British gas billing issue

dh1989

Hi all

Wondering if someone can help?

I've been with British Gas for just over two years, I live in a 2 bedroom flat.

When we moved in we were paying £80 a month for gas and electric. Over the 2 years, they have written to us 3 times to reduce our bills which are now just £35 a month. This has been on the basis of estimated billing, as we've not submitted meter readings.

We had issues submitting readings when we first moved in so were happy to go along with estimated.

We had a letter through last week saying that our bills are now to be increased to £159.99 a month, increasing nearly 5 times. An engineer obtained an electricity meter reading and they have now put a debit of just over £1000 on our account, hence the increase.

My argument is that they are penalising us for underestimating our bills for this time, and no appear to be trying to re-coup these missed costs. Can they do this? I am happy to pay an increased bill, but how can they justify such an increase?

Any help on handling this would be appreciated as my wife is due to give birth to our first child next week, so money will be tight.

Thanks in advance!

molerat

Yes they can increase the direct debit to cover the energy you have used and your ongoing use. It was down to you to supply actual readings to correct the estimated bills. You have had an interest free loan for some time and it now needs paying back.

dh1989

The times we did submit meter readings, most recently about 18 months ago, they ended up estimating anyway as they did not believe our readings. This is why we went by estimated in the end.

They would have only been able to get a reading from the electricity meter recently as this one is in our communal area, and they've not accessed our flat for the gas reading. So in a sense, there is still some estimation going on.

Surely if our bills were estimated, they should just stick with what we were originally paying rather than keep reducing it? A little naive, but I tend not to question bills which decrease over time, maybe I should have...

SwanJon

As above, but you may have some luck spreading the recovery out so it's not such a big jump.
You can do a certain amount yourself on-line to control the DD, but if it doesn't let you set it to a level you feel is fair (catch up over 2 years as it took that long to build up?) call/chat to see what you can negotiate.

Get in the habit of taking regular readings (at least quarterly, if not monthly). This will allow you to take control and give you a realsitic idea of how much you are using so you can compare tariffs and suppliers in future.

dogshome

Even if you selected a particular, (cheaper), BG tariff when you moved in, the chances are that after 2 years that tariff will have ended and you are now on a 'Variable Standard Tariff', which is most expensive - Visit BG's website or phone them to find a cheaper tariff.
It's a worry that BG still don't have an accurate Gas meter reading, so the £1000 Elec debt may not be the end of the problem

Estimated bills are just another way of saying 'Guessed' - If you haven't done so already, set up an Online account so you can enter regular meter readings and get regular bills

dh1989

Thanks for both of your replies, they confirm what I was thinking!

I will call them later to discuss. I am happy to pay more for our monthly bills, but I feel that their amount is unrealistic. I feel they could have done more to bring the issue to light at some stage, rather than continually reducing our bills.

They always took issue with the readings we were able to submit, so insisted on estimating before. Perhaps our meters need checking by an engineer too?

dogshome

Hopefully you still have the meter readings you gave to BG when you moved in, does it match the Start Reading on the very first esimated bill they sent, or is it a different figure?

dh1989

dogshome wrote: »

Hopefully you still have the meter readings you gave to BG when you moved in, does it match the Start Reading on the very first esimated bill they sent, or is it a different figure?

Just rang them to check this and submit new meter readings. It turns out they do not match! There is huge disparity between our readings, so they are re-calculating now. Thanks for the tip!