British gas late bill, do we have any rights?

Dan_T_4

Sorry you guys must get asked this a lot, but I have searched the web for answers and cannot find a situation exactly the same as mine, they're all a bit different. When we bought our house we inherited British Gas as our supplier for electricity and gas. We then changed suppliers in to Eon in Feb 2013. British Gas have now sent us a bill for £128 with the usual 1 month payment demand before it's passed to debt collectors. I'm not worried about the debt collectors at this point. In their letter to us they admit this bill is late due to a "technical error" at their end, and covers the period Nov 2012 to Feb 2013. Looking at accounts etc. it looks like we do owe it, and so will have to pay it. However we simply do not have £128 lying around, should we be able to pay this debt back at the same rate that it was accrued? That we could manage. I just want to be armed with info before I ring BG and ask them this. I can't believe it has taken them over 12 months to send this bill. Thanks for any help.


Dan

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Did you give opening readings to BG the day you moved in? And do the closing reading they have match the opening reading you provided to e.on?

But in principle, yes, of course you have to pay. You weren't likely to get 3 months free energy. Debts can be chased for up to 6 years (5 in Scotland). They should allow you to pay off what you owe over the period it was accrued ie. 3 months.

£128 is low for 3 months energy in the middle of winter....

ollski

Their stance is likely to be that they have already given you 18 months to save the money to pay it and as you are no longer a customer they dont really have any reason to further extend the credit. You could ring and ask them though.

ste_wilko

ollski wrote: »

Their stance is likely to be that they have already given you 18 months to save the money to pay it and as you are no longer a customer they dont really have any reason to further extend the credit. You could ring and ask them though.

That's not a stance they can take, and if they tried that sort of thing with me they would not be getting a penny. They haven't given the OP 18 months, because the OP wasn't expecting the bill and they had to go back through their accounts to confirm that the bill was in fact due.

Call British Gas and see what they can offer. At the end of the day, if they want to reclaim all of the money for that bill then they should bend a little seeing as it's taken them this long after you terminated the agreement with them

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

ste_wilko wrote: »

That's not a stance they can take, and if they tried that sort of thing with me they would not be getting a penny. They haven't given the OP 18 months, because the OP wasn't expecting the bill and they had to go back through their accounts to confirm that the bill was in fact due.

Call British Gas and see what they can offer. At the end of the day, if they want to reclaim all of the money for that bill then they should bend a little seeing as it's taken them this long after you terminated the agreement with them

They have 6 years to wait if they so wish. They don't have to bend at all. You saying so doesn't make it true.

If I were a small trader, had inadvertantly forgotten to invoice you, had noticed the mistake and sent out the invoice and this was your attitude I would have no hesitation in booking a date at the nearest county court to sort it out.

Dan_T_4

Thanks guys you have answered my question. We have no "right" to a 3 month payment period, but we can try. We know we have to pay it but just wondered if there was a hard and fast rule as to whether we can do it over time, but there isn't.


Thanks very much.

chanz4

they have to allow a period to repay, to which is not place you into difficulty

spiro

If you contacted them when you moved into the house and it's a domestic account then the Back Billing rules apply and they can't bill you for anything over 12 months ago as it's their fault.

Cardew

spiro wrote: »

If you contacted them when you moved into the house and it's a domestic account then the Back Billing rules apply and they can't bill you for anything over 12 months ago as it's their fault.

Surely the back-billing provision is where you have been a customer of a company(BG in the OP's case) for a period of over 12 months; and they didn't produce a bill in that period.


The OP was a customer of BG for just 3 months.

Nada666

Dan_T wrote: »

When we bought our house we inherited British Gas as our supplier for electricity and gas. We then changed suppliers in to Eon in Feb 2013. British Gas have now sent us a bill for £128 with the usual 1 month payment demand before it's passed to debt collectors.

Looking at accounts etc. it looks like we do owe it, and so will have to pay it. However we simply do not have £128 lying around, should we be able to pay this debt back at the same rate that it was accrued?

Why do you not have the money lying around? When you switched you must have known you owed a hundred-odd pounds even if you hadn't calculated it to the penny.

I am pretty sure that if you pay £64 today and £64 next month there will be no complaints.

Voyager2002

This is probably not a time to be concerned about rights...

It would be sensible, and good business practice, for BG to give you reasonable time to pay. So I suggest you ring them up and politely confirm that you agree you owe the money and let them know when you get paid, and how much you expect to be able to pay on that date, and on the next pay-day, and so forth...

Bottom line: if BG were to be horrible and take you to court, the judge would ask you how much you could afford to pay each month and set payments at that level. And if you could demonstrate that you had made a reasonable offer to BG and they had not accepted it, the judge would not be impressed and quite probably would order them to meet all the legal costs.