British Gas lost details of our unit usage and hit us with giant bill. Help!

Bendybranch

Hello all. Right after we paid our last quarterly gas/electric bill (both supplied by British Gas), our electricity meter screen went blank and refused to work, so we couldn't ascertain how many units we'd used.

It's taken until now for an engineer to come - and another quarterly bill is due. So they've sent us an estimated bill, which is for a ludicrous amount - over £100 more than for the last quarter (which was over winter when we used far more gas/electricity).

The engineer has said there's no record of how much electricity we've used for the last quarter and advised us to phone British Gas and negotiate how much to pay for that time period.

My first question: how much can they legally charge us if they have no record of how much we've used?

My second question: does anyone have any advice for how to negotiate, or what our course of action should be to avoid having to pay the amazingly high estimated bill?

All your help much appreciated; thank you very much!

JJ_Egan

Do you have records of your past usage .

OhReally_2

Bendybranch wrote: »

Hello all. Right after we paid our last quarterly gas/electric bill (both supplied by British Gas), our electricity meter screen went blank and refused to work, so we couldn't ascertain how many units we'd used.

It's taken until now for an engineer to come - and another quarterly bill is due. So they've sent us an estimated bill, which is for a ludicrous amount - over £100 more than for the last quarter (which was over winter when we used far more gas/electricity).

The engineer has said there's no record of how much electricity we've used for the last quarter and advised us to phone British Gas and negotiate how much to pay for that time period.

My first question: how much can they legally charge us if they have no record of how much we've used?

My second question: does anyone have any advice for how to negotiate, or what our course of action should be to avoid having to pay the amazingly high estimated bill?

All your help much appreciated; thank you very much!

You used some energy, right?

In the absence of any accurate meter readings, the supplier will estimate your consumption, either based on historical usage by you at the property (where that is available & appropriate) or based on future actual usage.

How to negotiate? Simples - call them up and explain that the latest estimated bill is over £100 more than for the last quarter (which was over winter when you used far more gas/electricity). :cool:

Bendybranch

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Do you have records of your past usage .

Yes. This time last year we paid them £65. But we've been here less than for that quarter so consequently will have used less power.