Help! £1000 British Gas bill

bonesofhope

Apologies for my ignorance on this issue, maybe this is standard gas company behaviour, but something seems a little off about the gas bill that has been sent to us by British Gas.

I recently broke up with my boyfriend and as he was moving out of our shared house he called British Gas and spoke to a customer service provider who said it "looked like our account was in credit". A week or so later we got a bill that claimed we owed them £1,000 for underpaid gas bills. We were told when we first moved in that gas & electric would be £50 or so a month. So that is what we paid for twenty- ish months. Nowhere in that time were we sent a review of our payments, asked for meter readings or told what we were paying is too low. And now they are asking for £1000, which I quite simply do not have. We lived in a 2 bed, fully double glazed bungalow. I can understand that perhaps our bill was too low, but not that they could backbill us after not reviewing our payments for almost two years??

My ex (the account is in his name) is now being hounded with letters claiming debt collection will be visiting his house. They will not let us pay back anything less that £60 per month. I don't really understand where to get this money from when I am living on so little already.

Any advice?!

Wywth

bonesofhope wrote: »

Apologies for my ignorance on this issue, maybe this is standard gas company behaviour, but something seems a little off about the gas bill that has been sent to us by British Gas.

I recently broke up with my boyfriend and as he was moving out of our shared house he called British Gas and spoke to a customer service provider who said it "looked like our account was in credit". A week or so later we got a bill that claimed we owed them £1,000 for underpaid gas bills. We were told when we first moved in that gas & electric would be £50 or so a month. So that is what we paid for twenty- ish months. Nowhere in that time were we sent a review of our payments, asked for meter readings or told what we were paying is too low. And now they are asking for £1000, which I quite simply do not have. We lived in a 2 bed, fully double glazed bungalow. I can understand that perhaps our bill was too low, but not that they could backbill us after not reviewing our payments for almost two years??

My ex (the account is in his name) is now being hounded with letters claiming debt collection will be visiting his house. They will not let us pay back anything less that £60 per month. I don't really understand where to get this money from when I am living on so little already.

Any advice?!

Unless you prove the meter to be faulty, you have to pay what the meter records you consumed at the tariff you agreed with the supplier.

Call the supplier. They will discuss with you options available to repay what is owed.

bonesofhope

Wywth wrote: »

Unless you prove the meter to be faulty, you have to pay what the meter records you consumed at the tariff you agreed with the supplier.

Call the supplier. They will discuss with you options available to repay what is owed.

They won't give us any option other than to pay back £60 per month. I am a student and work part-time. I only earn that per week. I don't understand why they don't review it after a year if they think you are underpaying? How can gas on a 2 bed bungalow (that's not even warm) work out to be £65 a month?!

macman

bonesofhope wrote: »

They won't give us any option other than to pay back £60 per month. I am a student and work part-time. I only earn that per week. I don't understand why they don't review it after a year if they think you are underpaying? How can gas on a 2 bed bungalow (that's not even warm) work out to be £65 a month?!

Because they're not psychic. If you don't bother submitting meter reads over 20 months, they have no idea what you are using. The supplier only has to read the meter every 2 years, intermediate reads are down to you. Did you not check your quarterly statements against actual meter readings, which would have immediately shown that you were seriously underpaying?
The back billing code does not apply here, as they did bill you (on estimated readings, as shown on your bill), so you will have to work out a mutually acceptable repayment schedule (once of course you have verified that the billing is correct, which you can do by checking it against your own opening and closing readings).

bonesofhope

macman wrote: »

Because they're not psychic. If you don't bother submitting meter reads over 20 months, they have no idea what you are using. The supplier only has to read the meter every 2 years, intermediate reads are down to you. Did you not check your quarterly statements against actual meter readings, which would have immediately shown that you were seriously underpaying?
The back billing code does not apply here, as they did bill you (on estimated readings, as shown on your bill), so you will have to work out a mutually acceptable repayment schedule (once of course you have verified that the billing is correct, which you can do by checking it against your own opening and closing readings).

