Back billing query 12 January at 4:57PM in Energy 4 replies 169 views

BW1990

Hi all

I am at the end of my tether with British Gas' customer service. 

Moved into a new build property in June last year. The property had smart meters installed already. 

I contacted British Gas immediately on moving in to advise of meter readings and to register everything. Someone came out to connect up an IHD and ever since then the IHD has been showing my daily/ weekly and monthly usage - for both gas and electricity. 

My electricity account is working fine - sending readings to British Gas. 

My gas account has still not been set up. The British Gas app can't advise me of what my usage is (yet the IHD can?!), no meter readings are being sent to British Gas that I can see, and I can't adjust my direct debit unless I ring British Gas to do so. I expect given I officially don't have a gas account with them yet, I won't be receiving bills in due course. 

I have rung/ messaged British Gas over the past 6 months several times to enquire as to progress and every time I get fobbed off/ told it's with a technical team and it'll be sorted 'next week'. 
 
I don't see why I should continue to waste my time chasing them. I currently pay £100 a month into my gas account as a direct debit; so I hope there won't be any shock charges when they do eventually 'fix' things.  

My question - am I right in thinking that if they do not bill me for my gas usage until after a year from move in has passed, that I won't have to pay for the period of time from moving in to the start of the previous 12 month period - eg. if they finally sort this out in their own time say by September 2023, I would only have to pay for my gas usage from September 2022 - September 2023, and the period from June 2022 (when I moved in) to September 2022 they can't charge for? 

Thanks

MattMattMattUK

BW1990 said:

Hi all

I am at the end of my tether with British Gas' customer service. 

Moved into a new build property in June last year. The property had smart meters installed already. 

I contacted British Gas immediately on moving in to advise of meter readings and to register everything. Someone came out to connect up an IHD and ever since then the IHD has been showing my daily/ weekly and monthly usage - for both gas and electricity. 

My electricity account is working fine - sending readings to British Gas. 

My gas account has still not been set up. The British Gas app can't advise me of what my usage is (yet the IHD can?!), no meter readings are being sent to British Gas that I can see, and I can't adjust my direct debit unless I ring British Gas to do so. I expect given I officially don't have a gas account with them yet, I won't be receiving bills in due course. 

I have rung/ messaged British Gas over the past 6 months several times to enquire as to progress and every time I get fobbed off/ told it's with a technical team and it'll be sorted 'next week'. 
 
I don't see why I should continue to waste my time chasing them. I currently pay £100 a month into my gas account as a direct debit; so I hope there won't be any shock charges when they do eventually 'fix' things.  

My question - am I right in thinking that if they do not bill me for my gas usage until after a year from move in has passed, that I won't have to pay for the period of time from moving in to the start of the previous 12 month period - eg. if they finally sort this out in their own time say by September 2023, I would only have to pay for my gas usage from September 2022 - September 2023, and the period from June 2022 (when I moved in) to September 2022 they can't charge for? 

Thanks

If you have the meter reads you submitted then you can very easily calculate exactly how much it will cost you.

BW1990

MattMattMattUK said:

If you have the meter reads you submitted then you can very easily calculate exactly how much it will cost you.

Thanks for coming back to me. 

Yes, I appreciate that. My question relates to back billing and whether they are allowed to bill me in the event this is not sorted by June this year. 

70sbudgie

I understand that they can back bill you for up to two years.

I would recommend taking a meter reading at least every time your tariff changes. Then it will be very easy to calculate how much you owe them when they finally sort themselves out. If you have already given them your moving in reading, you don't want them to estimate the change of tariff readings.

Reed_Richards

BW1990 said:

My question - am I right in thinking that if they do not bill me for my gas usage until after a year from move in has passed, that I won't have to pay for the period of time from moving in to the start of the previous 12 month period - eg. if they finally sort this out in their own time say by September 2023, I would only have to pay for my gas usage from September 2022 - September 2023, and the period from June 2022 (when I moved in) to September 2022 they can't charge for? 

My understanding is that this is correct but only if you do everything you can to persuade them to bill you.  This would include supplying regular (monthly?) meter readings and probably also regular (monthly?) reminders to them to resolve the billing issue.

I think they can subtract the £100 monthly payments you make from their bill when they finally produce one so back billing would only ever apply to any excess over that.  So in your example, what they might not be able to charge you for is any excess over the £400 you paid by direct debit between June 2022 and September 2022.  But I could be wrong; it's a grey area.