bgas lost my elec account on a house i'm selling!

martinbrannagan

Hi all
never had the misfortune to need to post before but i'm a bit worried about this one.

Whenever it was that British Gas changed their system over earlier this year (March?) they lost my account like many others and my direct debits stopped being taken. I didn't notice for a few months and have since relocated and put the house up for sale.

A couple of months ago i was beginning to sort stuff out ready for selling and got in touch with british gas, who realised my account had been lost and put me on the list to get it sorted. My meter is a strange one, five digital readings for electricity and this seems to have caused further confusion, even though they managed to bill me on the old system.

anyway the house is due to complete sale on friday and i'm not much further on. spoke to bgas on monday who said i was still on a list to get it sorted but they couldn't give me a timescale. They told me to call in with my final meter readings on friday but it might be months before my account is set up properly and able to be transferred to the new owner and in the meantime he can't do anything about it!

i'm worried about how the new buyer is going to react to that but also wondering how i can sort this mess out any quicker.

any ideas?

cheers
martin

Terrylw1

Hi Martin,

The new owner I'm use will understand thats it's BGas messing you both around, not you. BGas have had a lot of bad press about their service over the past year so he/she may be well aware of them and planning to switch!

If they can't bill you, thats unfortunate, but not critical to you. You have the ability to work out how much you would owe and keep it saved. take your readings when you leave, submit them to BGas, then keep them safe. If you are worried about being messed about, take a photo of the reading with the newspaper next to it for the date, they should just believe you though.

Now, all you need is the last bill they sent you. Then work out how many units you've used up to your final readings. Then times it by the unit prices and add any standing charge if you pay that. If your units are split into blocks and don't know how to work it out, either ask BGas or just work it out at the highest rate so you know your maximum.

You can't sort BGas's system issues but you can protect yourself from future problems with them. If they estimate your closing readings, insist they use your ones.

Just make sure you know how to read the correct dials for the final readings.

Also, make sure the new homeowner has the readings so you both know you agree on that as it sounds like you have some contact. At least that way, BGas have 2 parties willing to force them to bill the readings.

What type of tariff are you on with having 5 reading dials???