Huge Gas Bill - Please Help

adam.worton

Hi all first time poster here (although not first time user of the site).

I have been living in a rented property with my partner since July the 6th of last year. A bill was issued to me from British Gas before Christmas which was nearly £1700. We live in a flat with two bedrooms, one bathroom, one study, one kitchen, a lounge and a conservatory (which is rarely used). I thought that this bill was ridiculous and there must have been a mistake made. I called them up and explained my concern and they said they would send me another bill based on the meter readings which i then provided them with (12th Dec). This bill has now arrived and it is actually bigger now over £1800 for a four and a half month period.

We are not running a meth lab or growing any marajuana, nor are we living here with 17 illegal immigrants, there is jsut me and my partner living here. We have a TV and DVD player, a fridge-freezer, microwave, electric cooker, a couple of computers and two radios. We dont leave things on all night, nearly all of our bulbs are low energy bulbs from IKEA.

Forgive me if i sound ignorant but can this be right..? We have storage heating in three rooms plus the hall, but it is never on in two of the rooms (study and conservatory) and only occaionally on in the hall (we wrap up warm when its cold!).

Ive spoken to British Gas about it this morning and the insist that the bill is correct and that we should be expecting one in the next few weeks for about the same. Is there something that i should be doing that i am not?
BG said that they can offer me a PAYG meter fitted for free which will be a little easier to keep an eye on how much we are spending, but that i will still have to pay off the £1800 debt plus the bill that is coming in the next couple of weeks.

So scared about what will happen. Any advice or reccomendations anyone can give me wopuld be of a great help!

Cheers,

Adam

adam.worton

If anyone needs any more details to help me then please let me know and ill tell you everything i can!

Ms_Chocaholic

Was the meter reading you submitted when you moved in the correct one and has it been correctly recorded by BG

adam.worton

Unfortunatley, this is something we didn't do when we first moved in. I know that sounds stupid and i'm sorry for being so foolish but we just forgot with all the other things we had to do when moving.

adam.worton

But it was also not noted on the moving in documents we got from our Estate Agent....

antonic

Sounds like you are paying for the previous tenant.

I would suggest that you send proof to British Gas of the date you moved into the property (such as a signed copy of your tenancy agreement) and ask nicely, if they can work out the gas you have used from that date to the date of the current bill.

You may be lucky if they do it for you without hassle, but I would also suggest you make regular payments until this problem is resolved, as BG will see it as a sign that you want to pay the bill.

Good luck !.

Nada666

Check how much you are using now and compare that to estimate how much of the previous occupiers' bill you are paying for.

dunney66

I am having the same issue with my electric. £1245 for the last 6 months electric. I am sure the meter is faulty. The house is empty for most of the week as I am at work and I am careful about switching stuff off that I'm not using so I cannot understand my high bill. Tonight I have been taking readings every 10 minutes for the last 2 hours together with a note of what is switched on. I have discovered the even though I only had 1 electric storage heater on (I was sitting in the dark for an hour) it was the normal electricity meter that was running. I contacted EON this morning and this is what they told me to do so I will be calling them tomorrow.

Maybe you need to do the same thing to see what is using your gas.

Hope this helps

Fire_Fox

I'm confused, your GAS bill is extortionate so why are you telling us about your electric white goods and lighting? Is it the gas bill or combined gas and electric that is high?

Either your meter is not functioning correctly, the meter is being read wrong (decimal point?) or the incoming reading was incorrect. My money is on the latter, no idea what you can do about that it was your responsibility to take the reading and provide it to the supplier when you moved in. Otherwise you end up paying for previous tenants or the landlords supply whilst the property was vacant.

When did YOU take the first reading? What is the difference between that and the current reading, how does that fit in with the bill you have received?

[Deleted User]

to both of you with storage heaters, rule out the old and very common, transposed readings (day/night ) mess up. also with the big gas bill, a metric /imperial mess up

victor2

Is this thread incorrectly titled as Huge Gas Bill? If the OP has storage heaters, maybe he has no gas and it's a huge electricity bill, albeit from British Gas?

Qualify that and maybe some more helpful advice will follow...