve that, but they now go for over the two years without really forcing the issue on long term vacants and online refusers etc. EDF dont seem to give a toss about any 2 year minimum inspections, especially on gas.

Terrylw1

Remember Ofgem's directive on back billing overrides the self regulated ERA billing code in cases where no energy has been billed at all. So, only 12 months if that's the case.

There may have been various problems in this case where the supplier can't actually see the right address.

However, just dumping a debt with a DCA is very poor, there should have been contact from the supplier first. Sounds like lazy practice being the scenes after making the corrections. Perhaps the corrections came from the DCA side and supplier just kept it at this advanced stage when thy should give the opportunity to resolve it with the customer.