Business gas prices on residential property

Robin9

OP  -  any issues with the Electric ?

InvertedVee

Check that they're only charging you 5% VAT. In a previous property I paid 20% VAT on a business tariff before checking with the supplier. They wouldn't change the account from business to residential but they did apply the lower rate of VAT.

Robin9

InvertedVee said:

Check that they're only charging you 5% VAT. In a previous property I paid 20% VAT on a business tariff before checking with the supplier. They wouldn't change the account from business to residential but they did apply the lower rate of VAT.

Did you then manage to change suppliers without penalty and end up on a domestic tariff ?

_blueberry_

If you didn’t contact them & just used the gas assuming a deemed contract would suffice then that’s entirely your issue. 

It’s a bit like willingly eating in a restaurant that displays no prices & then being outraged when the bill shows up much higher than you were prepared to pay. 

Not quite - when we moved in all suppliers were more or less at the price cap.  If the restaurant had to follow a max price policy and didn't thats not a customers issue.

_blueberry_

Robin9 said:

OP  -  any issues with the Electric ?

Actually they too initially had us on a business tariff but called them and they switched us over during the call.

_blueberry_

InvertedVee said:

Check that they're only charging you 5% VAT. In a previous property I paid 20% VAT on a business tariff before checking with the supplier. They wouldn't change the account from business to residential but they did apply the lower rate of VAT.

Good point, will check!  Thanks.  I recall it was 20%.

Novice_investor101

_blueberry_ said:

If you didn’t contact them & just used the gas assuming a deemed contract would suffice then that’s entirely your issue. 

It’s a bit like willingly eating in a restaurant that displays no prices & then being outraged when the bill shows up much higher than you were prepared to pay. 

Not quite - when we moved in all suppliers were more or less at the price cap.  If the restaurant had to follow a max price policy and didn't thats not a customers issue.

This supplier clearly wasn’t, though. That’s very bad luck. 

Definitely check the vat amount charged. 

_blueberry_

Just for everybody's info here - the ombudsman agreed that as far as the consumer is concerned, this slips between the cracks and is unfair.  However, after quite a long time deliberating and escalating, she had unfortunately come to the conclusion that the supplier had followed the process and could not be penalised for it. 

However, given they were unhelpful and slow in resolving the situation, they awarded me with a good will payment which covers the difference and a little more.  I suspect the amount awarded was enhanced to cover the costs I paid - but the case handler did not mention this explicitly.

For anyone landing here with the same issue, it is worth trying the ombudsman, they were super helpful and understanding.

[Deleted User]

_blueberry_ said:

Just for everybody's info here - the ombudsman agreed that as far as the consumer is concerned, this slips between the cracks and is unfair.  However, after quite a long time deliberating and escalating, she had unfortunately come to the conclusion that the supplier had followed the process and could not be penalised for it. 

However, given they were unhelpful and slow in resolving the situation, they awarded me with a good will payment which covers the difference and a little more.  I suspect the amount awarded was enhanced to cover the costs I paid - but the case handler did not mention this explicitly.

For anyone landing here with the same issue, it is worth trying the ombudsman, they were super helpful and understanding.

Thanks for taking the time to update this - pleased you got a reasonable outcome :-)