British Gas Meter Intefered with not by me

Annoyed07

Ms Chocaholic

Only mine has ben tampered with at the seal.

On the front of each box with the facility to use the traingled key to open the box is the corresponding flat number ..... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Mine is of the old type where you read numbers e.g. 6489 and not like the other four which are modern gas meters.

tripled

As I said above annoyed07, you have to speak to the CAB and/or energywatch. You are not in a strong position. Look at the facts:

1) Only your meter has been tampered with
2) It is clearly labelled as your meter
3) There is restricted access to your meter
4) You have 'failed to notice' you have paid a penny for gas in 3 years

Now, whilst it is possible you are telling the truth, you must realise that the balance of probability is very much against you. The utilities act is on BG's side in this scenario.

Whilst Cardew may not be known for mincing his words, I'm afraid the information and advice he gives is always pretty solid.

I'm not judging you, I'm just trying to make it clear you need to speak to a professional. You are at risk of having your power cut off and possibly being involved in a criminal investigation. There is nothing much I or anyone else on this forum can really do here to help you sort this out.

Crystaltipps_2

Annoyed - you say you have been paying for your bills as they came - do you mean you were getting a bill every 3 months and then paying it off in full, or were you on a regular payment scheme - or did you have a prepayment meter?

When did the meter man last read the meter? (prior to them finding a problem) You should be able to see this on your bills as the reading will show as estimated or actual.

I work in the Revenue Protection Department of another supplier, and as other posters have said, theft of gas / electricity is taken very seriously. Although I am not accusing you in any way, I must point out that the only person to have benefited from intereferring with your meter if you are paying for your own bills is yourself. It is possible that if your meter is close to others and not easily identified that someone may have done it thinking it was theirs.

Going back to whether you should pay for the gas that you have used - if this had been an underestimated bill and then recalculated with an actual, then the answer would be yes - so this situation should be no different. I am not sure what method BG use to calculate the usage that has not gone through your meter, but it could be based on general averages or your previous usage. As you have mentioned that you are in ill health and unemployed,which would probably mean that you are using more than the national average of gas - so it could well have been calculated in your favour.

You have not mentioned being charged for the tampered meter - so if you haven't, then you should consider yourself lucky as this can add hundreds of extra pounds to your bill.

The other thing you should be thankful for is the fact that the illegal connection / tamper did not leak and cause a fire. If your gas meter was close to an electricity meter, then you have been very very lucky. We get about a call a week with houses / properties that have burnt down due to tampering with the gas or electricity meter.

Crystaltipps

rjm2k1

I think some of the posts on here have been a little harsh, many people don't know how to read a meter and will go on paying estimated bills. I find it strange that this area is available for meter readers to enter, yet none have noticed the tampering before now. Since the meter is in a public place, I can't see how they can be so sure that it wasn't tampered with by someone else.

welly72

hi, i cant understand that if bg have been coming to read your meter for the last 3 years, and they havent noticed before now that the meter hasnt changed.

SwanJon

One thing that seems to have been overlooked is the fact that no new meter will be installed. Surely that should be a first priority, otherwise you are going to continue to use gas without it registering.
If you get a new working meter in, maybe you could negotiate a payment scheme for a year, on the condition that this year's use will be used to estimate what you used over the last three years.
First step is to start making some payments, what you can. It shows that you accept that you have used gas and are not trying to get out of paying for it, just that you can't afford the full amount now.
If it is only your meter that has stopped, it might just be mechanical failure, and no one is to blame.
Keep talking, try to come to some arrangement, even getting a pay as you go meter put in which will allow you to at least keep gas in the house while you continue negotiations.
Good luck

rjm2k1

Thinking about it a bit more, if they are wanting to charge £1500 for three years use, this doesn't sit right with you having paid estimated bills already, did you pay any bills at all? £500/year sounds very high anyway!