Not being charged for our Gas via Direct debit

jonah80

We pay our Gas and Electricity via direct debit each month. We give monthly meter readings, but we aren't being charged for our gas use. We have more than £2000 in credit because of this. Should we just leave the credit in there in case they back date it and take it in one go (it has been about 7 months so far). As we are giving accurate readings can they only go back 1 year if they continue not charging us?

QrizB

Have you contacted your supplier and asked them about this?

jonah80

No, we haven't contacted them as we are waiting to see if they realise and we don't want to alert them. The money is there in the account if they come back on it, but we just wondered where we stand if they don't come back on it?

Robin9

Contact them - have details of meter serial number and a meter reading to hand. The longer you leave this the more confusing the situation becomes.

Cardew

Robin9 said:

Contact them - have details of meter serial number and a meter reading to hand. The longer you leave this the more confusing the situation becomes.

The OP seems to be indicating that if the present situation remains, he hopes that the 'back billing' provision will kick-in and he will not be liable for any gas consumed more than 12 months ago.

Usually this type of thread generates multiple posts on the morality of that approach.

Should the situation of no gas bills continue for over a year the decision should depend on if the OP had taken 'reasonable steps' to solve the situation. From multiple similar threads there would normally be a good chance of back-billing applying.

However that would be if the OP was presented with a massive bill putting his account in debit. As his account is £2,000+ in credit this wouldn't apply and if the error was discovered I suspect they would simply reduce his credit balance. 

Ally_E.

OP, if you want to wait it out, it's best to delete this thread as its evidence of you knowing something wasn't right and not acting on it 

macman

Back-billing regs will not apply if you have made no effort to contact the supplier and request a billing. So 'we don't want to alert them' is not going to work as a way of reducing the eventual catch up bill.
Since the cash is earning them interest rather than you, there is absolutely no advantage in letting this continue.

GaleSF63

Something has gone wrong at their end with adjusting the account but they are up to date in requesting the payment (DD) and applied it to the correct account. So does back-billing even come into it? 

jonah80

Thanks for all the replies. I am going to reduce my DD back down to about £100 from £400 at the moment to use up the credit and see if anything happens on my account. I will let you know on here if the situation is the same when we get to 1 year or if they have realised their mistake before then

jonah80

Ally_E. said:

OP, if you want to wait it out, it's best to delete this thread as its evidence of you knowing something wasn't right and not acting on it 

I am paying £400 a month in DD and sending monthly Gas metre readings. I certainly don't expect to get away with it but at the same time I won't be telling them about their mistake

jonah80

macman said:

Back-billing regs will not apply if you have made no effort to contact the supplier and request a billing. So 'we don't want to alert them' is not going to work as a way of reducing the eventual catch up bill.
Since the cash is earning them interest rather than you, there is absolutely no advantage in letting this continue.

I am supplying them with monthly metre readings, so I'll guess we will have to see