British Gas bill after 18mths

Gemmcd_2

Hi - please can someone help me. I was with BritishGasfrom Jan 2010. In March 2013 I moved house and told British Gas this.

In Feb of this year I left British Gas and changed suppliers. British Gas in the next month took over £600 out my account in 3 installments with no warning which put me overdrawn but I accepted it and thought I was done with them.

Yesterday I recieved a letter which says I owe them money from the property I was in from 2010-2013. They admit it was a glitch in the system which meant they missed a final direct debit which should have gone out in May 2013 and sent me no reminders since.

I am furious. I Have paid them so much and thought I was done and now they say I need to pay them £260 which I don't have.
Can they do this if they are admitting it was their fault? I don't understand this back billing but would it apply as Bill was for May 2013 though I left property in March 2013? Thank you

Bigphil1474

You should look at the back billing rules, as on face value it would apply i.e. the debt is from more than 12 months ago, and it was their fault that they didn't take the money. Not my area of expertise, but worth looking at the info on that, or just contacting BG and telling them that back billing should apply so you don't owe them and see what they say if they disagree.

Bubblebath

Gemmcd wrote: »

Hi - please can someone help me. I was with BritishGasfrom Jan 2010. In March 2013 I moved house and told British Gas this.

In Feb of this year I left British Gas and changed suppliers. British Gas in the next month took over £600 out my account in 3 installments with no warning which put me overdrawn but I accepted it and thought I was done with them.

Yesterday I recieved a letter which says I owe them money from the property I was in from 2010-2013. They admit it was a glitch in the system which meant they missed a final direct debit which should have gone out in May 2013 and sent me no reminders since.

I am furious. I Have paid them so much and thought I was done and now they say I need to pay them £260 which I don't have.
Can they do this if they are admitting it was their fault? I don't understand this back billing but would it apply as Bill was for May 2013 though I left property in March 2013? Thank you

How? :huh:

Direct debit?

If so, refer to the Direct Debit Guarantee.

Regarding back billing, that is a voluntary code of practice adopted by most of the major suppliers (and some minor ones) that relates to when a supplier, through entirely their own fault, fail to bill you regularly.
So did you ever contact BG and request a bill for the period you were with them, and presumably haven't paid for?

Gemmcd_2

Hi - yes I had a direct debit account and assumed that when I left the outstanding balance would be taken in regular direct debits. It went out in the space of 8 days and in much higher payments than my regular direct debit. They had not told me they would do this so I was not happy but let it go as it was money that I owed. That account was then closed. They had forgotten about my account at old property though and it is this that I owe them for. I assumed that when I moved my direct debuts were paying for any outstanding amounts on that property as I had stayed with them, and had let them know I was moving etc. They say in letter I recieved yesterday that they should have taken one last direct debit after I left old property but it didn't happen and a glitch in system means I haven't been sent any reminders. I didn't contact them as I did not realise that I had this money to pay, I was just moving property and continuing direct debits. I thought any outstanding balance had been paid off when I left them but that was the outstanding balance for new property. That's what they said when I phoned them.

Bubblebath

Gemmcd wrote: »

Hi - yes I had a direct debit account and assumed that when I left the outstanding balance would be taken in regular direct debits. It went out in the space of 8 days and in much higher payments than my regular direct debit. They had not told me they would do this so I was not happy but let it go as it was money that I owed. That account was then closed. They had forgotten about my account at old property though and it is this that I owe them for. I assumed that when I moved my direct debuts were paying for any outstanding amounts on that property as I had stayed with them, and had let them know I was moving etc. They say in letter I recieved yesterday that they should have taken one last direct debit after I left old property but it didn't happen and a glitch in system means I haven't been sent any reminders. I didn't contact them as I did not realise that I had this money to pay, I was just moving property and continuing direct debits. I thought any outstanding balance had been paid off when I left them but that was the outstanding balance for new property. That's what they said when I phoned them.

I'm sorry, I can't help you any further as you are not making any sense to me.

As I said, based on what you have posted, you would be covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee regarding any collections made without proper advance notice.
It's entirely up to you if you wish to pursue that toute, but if you do, you admit you will then still owe the money anyway.
(But at least you could recover any bank charges you incurred by going overdrawn at the time)

Otherwise you said in your OP:

"...they missed a final direct debit which should have gone out in May 2013 ..."

That would indicate a bill was raised at that time, else how would they know what you owed and therefore what to collect?

Therefore the back billing rule definitely does not apply, as you were billed at the correct time; you just didn't pay the bill (albeit because the DD was not collected)
They have 6 years to enforce collection of payment

I'm quite sure I would notice if £600+ was not collected from my bank account when I was expecting it to be.