Advice on gas bill

Alnat1

Is there a hot water tank heated by gas that is set to heat by a timer or on constantly even though the heating is off? 

Mrbowie

I've just found d the earlier bill with the actual reading

la531983

..........

Gerry1

How was the water heated, was there a gas boiler?

When he stopped living there last January, what precautions did you take to stop the pipes from freezing?

molerat

Mrbowie said:

I've just found d the earlier bill with the actual reading

Still based on estimates and is the cut off for the changeover to the new system.  You need the bill before this one or any other that has an actual reading rather than estimated.  At the moment everything is in order unless you can come up with an erroneous reading.  Do you not have your own record of the date and reading ?  The only verified actual read so far is the 23 Dec one.

Kim_13

Possible that the thermostat was set quite high when he left and therefore that the heating kicks in more often than you would like. If no one’s been checking the property, you wouldn’t know that the boiler had been on until the bill landed. We turn ours down to 7.5 and only put it to 18 when we actually want the heating to go on - but it never gets there before we want to turn the heating off so it would keep running and running if we left it.

26638 has been listed both as an estimated reading the last read on the old billing system - it could have been an estimate on that system also, but without the previous bill we can’t say.

The meter might be faulty but there would be a charge unless a fault was found, so the new owners aren’t going to want to request a test unless they also feel that more gas is being billed for than they would reasonably expect.

Just noticed 01 01 2001 on the meter - what’s the usual life of a gas meter?

Gerry1

Kim_13 said:

Just noticed 01 01 2001 on the meter - what’s the usual life of a gas meter?

Still quite a young 'un: there are many older Imperial meters still in use.

Mobtr

Mrbowie said:

I've just found d the earlier bill with the actual reading

That’s not an actual reading, it’s just an estimate they have used when the account migrated from the old system to the new one. 

Looks like you paid £245.99 in August but again that was only up to the estimated reading up to 17 July. It really looks like this may have been estimated for a long time and you have now got a catch up bill 

QrizB

OP did you take a photo of the meter back in the summer? If you did, can you share it now?

Do you have a copy of the bill before the September one? The July bill?

Scot_39

There is no clear indication of an actual reading on that Jul to Sep - the July reading 26604 - on that earlier bill says it was estimated - so when exactly did you submit a meter reading and what was it ?

I can well believe the post above regarding ignoring submitted readings - Scottish Gas - ignored 2 family readings and 2 meter reader readings - all noted on the account notes - but never transferred over and used for billing - and mum's account ended up in a large debt as a result.

It's also curious  - but it looks the old bill is estimating you are using a larger amount of gas in an empty house (was this some adjusted reaction to start playing catch up from the meter reading you provided ? ) from Jul - Sep 23 - than in the same period as 2022 - 389 kWh vs 261 kWh - makes me wonder how long estimates have been in use.