British Gas overpaid me for a refund 13 months ago, now they want their money back...

dogluvr

I just had a letter from British Gas saying they refunded me more than they should have, and that I have to pay them back just over £400.

However, they say this refund was sent to me in early November 2016. They calculated it wrong, not me. It's been over a year since, and I have obviously spent this money and forgotten all about it.

I'm struggling to find any of my rights on this, or what to do about it. Any tips?

:A

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Always assuming that their claim is accurate, the matter is covered in law.

If they have made a mistake and overpaid you they have 6 years to reclaim that money.

In the same way had they overcharged, you have the same 6 year period to claim a refund.

AndyCF

The only extra comment I can add to Cardew's excellent post is if you think it is likely to cause you problems to "pay in one lump" then they should be hopefully reasonable to accept it in some kind of instalments or suchlike.

I'm not aware either way if they *have* to do that, others will be able to confirm this or not but it would seem quite reasonable to ask that if you have to pay.

I'm skipping over the 'issue of if it should be paid or not given the time' as stated that's already covered in law. Having said that there's no harm in asking for a reduction on it, worst they could say is "no!"

matelodave

Hopefully you've kept your old bills so you can check whether their calculations are correct, although you should really have checked them at the time.

If you dont check your bills, payments and meter readings and save your own information then it's difficult to track back. If you always check your bills and meter readings and get them corrected at the time then this situation should never arise.

You should request a full breakdown of the charges frpm BG.

The law allows companies and the taxman etc to go back 6 years so it's not unreasonable for you to save bills and statements for a decent amount of time to be able to check yourself and provide your own evidence.

If you are on paperless billing then save a PDF's or screenshot's of bills or statements and keep them on your computer - you never know when you might need them.

I'm guessing that if you'd overpaid them you'd expect them to refund your money so it's not unreasonable for them to try and get their overpayment back from you. You just need to be able to check that they are correct.