Lawyer suggestions or advice on compensation from British Gas after massive overpayment

Allan_luxous

Hi, 

thanks for taking your time to read my post

im a bit stuck as to where to go so hopefully someone on here will have some sensible advice.

2 years ago i entered a contract with British Gas to supply electricity to my business. price agreed was 0.133p kw/h.

i was receiving bills consistently of around 11,500kwh per month usage and had been paying this non stop for 2 years. when i came to renew i had a little look over my bills and wondered if that figure was how much i was actually consuming.  there had been a 2 month period where we had been out of contract and they had shot our bills from around £3k per month up to £6.5k the next and then £11780 the next! 

so i called them to ask how they could justify that cost, were only a little workshop and i doubted we were using that energy.

i must say here that the company that was in the building before us was an engineering firm with a huge supply required so its a half hourly meter that we have. thus i dont need to send them readings, the meter sends the readings to them every half hour by means of a sim card inside it.

anyway, after some digging, British Gas tell me that my meter in fact is faulty and has not been sending them readings, they sheduled in an engineer to check the meter and fit a new one if required.

when he arrives ( a month later ) he tells me that the meter is reading correct, its just not sending them info, upon chatting to him and telling him our bills he tells me that in the whole 3 hours he was here, we'd not even used £10. he told me to request my readings.

so i call British gas and they tell me that they dont have any, the meter wasnt sending them the data thus they were giving me bills based on estimated usage. estimated on?? you guessed it - the previous tennants usage!

so weve wrote our readings down daily now for the past two months and turns out we use 100 (ish) kwh per day and had used a little over 5000kwh in two months.

5000kwh in two months, yet weve been paying 11500kwh PER MONTH for 2 years solid.  thats 9000kwh per month more than weve used. so theyve been overcharging us by 460% every single month for the whole 2 year contract.

given the fact were only a small business and given the fact that we are hospitality based, i feel that the expense and the stress of finding that money monthly has put us under a considerable amount of pressure to pay that month on month. 

2500 x 0.133p is only around £332.5 (plus all charges and taxes on top)  yet weve been paying £1530 + all charges monthly.

i asked them for compensation and they refused, so now i want to take it to the next stage 

any advice will be much appreciated

thanks

Allan

[Deleted User]

With respect, you should be seeking legal advice not asking for personal opinions on what is essentially a consumer forum. All I would say is that all energy consumers need to adopt ‘best practice’ which is to check meter readings shown on bills against the actual meter readings. On consumer bills, all estimated readings used for billing purposes are annotated with an ‘E’.

Robin9

Now that BG has an actual reading have they rebilled you ? 

When does your contract run out ?

Are in touch with the complaints part of BG Business.

MattMattMattUK

Allan_luxous said:

Hi, 

thanks for taking your time to read my post

im a bit stuck as to where to go so hopefully someone on here will have some sensible advice.

2 years ago i entered a contract with British Gas to supply electricity to my business. price agreed was 0.133p kw/h.

i was receiving bills consistently of around 11,500kwh per month usage and had been paying this non stop for 2 years. when i came to renew i had a little look over my bills and wondered if that figure was how much i was actually consuming.  there had been a 2 month period where we had been out of contract and they had shot our bills from around £3k per month up to £6.5k the next and then £11780 the next! 

so i called them to ask how they could justify that cost, were only a little workshop and i doubted we were using that energy.

i must say here that the company that was in the building before us was an engineering firm with a huge supply required so its a half hourly meter that we have. thus i dont need to send them readings, the meter sends the readings to them every half hour by means of a sim card inside it.

anyway, after some digging, British Gas tell me that my meter in fact is faulty and has not been sending them readings, they sheduled in an engineer to check the meter and fit a new one if required.

when he arrives ( a month later ) he tells me that the meter is reading correct, its just not sending them info, upon chatting to him and telling him our bills he tells me that in the whole 3 hours he was here, we'd not even used £10. he told me to request my readings.

so i call British gas and they tell me that they dont have any, the meter wasnt sending them the data thus they were giving me bills based on estimated usage. estimated on?? you guessed it - the previous tennants usage!

so weve wrote our readings down daily now for the past two months and turns out we use 100 (ish) kwh per day and had used a little over 5000kwh in two months.

5000kwh in two months, yet weve been paying 11500kwh PER MONTH for 2 years solid.  thats 9000kwh per month more than weve used. so theyve been overcharging us by 460% every single month for the whole 2 year contract.

given the fact were only a small business and given the fact that we are hospitality based, i feel that the expense and the stress of finding that money monthly has put us under a considerable amount of pressure to pay that month on month. 

