British Gas problems

mikeywills

Hi, can someone offer some advice please,

We moved home on the 17th April 2006, we have had issues with British gas which were our suppliers for Gas and Electric as they claimed we didn't give them final meter readings. As a result we didn't receive final bills from them.

After approx 6 months we received a letter from a third party trying to reclaim a debt for an outstanding Electricity bill, we had not had any correspondance from British Gas at all, even though we paid for all our mail to be redirected from April through to Christmas.

We contested the bills as they were dated upto the 9th of May a period after we had moved. It took from September to July of this year to resolve the outstanding payment as we could not get British Gas to issue us a correct bill, we continually received threatening letter from several third parties but nothing from British Gas. Eventually they agreed to verbally tell me how much was outstanding so that I could pay over the phone.

On Monday this week we have received a third party letter trying to reclaim a debt from British Gas for our Gas bill at our previous address, we were in credit when the account closed by over £180 but they are trying to claim an additional £73.11, is this acceptable procedure by a company we have never tried to hide from them, but are being constantly hounded and threatened by subsiduaries.

SwanJon

Long shot I know, but if you still have the readings, you could post them in with a copy of a tenancy agreement (or similar) which shows when you moved.
They should be able to correct all the bills. They may be using a reading provided by the people who moved in after you, or an estimate. If its the former, it gets a bit tricky as they have two customers giving them different information.
The only issue is the time since the move, whcih might slow things down a bit.

mikeywills

This is part of the problem, since the move we cannot find the readings. They were only scribbled on a piece of paper, as we left the house. Since moving we have been in the middle of extensive renovation work, so the majority of our stuff is still in storage. If I had the information which I doubt after this timescale, I could not easily gather it, as it would either be at my PIL some 60 miles away, or My own parents over 150 miles away.

I was led to believe through correspondance over our electricity bill that the gas was cleared, but nothing was brought up through the period of contestment, even though the accounts were linked as we had a discount for having gas and electric with them.

I have since spoken to a lady in British Gas customer service this morning that has told me our account has been written off and that she would forward a copy of that to us. What do we do in the meantime if we are further contacted by the third party.

Terrylw1

BGas are the only owes with the power to recall this debt from the debt collectors. They can do that extremely easy. The debt collector will continue to chase you for payment until BGas tell them not to. I would suggest that you involve Energwatch if a BGas manager won't recall this debt.

You just need to prove the date you moved out and give a reading. If you cannot give a reading, they can estimate one. If someone else moved in after then they could be using their reading as SwanJon stated. If thats too high (meaning you are paying for part of their consumption) then you can dispute it. However, the Supplier then needs a reading around that time to really help you. Otherwise, you could be in the good will write off area that you wil need to complain for e.g. MD, Energywatch, etc.

Just something for you to think about though - from experience of another utility, debts appeared to be written off but had actually been sold off to debt collectors. A lot of customer service staff made that mistake. Not saying thats the case, but just a word of caution.

If they have written this off, ok, but they also have a debt out externally so they have to contact them to advise they have written it off.