Bill sent over 12 months later for gas and electric, should I pay this?

helenthompy

Looking for some advice if anyone can point me in the right direction please?
We moved to a new build in dec 2017.
Gas and electric with British gas due to building company using them.
In Feb 2018 we changed to a different supplier and submitted our new readings to the new supplier.
Expecting to receive a bill from British gas, we waited and as we heard nothing, admittedly forgot about it.
In April 2019 we receive a letter from a debt collector on behalf of British gas.
Phone call to British Gas who state they have sent us Bill's and we hadn't paid.
Explain we have never received any bill from them. Complaint opened with them.
Today they call to say, the builders have given them plot address's for the whole site and this was the postal address the Bill's were sent to. It seems they were sending Bill's to a completely different address hence us not receiving any contact. They agreed.
They also state that as the building company have given them the plot address, it's not their fault they didn't send the bill to the correct address and therefore they can charge us for energy used at least 14 months prior and the backdating rule of 12 months does not come into to play.
Surely it is their fault for not obtaining the postal address? We had our postal address before we even moved in.
We obtained closing metre readings for our new supplier who in turn did contact British gas and Informed BG of the readings and cut off date. We haven't tried to avoid anything.
Can British gas still charge us for this?
Sorry for the long winded account!
Any knowledge on this appreciated before I look to contact the ombudsman. Thank you

Cardew

As you appear to appreciate, the provisions of the 12 month back-billing guidance depend on the company being at fault for not sending you a bill.


When you first moved in during Dec 2017 did you contact BG with your initial meter readings and your details - name/address etc?


Personally I don't think you will have a case under the back billing provision as it appears you did nothing to obtain a bill as 'you forgot about it'.



However even if BG were at fault, they can claim for the last 12 months of energy they supplied. The back bill provision means that if they had supplied you with gas/electricity for over 12 months - e.g 17 months - and it was BG's fault a bill had not been produced for that period, then they could only backbill you for 12 months and in that example the first 5 months of the 17 month bill would be written off.



BG did send a bill but were unaware it wasn't delivered to the correct address. IMO this is simply a case of a valid and outstanding bill that is covered by Statute and they have 6 years to instigate legal action recover the debt.