Billed for 5 years of Gas at once!

mefabgirl

Hi I moved into a new build Dev 2017 where energy payments were paid by Taylor Wimpey for first few months as a good will gesture to some huge mistakes they made. I then started getting bills transferred in my name and paid without paying too much attention to be honest. About a year later I swapped from British Gas to Scottish Power and was told they couldn't transfer the gas as I don't exist on the National Gird database  no one had registered my mpan.
I've since been going in circles with Nat Grid and Scottish Power to be set up and got no where. I've never once received correspondence from British Gas. 
I've now just come home from work to find a letter from them charging me for 5 years worth of Gas and to be paid within a week. Absolutely no chance that is happening.
Can they do that though? Is there not a limit on back charge seeing as I've never heard a thing from them before.
Typically both them and the citizens advice bureau shut at 5 which is super helpful!! 😐

[Deleted User]

I don’t know enough about back billing to be sure, but it sounds odd to me.

There are people in here who know this topic better though, hopefully they will be along soon.

Mstty

Regardless of if you can get this down from 5 years to one year. Why weren't you putting the money aside for such a day.

tacpot12

Five years to sort this out, and you are upset you can't get the problem resolved on the day you decide to do something about it? I'm sorry, but you are not being reasonable, and that has to change if you expect Scottish Power to be reasonable with you.

You have presumably been saving some money towards this bill, and you should call Scottish Power tomorrow and offer to pay them what you have saved and set up a repayment plan for the rest, but I would check the bill first and see if you agree with the amount gas you have used, and the rate they have charged you.

It would be reasonable to complain about the rate they have used if it their standard tarrif for the time you have been with them, as you should have been able to change to another supplier in that time. However, if I worked at Scottish Power, I would be wondering why you hadn't made an official complaint, and gone to Ofgem with it. I think you will lose some money as a result of your inaction. A good compromise would be for you to pay the lowest tarrifs they offered during the periods; see if they will settle for this, if this is not what they have done already.

Good luck - approach the problem with an open mind and you might get a nice surprise. 

JohnPo

A few questions to the OP. 

Did you submit meter readings to anybody since you moved in or were there smart meters?

Did you ever get a bills in your own name from British Gas?  Did you make yourself known to to them as the occupant of the property and responsible for the bills before you tried to switch?

You have a gas bill now - what is the status of the electricity account, who is that with?

It sounds like your switch to Scottish Power never actually happened and the supply at your address remained with British Gas - possibly with correspondence going to Taylor Wimpey - just guessing!  Issues with MPAN numbers on new builds do happen unfortunately more often than you would expect.

For back billing rules to apply (i.e. you are not responsible for bills from more than 12 months ago) my understanding is that you have to have made an effort to have an account setup in your name and submitted meter readings and for the utility company not to have billed you.