We didn't receive quarterly statements? They sent us one when we moved in, then this bill now. And again, they are giving us no option but to repay £60 a month.

antonic

Did you ever submit your meter readings online ?.

I am a British Gas customer and have signed up for paperless billing - every three months they email me to provide a meter reading - which I do.

This means I get no unexpected bills.

Fire_Fox

bonesofhope wrote: »

Apologies for my ignorance on this issue, maybe this is standard gas company behaviour, but something seems a little off about the gas bill that has been sent to us by British Gas.

I recently broke up with my boyfriend and as he was moving out of our shared house he called British Gas and spoke to a customer service provider who said it "looked like our account was in credit". A week or so later we got a bill that claimed we owed them £1,000 for underpaid gas bills. We were told when we first moved in that gas & electric would be £50 or so a month. So that is what we paid for twenty- ish months. Nowhere in that time were we sent a review of our payments, asked for meter readings or told what we were paying is too low. And now they are asking for £1000, which I quite simply do not have. We lived in a 2 bed, fully double glazed bungalow. I can understand that perhaps our bill was too low, but not that they could backbill us after not reviewing our payments for almost two years??

My ex (the account is in his name) is now being hounded with letters claiming debt collection will be visiting his house. They will not let us pay back anything less that £60 per month. I don't really understand where to get this money from when I am living on so little already.

Any advice?!

Bungalows can be very poorly insulated, you may well have been paying to heat the street, you don't say what temperature and how much you had the heating and hot water on. Are you still living in the property? If so move into the smaller bedroom and take a lodger/ another tenant in the larger bedroom - more money coming in.

What do you mean you did not receive statements, didn't you get online bills, if so did you check them? Unfortunately it is the bill payer's responsibility to keep an eye on their own usage and read meters regularly, suppliers only have to do this every two years and they don't have to remind you to do so in between.

Other than that at the end of the day your ex is liable for the bill not you. He will have to find the £60 a month, you will have to come to a private arrangement with him to pay him your share at a rate you can afford. I would strongly recommend your contributions are recorded, for example a standing order with a note that it's for gas amount agreed by e-mail (keep copies).

If there is no possible way your ex can find £60 a month he needs to write making offer of payment, enclosing a copy of his monthly budget and enclosing the first payment. Regardless if the offer is formally accepted he should make payment every month no excuses. This should be looked on favourably by the supplier, if not it will by the courts because he is genuinely in hardship and genuinely trying to settle the debt. The absolute worst thing you can do is continue to ignore this, it should not have gone to debt collectors.

chanz4

Their isnt a min figure for them to accept, tell them £10 and send a soa and remind them of the energy retail codes of practise

spiro

chanz4 wrote: »

Their isnt a min figure for them to accept, tell them £10 and send a soa and remind them of the energy retail codes of practise

The minimum tends to apply to PPM and is about £5 per week which is similar to Fuel Direct.

macman

bonesofhope wrote: »

We didn't receive quarterly statements? They sent us one when we moved in, then this bill now. And again, they are giving us no option but to repay £60 a month.

But that did not stop you from submitting quarterly readings.

dogshome

Hi bonesofhope - From my reading of your posts it seems that you had a Gas bill from BG soon after you moved in, and did not get another one until 20 months later ?

If this is the case, then the 12 month Back-billing rule does apply - Quite simply if the supplier has not produced a bill for a period longer than a year, they can only back-bill for one year, and the year calculation goes 365 days back from the date on the £1,000 bill

Whats important now is the End Meter Reading on that 1st bill you had, and the End Meter Reading on this latest bill - By deducting one from the other your use over the un-billed period can be calculated
Then by divideing the use by the number of days you were un-billed, then x the answer by 365 gives you a close figure of what you actualy owe BG

Out of interest - Were you also with BG for Elect, and did you get regular bills?