Back-Billing Rule, No Gas bill from British Gas for 3 years

dave77238u38

Hi I’m looking for some advice with regards to the Back-billing Rule.

 

Back in 2019 British Gas upgraded both my electric and gas meters to smart meters (pre-pay)

Shortly after the instillation of these smart meters I was having an issue with the Gas meter that resulted in a Gas engineer attending my property to find the Newley installed gas meter was faulty and it required him to install another “smart” gas meter.

I noticed after few weeks that the gas meter was not asking to be topped-up, I checked the meter its self to fined the only info it was displaying was Meter Index and Gas Supply on.

I called British Gas and I was told that the new Gas meter was installed and set-up as a standard meter (no longer pre-pay) I was asked, if I was ok with this and I would be receiving a gas bill every quarter, I said its fine as I could not be bothered with this no more and at least my gas was working.

As time went on and on I had not received a gas bill in over a year, I logged onto my British gas online account to check if it was an online bill only but to my surprise my Gas account was still showing it as Pre-Pay?

So Here is my question, does the Back-billing Rule apply here, British Gas has not sent me a bill for nearly 3 years now, they set the meter up as a standard meter (not Pre-Pay), they did not update my online account to reflect the change.

I understand under the Back-Billing Rule a customer can’t be charged for gas or electricity used more than 12 months ago if you have not been correctly billed for it, or informed about it via a statement of account, before. 

The only info I have received from British gas is an “annual summery “which shows the amount of Gas consumed for that period and the amount in £s. But these summery's state “Don’t worry - this isn’t a bill. Its Just for your information.   

GingerTim

Did you supply British Gas with regular meter readings during this period?

elsien

Backbilling rules don’t apply if you’ve behaved obstructively or unreasonably.
No idea whether failing to provide readings or following up when you were fully aware you were not being billed falls into that category. 

When, to your surprise, you saw your meter was still showing as pre-pay, what did you do about it? 

I’m unclear whether you’ve given readings and they’ve not triggered a bill, or whether you’ve ignored the situation. 

wrf12345

In the old days, they would have sent the heavies around to check if you had bypassed the meter but that seems too much hassle now. If it is not prepay are you not seeing the amassed reading on it which should have started at zero if it was a new meter. 

pochase

Back billing rule might not apply if there are no meter readings. 

You got the information that it is a credit meter, meter readings are required. You write that after one year you realised that they did not bill because the meter seems to be listed somewhere still as prepaid, so different information in different databases, but did not report it. I am a bit unsure if that would qualify as actively making it impossible to get correct meter readings.

Is the new meter a smart meter? This is unlikely as a smart meter can be used as prepaid or credit meter, but you never know.

If back billing rules do not apply they can bill you for the last 6 years. You should as a minimum get a small compensation, and a payment plan so you don't have to pay all at once. Have you put money aside when you realised that you were not paying for your gas?

What is the current reading on the gas meter, so we can an idea how big a problem this might be.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

so if it was a new meter start reading would've been zero, what is it now?

dave77238u38

elsien said:

Backbilling rules don’t apply if you’ve behaved obstructively or unreasonably.
No idea whether failing to provide readings or following up when you were fully aware you were not being billed falls into that category. 

When, to your surprise, you saw your meter was still showing as pre-pay, what did you do about it? 

I’m unclear whether you’ve given readings and they’ve not triggered a bill, or whether you’ve ignored the situation. 

I have never been Obstructive or Unreasonable.

The meter was not "showing pre-pay" that's the point, it was suppose to be pre-pay.

What did I do? as mention in my post  "I called British Gas and I was told that the new Gas meter was installed and set-up as a standard meter (no longer pre-pay) I was asked, if I was ok with this and I would be receiving a gas bill every quarter, I said its fine as I could not be bothered with this no more and at least my gas was working".

dave77238u38

GingerTim said:

Did you supply British Gas with regular meter readings during this period?

I have never been asked to supply British gas with reading, Nor has anyone attended my property to take a reading.

the whole time I have been with British Gas (17 years) not once have they requested any reading, Nor have I provided a reading and no one has ever been around to take a reading.

This is mostly to do with the fact both electric and gas meter were pre-pay.

wild666

If the meter was set up as a smart credit meter then BG should have been able to read the meter without the customer giving readings to BG. I would say it's BG's fault that they haven't billed the customer and it says prepayment for the meter in the online account so back billing would be in place.

My SMETS 1 meters installed by BG in 2015 went dumb when I left them in 2018 but now the electric meter is read by Octopus but not the gas.

MWT

dave77238u38 said:

As time went on and on I had not received a gas bill in over a year, I logged onto my British gas online account to check if it was an online bill only but to my surprise my Gas account was still showing it as Pre-Pay?

Having noticed it was not set up correctly, it would have been appropriate and reasonable to call BG at that point and tell them, did that happen?

Odds are you will get away with not paying for what you have used in full, but I wouldn't advise sitting there in the full knowledge that there is an error on your account and continue to do nothing about it...

QrizB

Personally, based solely on the info in this thread, I think the restrictions on back-billing *will* apply here.

OP do contact BG and make them aware that they haven't billed you for three years.