i have had no gas or electric bill for 5 years

TheClubster

I moved into a newbuild in Dec 2015 and was told SSE were responsible for gas, electric and water. Every quarter I got a bill and paid it. Suddenly last month i got a bill from British gas for £8700 for 5 years of gas and electric. I rang sse who confirmed I had only been paying for water with them (didn't realise water was so expensive!!) Rang British gas and asked them why it had taken them 5 years to send me a bill and they had no answer for me, just - sorry. What can I do? I don't have that sort of money!

MWT

Odds are that BG bill is estimated so the actual figure could be higher or lower...

I want to say that the back-billing rules will limit this to the last 12 months only, but it doesn't sound like you made any effort at all to pay for your energy usage over the last 5 years so I'm not sure that you will get that protection...

Did you never read the bill from SSE?

Surely if you look at it the details will show what you were paying for?

How much have you been paying SSE?

Something here doesn't feel right, so start with the most recent SSE bill, what exactly does it say you were being charged for and how much was that charge?

Hasbeen

TheClubster said:

I moved into a newbuild in Dec 2015 and was told SSE were responsible for gas, electric and water. Every quarter I got a bill and paid it. Suddenly last month i got a bill from British gas for £8700 for 5 years of gas and electric. I rang sse who confirmed I had only been paying for water with them (didn't realise water was so expensive!!) Rang British gas and asked them why it had taken them 5 years to send me a bill and they had no answer for me, just - sorry. What can I do? I don't have that sort of money!

If what you say is correct? then you entered into a deemed contract with BG when you moved in.

That is when YOU contact them, get registered then you supply reccommended monthly readings to them to get your accurate Bill's.

Did you not notice the Bill's you received had SSE WATER on them.
Infact SSE sold to LEEP Utilites in May 2019 when customers were all notified.
So Bill's from that time would have been from Leep.

How did BG arrive at the figure owed without any readings or were you billed for estimates.
You are still within the timescale to get chased for this debt.

I would suggest getting a payment plan organised asap with BG to pay for what you have used.

You may be saved a bit though by the back billing rules. Someone more knowledgable than me will advise on that aspect.

bradders1983

SSE do water as well? 🤔

MWT

Hasbeen said:

You may be saved a bit though by the back billing rules. Someone more knowledgable than me will advise on that aspect.

I'd love to be able to agree, but the rules may not apply if you have behaved obstructively or unreasonably, preventing accurate billing. Failing to register upon moving in, failing to pay anyone for energy while continuing to consume it would seem to qualify..

Hopefully there is more to this story than we have heard so far as it seems unbelievable that anyone could be receiving water bills, listing only water usage, labelled as from 'SSE Water', while believing they were for electricity and gas...

Hasbeen

bradders1983 said:

SSE do water as well? 🤔

SSE did water. 

https://sse.co.uk/help/water/leep-utilities#:~:text=SSE Water is now owned,now come from Leep Utilities.

bradders1983

I never knew that. Which area of the country did they cover?

MWT

bradders1983 said:

I never knew that. Which area of the country did they cover?

"SSE Water was established in 2008 under licence from Ofwat. It owns water networks that supply around 20,000 customers across 28 sites in southern England and Wales. It is the largest NAV company operating in the UK’s water sector.

Leep will combine SSE Water with its own operations in the sector, which includes two networks, or ‘insets’, at MediaCityUK, the technology and media hub home to the BBC & ITV in Manchester, and Liverpool International Business Park, which is recognised as a premier business location in the North West of England, and is home to a mixed portfolio of light commercial and industrial businesses."

Cardew

With a new build it is entirely plausible that BG didn't even know the property existed, let alone that they were supplying the property with gas and electricity. The developers should have informed BG.

However you should have contacted BG with the meter readings when you moved in; SSE would have told you they were not supplying gas and electricity had you tried to give them the meter readings.

It really does stretch the imagination that someone would think that water charges(of £???) would cover water + gas + electricity and the winter quarter was approx the same cost as a summer quarter.

macman

So how much was the quarterly water bill?
You never submitted a meter reading in 5 years, nor thought to ask why the meters had not been read?
I'm finding this hard to believe.
I can see no reason why back-billing rules would apply here, as you seemingly made no attempt to contact the suppliers.

ARH_2

"You cannot be charged for gas or electricity used more than 12 months ago if you have not been correctly billed by a supplier."
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/household-gas-and-electricity-guide/who-contact-if-its-difficult-paying-energy-bills/energy-back-billing-guide-your-rights

It sounds as if British Gas have not billed you correctly (i.e. not issued a bill) and are attempting to back bill for 5 years. As above they can only back bill for 12 months,. Ring them up, point that out and agree a direct debit with them which will cover your current energy usage and pay off the last 12 months in a sensible timeframe (probably 12 months, so you'll be paying double for the next year to make up for the 5 years you've gotten away with it, which seems like a great deal).

PS. I can't see how simply having no contact with the supplier and believing to be paying SSE can be construed as behaving "obstructively or unreasonably".