Disconnection

VictimOfBG

I disagree. I can't comment on the number of disconnections as I do not know if that is accurate or what 2017's figures were.


What I do know is that British Gas are unwilling to negotiate, but willing to make my home unlivable.


I guessed I have been speaking with people who are employed by or provide their services to British Gas. The lack of replies since yesterday morning and then several in a short space of time made me wonder.


To anyone not on BG's payroll, I urge you to read about my issue on here and ask yourself would you want to be forced to pay almost £4k per year to British Gas, not be allowed to change suppliers, be billed for properties you sold nearly nine years ago, and endure their scripted pidgin english phonecalls, emails, and a huge number of warrant applications until they were eventually successful in getting a warrant. Then, to top it all, get to live somewhere with no heating, lighting, no power for fridges, no means of cooking, and no means of even washing.


Therefore I urge anyone that reads this not to use British Gas.

VictimOfBG

Houbara wrote: »

Sharing a single meter between residential and commercial will bring problems. They should be either one or the other. A small shop could have a single electric business meter then another electric meter for the private occupier.
I have seen a flat dweller who were upset at the owner sticking all their electricity usage from the downstairs shop onto his bills .He wondered why he had such large electric bills. That could possibly work if the flat was "in on it " and made good his losses. The owner had this set up to avoid paying electricians to install separate tennent and metering supplies

Totally irrelevant to my case seen as the property is only being used for residential purposes.

anniecave

VictimOfBG wrote: »

Totally irrelevant to my case seen as the property is only being used for residential purposes.

It's not irrelevant, as it's a shared meter for both a commercial and a residential part. Part of the issue is clearly the empty commercial unit with the associated electricity charges.

VictimOfBG

anniecave wrote: »

It's not irrelevant, as it's a shared meter for both a commercial and a residential part. Part of the issue is clearly the empty commercial unit with the associated electricity charges.

The empty shop unit plays no part because the bill should be the same. The issue are all the things I have already mentioned in this dispute that started with British Gas refusing to stop charging me for a property that I sold in 2010, and then treating me like they have done since.



If anyone has any helpful or constructive suggestions as to how to deal with this then fire away. If you're posting to try and defend British Gas and are guessing or inventing issues to do so please don't bother its bad enough having to deal the likes of British Gas elsewhere.

macman

What do you mean by 'the bill should be the same'? A commercial account is charged at different rates, and attracts VAT at 20% rather than the 5% on residential accounts.
I don't understand how you can have sold the shop without first separating the 2 supplies so that each unit has it's own metering, and each electricity supply it's own CU.

GaryMcEwan72

From reading this, did British Gas split usage between Commercial and Domestic? IE, 50% Commercial and 50% Domestic? Or was it 100% Commercial or 100% Domestic?

Also as well, Commercial contracts are 5% VAT if you use less than on average 33kWh a day and therefore don't get charged any Climate Change Levy either.

You will need to also check if British Gas and on their record if the electric supply was registered with a 01 or 02 Profile Class if Domestic or an 03 or 04 profile is registered as commercial. The same with the gas, you will need to see if that was on Domestic or Commercial (Gas national database would show this though as 'Industrial').

If it's on a Commercial contract then unfortunately suppliers will usually go down the legal route in order to get any debt that is owed to them.

VictimOfBG

macman wrote: »

What do you mean by 'the bill should be the same'? A commercial account is charged at different rates, and attracts VAT at 20% rather than the 5% on residential accounts.
I don't understand how you can have sold the shop without first separating the 2 supplies so that each unit has it's own metering, and each electricity supply it's own CU.

As mentioned the property I own and reside in is mixed use. I own all of it and have never sold any part of it.


I sold a DIFFERENT property, as already mentioned, in 2010 to the local council. British Gas continued charging me for energy there and have done since despite all the other things already mentioned.


Since then the dispute got bigger because of all the other things I mentioned in my previous posts.


All I can say to people is not to make my mistake and avoid British Gas like the plague.

VictimOfBG

I'm paying via the company due to the contract I did not want that they put me on instead of letting me leave years ago.


The company is VAT registered so it makes no difference. That is not my dispute. Its the fact that I have been billed for a property I do not own - the start of the issue. Since then i have been prevented from leaving, forced onto a contract I have not been permitted to leave, recived hundreds of pointless phonecalls with people that can't deviate from a script and have limited English, been ignored on every occassion I tried to resolve the issue.


During this BG have applied to court 38 times for a warrant. I successfully defended them on all but the two occasions I mentioned before.


British Gas did not issue civil debt proceedings they use the 1954 gas and electricity act usually arguing that the property is empty and that there is a gas or electrical emergency to try to gain entry. This law was originally drafted to prevent electrical and gas safety issues not as a short cut for a dodgy company to force payment of disputed amounts instead of sensibly discussing and resolving the problems under threat of disconnection.


I consider British Gas to be an absolute disgrace.

GaryMcEwan72

Then surely a copy of Land Registry showing you sold the property should be enough for British Gas?

I would imagine that their recoveries would have access to it also. I know that company that I work for have access to it.

VictimOfBG

GaryMcEwan72 wrote: »

Then surely a copy of Land Registry showing you sold the property should be enough for British Gas?

I would imagine that their recoveries would have access to it also. I know that company that I work for have access to it.

Everyone has access to the register, they could also ring the council and ask them to confirm that they own it or put it in writing. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if British Gas are sending bills to me and the Council.


They have tried similarly dodgy things in the past. I once, years ago, at the early stages of this dispute entered into a payment plan on the proviso that they were going to look into this. They send a letter stating the payments it didn't detail the interest they were adding on to it and they didn't mention it over the phone either so I believe that was a breach of the Consumer Credit Act on its own.


When the first direct debit payment was due to leave my account I saw that they were using the direct debit to take full payment instead of the payment plan amount. Fortunately I was able to cancel it before it was taken.


i find it impossible to reason with them or even believe what they say. British Gas are easily the worst company I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with.