Huge gas debt

rachelheels

Hi, I have just been forced to have a prepay gas meter.

I knew bills were overdue (hubby deals with them, or not) and I know he should have acted quicker etc etc before anyone has a moan

the debt is £5500, they haven’t been paid for years 

surely they aren’t allowed to let debt build up this much before taking action?

Browntoa

No , as long as you , or they , were taking regular readings.

I'm assuming that your husband ignored the "you owe us xxxx" letters as well 

RelievedSheff

Unfortunately due to you and your husbands complete lack of action here you are gong to be stuck on an expensive energy tariff paying back your debt over a long long time. All the time paying far more for the gas that you are currently using than you would have too had you paid your bills.

I'm not sure what answers you are looking for here to be fair. You are being asked to pay for the energy that you have used but not paid for.

Time to get your head out of the sand and start paying your bills I'm afraid. If the gas bill has not been paid for so long what other bills are going to be coming to bite you?

Talldave

rachelheels said:

Hi, I have just been forced to have a prepay gas meter.

I knew bills were overdue (hubby deals with them, or not) and I know he should have acted quicker etc etc before anyone has a moan

the debt is £5500, they haven’t been paid for years 

surely they aren’t allowed to let debt build up this much before taking action?

Are you confident the bills are based on actual use and not supplier estimates (which would probably have an E against the meter reading)? Or could there have been some confusion because of a meter change, or a metric meter being billed as imperial  etc etc.

Without wanting to sound negative, has he been paying other bills - electricity,  water, etc?

Petriix

It's vaguely possible that you might somehow be able to get some of the debt written off, depending on the situation. It's probably a complex situation but it may hinge on the current state of your relationship with 'hubby' and the timing and details of previous bills. The first thing is probably to do a Subject Access Request and get details of all correspondence so that you can see exactly what the situation is, then you can look for any discrepancies or failures on the part of the supplier. You may, by hook or by crook, be able to argue that this case falls under their back-billing 12 month cut-off rules. It's probably a long shot but worth investigating for that much money.

Start by putting in a formal complaint and doing the SAR, then you will potentially be able to take it to the ombudsman if not resolved satisfactorily. However, be prepared for them to say no. You will need to figure out why the bill is so high - has 'hubby' simply not been paying, or was the direct debit too low with bills based on low estimated readings? Have you had a meter change or any other issues?

Whether they write it off or not, you need to get off the prepayment meter asap. Once you've exhausted the complaints process, see if you can pay off the debt so that you can get a credit meter and switch to a cheaper tariff with a different supplier. Staying on a prepayment meter will cost you £hundreds every year.

Hasbeen

RelievedSheff said:

Unfortunately due to you and your husbands complete lack of action here you are gong to be stuck on an expensive energy tariff paying back your debt over a long long time. All the time paying far more for the gas that you are currently using than you would have too had you paid your bills.

I'm not sure what answers you are looking for here to be fair. You are being asked to pay for the energy that you have used but not paid for.

Time to get your head out of the sand and start paying your bills I'm afraid. If the gas bill has not been paid for so long what other bills are going to be coming to bite you?

As above you will be on an expensive standard tariff? And paying back for a considerable time.

You both have a combined salary of £71000 per year. So are you able to pay off some, if not all the amount due. It will save you money in long term. If not please look at the links below?

As your husband has allowed this debt to build up to this amount. Would now kindly suggest that you now take control of any other bills. Perhaps sooner rather than later. To find out any other accounts that he has not paid? 

Again perhaps posting below will get you further advice on way ahead.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6027813/struggling-with-debt-ask-a-stepchange-debt-adviser-a-question/p26

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe

rachelheels

I know he’s messed up x electricity is prepay with minimal debt, water def up to date

hes on a total ban from any bedroom fun until he sorts the gas out lol so he’s keen to put it right xx

i have to take blame too I knew we were behind just didn’t realise it was anything like this much x 

brewerdave

An observation - I live in a 5 bedroom home with gas CH. Our total gas bills for the last 10 years don't come out to anywhere near £5.5k !! Are you sure that you really owe that much ? Sounds like bad estimates to me!!!

couriervanman

brewerdave said:

An observation - I live in a 5 bedroom home with gas CH. Our total gas bills for the last 10 years don't come out to anywhere near £5.5k !! Are you sure that you really owe that much ? Sounds like bad estimates to me!!!

Or growing something in the loft

macman

You've obtained £5.5K of gas, without payment, interest free, and now you are complaining that they 'shouldn't have let the bill mount up'? Isn't the discussion you should be having be with your husband, not the supplier?
You've also incurred further unnecessary costs by ignoring all correspondence to voluntarily fit a PPM, so there will be extra costs for the warrant, locksmith etc.
It's too late for him to 'sort the gas out' now, you are stuck with a PPM for the foreseeable future.

Robin9

@rachelheels  It's time to put your cards and bills on the table with your OH  and go through everything. I suspect that although you say you only owe a few thousand that if the £5.5k gas bill is anything to go by then there's a lot more .