British Gas - A time limit on refund of overpayments?

Emsworthy

Hi all,

Firstly, I wish to hold my hands up and say that we have been very naive...assuming that DDs go out to cover the bills...they do, but we'd not noticed how much they had gone up!

Anyhow, we had a letter through from British Gas, asking us to read the meters - both electricity and gas. Gas was fine, but the electricity one confused me, as I wasn't sure that the day and night readings were the right way round.

I eventually fathomed out the login for the British Gas website - hadn't been on there in years - and logged on. We had been paying way over the odds and far more than I'd thought we had been. Head in the sand? Ignorance? Probably.

Anyhow, long story short, we have so far sent £1636 to British Gas for electricity in 2015. There are two of us in a semi detached house. Today, they have said they will refund £861.77 of this as overpayment. They said it was our fault for not sending meter readings, so they had to over estimate usage.

The question I want to ask is - how far back can a claim for overpayments go? The advisor on the phone said she could only look at this calendar year. However, looking at payment history and bills for 2014, we had sent them £1857. Our meter was read on 30/12/13 and then the 02/01/14 bill said that in the last quarter, we had used 7243 kWh of electricity and the bill was £955.30! A huge amount, both of power and of money. Up until this point, our DD had been £55 per month. Looking back at the emails that were sent (to a long forgotten account), the DD changes don't tally with what was paid. Can I reclaim overpayment for 2014? It really is a significant amount of money.

I have learnt my lesson...will be sending regular readings to them from now on!

Many thanks.

SwanJon

It should be a lot simpler than that.
Think of your energy account as a bank account.
Your DD puts money in, then when BG bill you they take money out.

If you are putting in more than you are using, the account will build up a credit. Unless you then start using more that you are paying (as normal in winter) or get a refund, that credit will stay there.
It's not a case of comparing each year's (or month's) payment against consumption.

Now you are back into your account you can take control of it - by putting in regular readings it'll make sure your DD is more accurate, and if you disagree with the DD you can change it, or take a payment holiday etc.
You can see here what the total credit on the account is too so you know how much to ask for.

Keep putting in regular readings so that the system learns how much you are actually using.

macman

As above, you don't have to 'reclaim' anything. Submit regular reads and your DD should be reduced to reflect the large credit your account is in, or get a refund to bring it back into line. The account needs to be in credit at this time of year though to cover the expensive winter quarter.
Your meter only has to be read by the supplier every two years, so a read is due by next month.
The supplier can back bill you up to 6 years after the event, if the back billing code provisions do not apply.

Emsworthy

Thanks for the reply. I guess I am very confused about all this stuff. All I know is that I shouldn't be paying out that much money for electricity. I suppose it was my own fault for not sending in meter readings. 2014 is still bugging me and the amount that was charged to us. I know they were estimates, but really? It wouldn't be as bad if we lived in a mansion!

Emsworthy

macman wrote: »

As above, you don't have to 'reclaim' anything. Submit regular reads and your DD should be reduced to reflect the large credit your account is in, or get a refund to bring it back into line. The account needs to be in credit at this time of year though to cover the expensive winter quarter.
Your meter only has to be read by the supplier every two years, so a read is due by next month.
The supplier can back bill you up to 6 years after the event, if the back billing code provisions do not apply.

Thanks for the reply.

I think it is the usage that is bugging me. I don't see how we've worked our way through that much electricity, particularly the 7243 kWh in a quarter. Unless they were seriously underestimating before that??

naedanger

Emsworthy wrote: »

how far back can a claim for overpayments go?

At least 6 years, or 5 if you live in Scotland.

Can I reclaim overpayment for 2014? It really is a significant amount of money.

Yes.

As others have said the refund of overpayments usually happens automatically, and your account usually shows the total refund from all previous years usage.

So the amount you are being refunded is likely to be the total of the overpayments from all previous bills.

If you are in any doubt that you are not being fully refunded then ask for further clarification, either from BG or on this forum.

macman

That is approx 2 years electricity usage, not a quarter's, assuming that the property is heated and hot watered by gas. Are these actual readings or estimated for that quarter?