2500 x 0.133p is only around £332.5 (plus all charges and taxes on top)  yet weve been paying £1530 + all charges monthly.

i asked them for compensation and they refused, so now i want to take it to the next stage 

any advice will be much appreciated

thanks

Allan

As a B2B contract your rights are more limited than a consumer situation. 

If there is heating in the winter then you would expect winter usage to be higher, but it would seem you have probably still over paid. Have you looked at your starting read from when you took over the premises, against where the meter is now and worked out how much you have actually used, then subtract what you have paid and you can work out the repayment. You are entitled to be billed correctly, from what you have said you would be entitled to get back your overpayments, which could be significant, or not, depending on winter usage with heating.

I am not sure you are entitled to any compensation and you are far less likely to get any as it is a business contract, especially as you appear to have not checked your billing and meter reads for several years so you will likely be deemed somewhat culpable. If I were you I would make sure your billing is now correct and that you get back any overpayments, probably as a credit on your account to cover what will be horrific energy price this winter, as a business you could be paying more than five times what your previous fixed unit rate was. 

Allan_luxous

We don't have electric  heating in the building as we have a joinery side to the business which has a big furnace/workshop heater which heats the whole building thus our consumption stays fairly similar throughout the year.

with regards to me being culpable, i disagree. BG told me that my meter was a half hourly smart meter and that i don't need to do anything as the meter sends them readings direct in real time so the bills were meant to be accurate. hence why they've never sent someone to read the meter

however given that the meter wasn't sending them readings, makes me wonder why they've never asked me to send a reading or sent someone to check until i highlighted the issue.

with regards to asking why I'm posting on here, I'm looking for advice, which is why in my title i asked for lawyer recommendations as this is a first for me

thanks 

razord

Allan_luxous said:

with regards to me being culpable, i disagree. BG told me that my meter was a half hourly smart meter and that i don't need to do anything as the meter sends them readings direct in real time so the bills were meant to be accurate. hence why they've never sent someone to read the meter

I think the issue is that, had you have read any of your bills, you'd have seen that wasn't the case... Even with a smart meter you are still responsible for checking your bills when issued.

Allan_luxous

it doesnt say on the bills that its an estimate.

only when i phoned them

there is no E on the bill next to consumption

Allan_luxous

As you can see here theres nothing to suggest its an estimated reading. only when i called them did they tell me

razord

Allan_luxous said:

it doesnt say on the bills that its an estimate.

only when i phoned them

there is no E on the bill next to consumption

That makes it a little more interesting then. I'd imagine you'd should be offered a small goodwill gesture if you set out all the facts. And obviously a refund for everything overpaid, which presumably they have already done?

pochase

The E would not be next to the used KWh, it will be next to the meter readings.

MattMattMattUK

Allan_luxous said:

We don't have electric  heating in the building as we have a joinery side to the business which has a big furnace/workshop heater which heats the whole building thus our consumption stays fairly similar throughout the year.

Ok, well that makes it good/easier then.

Do you have the meter reading from when you took over the premises and a meter reading for now, so you can work out your actual usage, compare it against any figure that they might suggest and work out by how much you have overpaid.

Allan_luxous said:

with regards to me being culpable, i disagree. BG told me that my meter was a half hourly smart meter and that i don't need to do anything as the meter sends them readings direct in real time so the bills were meant to be accurate. hence why they've never sent someone to read the meter

however given that the meter wasn't sending them readings, makes me wonder why they've never asked me to send a reading or sent someone to check until i highlighted the issue.

I said "somewhat culpable", which I would imagine that a reasonable person would agree you are, unless your meter reads say "our read" on the actual readings on that section of the bill. Even with a smart meter one is advised to check meters periodically.

Allan_luxous said:

with regards to asking why I'm posting on here, I'm looking for advice, which is why in my title i asked for lawyer recommendations as this is a first for me

You have two choices.

You can solve the issue you have, which is that you have overpaid based on estimated billing. That will generate a potentially large credit on your account, which will go some what to insulating you against the horrific energy costs you will face this winter, likely north of 50p per kWh on a business contract, possibly with a daily standing charge in the £2-4 range. They will also likely offer a "gesture of good will" in the £100-200 range. 

You can engage a lawyer which will cost thousands to try and gain you compensation which you will almost certainly not get. You will get the same amount of credit back, but you may well end up having to pay British Gas's costs. 

Compensation is not an "I want free money" situation, there has to be a quantifiable loss which you do not have as you will get the credit back and it is a B2B contract so has different terms and conditions, as well as a different regulatory framework when compared to consumer contracts.