standing charge gas bill

romanesque

Ive just had a bill from British Gas...nothing unsual in this except...i have a meter in my rented flat which is not connected to anything...no supply is connected and the landlady insists that there is no supply.

British Gas have confirmed there is no supply into the property and until now have sent me a zero bill...(waste of paper but hey!)

Yesterday a bill for £15.60 arrived for standing charges since 9th Nov 2014. I phone BG to get the bill zero rated as I would normally do..to be told it is now law to be charged this despite no usage.

Have British Gas just lied to me inorder for me to pay this charge? if this charge is now law, should my landlady be paying this as she is insistent that there is no supply to the property?

matelodave

Yes the rules have been changed and if you've got a meter then a standing charge is payable. Your alternatives are to change suppliers - Ebico have a tariff with a zero standing charge or have the meter actually removed by your existing supplier. You can't do it yourself, they have to do it so that it's done correctly and their records get properly amended.

tintown

my parents live in a council house which was all electric and paid through npower, when the property was modernised a gas meter was fitted, they have now started to be billed for a standing charge from british gas even though no gas is been used.
They have never been told they are now with british gas and have never signed any paperwork,so who has signed them up ?
On ringing british gas they say it has to be paid but wont say who signed them up.
This is adding another £100 a year for simply having a meter that isn't used.
Can this be done and can british gas just simply tell you that you are their customer without signing anything.

matelodave

Yes, once you have a supply available you are in a "deemed" contract with the existing supplier unit you change it. If the landlord (the council) arranged for the meters to be fitted then he would presumably have signed the houses up to a supplier.
When was the meter fitted and did they get any info from the council when it was done?. They probably did, but didn't do anything about it as they weren't using gas so thought it didn't have anything to do with them. Which was fine whilst there weren't any standing charges - now the rules have changed they will have to pay a s/c or get the meter taken away (dunno if the council will do that for free)

molerat

matelodave wrote: »

Yes, once you have a supply available you are in a "deemed" contract with the existing supplier unit you change it. If the landlord (the council) arranged for the meters to be fitted then he would presumably have signed the houses up to a supplier.
When was the meter fitted and did they get any info from the council when it was done?. They probably did, but didn't do anything about it as they weren't using gas so thought it didn't have anything to do with them. Which was fine whilst there weren't any standing charges - now the rules have changed they will have to pay a s/c or get the meter taken away (dunno if the council will do that for free)

OFGEM's view is that a deemed contract is formed by the use of the energy and not by the availability of a supply so I would argue that if they have not used any gas since the meter was installed, at the request of the landlord, or signed up to BG they have not entered a contract deemed or otherwise. The simplest way of avoiding a protracted dispute going forward is to sign up to https://www.ebico.org.uk/ who do not have a standing charge. It really needs someone to be brave and tell the energy suppliers that they will see them in court over these charges and let it be decided one way or another.

lollipopsarah

Ah that explains why we are now being charged 26p per day for our prepay metres - great innit!
xx

[Deleted User]

lollipopsarah wrote: »

Ah that explains why we are now being charged 26p per day for our prepay metres - great innit!
xx

Its not just prepay users being charged 26p a day, we re all paying daily standing charges at similar rates. eg. BG charge the same price per day for credit meters

kingrulzuk

I was with BG for both gas and electric. In summer i got a latter which said as per the new rules BG will carge me £100 for gas and £100 electric a year.coz i had a gas prepay metre i had toped up years ago £25 and all i have is 1 point which is the old gas heater which i have used only few times in last 10 yrs. and i have more then £22 on the gas metre. i called the call center and told them about it. and i was told not worry about it just not to top up the meter and it will only charge me if there money on the meter.
i said to the call center that i was not stupid and i hang up the call.
next day i went to scottish gas call center in edinburgh and asked them what was going on and what crap are the staff talking about.
the manager was very nice and said he will request the meter to be taken out of my flat as i dont use it anymore and refund the money i have on it. and all this was don in november. soon after that i joined EBICO and dont want to look back

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

kingrulzuk wrote: »

I was with BG for both gas and electric. In summer i got a latter which said as per the new rules BG will carge me £100 for gas and £100 electric a year.coz i had a gas prepay metre i had toped up years ago £25 and all i have is 1 point which is the old gas heater which i have used only few times in last 10 yrs. and i have more then £22 on the gas metre. i called the call center and told them about it. and i was told not worry about it just not to top up the meter and it will only charge me if there money on the meter.
i said to the call center that i was not stupid and i hang up the call.
next day i went to scottish gas call center in edinburgh and asked them what was going on and what crap are the staff talking about.
the manager was very nice and said he will request the meter to be taken out of my flat as i dont use it anymore and refund the money i have on it. and all this was don in november. soon after that i joined EBICO and dont want to look back

So BG gave you what would appear like decent customer service, removing the meter free of charge. They also didn't have to see you at the call centre - it's an office not a drop in centre.

And then you go to a supplier that is almost certainly more expensive - ebico can be economical for extremely low users, but for those that actually use energy they are massively expensive.

Confused is an understatement.

tintown

rang the council about the gas meter and had it removed by gas company free of charge,dont be afraid to ring the council if you don't use it don't pay it, get it removed.

spiro

tintown wrote: »

my parents live in a council house which was all electric and paid through npower, when the property was modernised a gas meter was fitted, they have now started to be billed for a standing charge from british gas even though no gas is been used.
They have never been told they are now with british gas and have never signed any paperwork,so who has signed them up ?
On ringing british gas they say it has to be paid but wont say who signed them up.
This is adding another £100 a year for simply having a meter that isn't used.
Can this be done and can british gas just simply tell you that you are their customer without signing anything.

Has the gas meter installed in readiness for GSH being installed?