British Gas not charging

JoeRidley1997

Hi,

Myself and my partner purchased our first home and got the keys back in May. We had a lot of work done to the house so only moved in in November, but before that we sorted our energy supply and switched from Eon that the previous occupants were using, to British Gas. 

As we had no electricity in the house through the summer we didn't really pay much attention to our bills and allowed the credit to accrue ready for the winter, once we finally moved in we noticed on our bills we weren't getting any electricity bills, so we contacted to British Gas over web chat to try and rectify this. They told us we should receive one in December and this was due to an error on their end. December came and went and still no bill, we contacted them twice more over the phone to solve these issues, the second time on the 21st December they told us we hadn't received a bill due to not sending in meter readings, but as we had sent one in December we should receive one in January, we wanted one sooner to try and fix a deal to avoid the rising costs coming in January. 

Again they told us they would try to get one before but told us we should definitely receive one in January. January's bills came in and again still no electric, I called up again, again they told us they were working on it and we should get one Monday (08/01/24). Still nothing so today I have called again and they have informed us that they aren't actually supplying our electricity hence no bills. 

We haven't received anything from EON either to say they are still supplying and a check online shows it is in fact British Gas supplying. The BG representative I spoke to on the phone accepted it was their fault for not setting up correctly and therefore if we were to leave we would receive all our credit back up to the latest billing date (I have an email stating the credit will be back in full but they don't have it in writing accepting responsibility).

If we do switch providers will BG be able to charge us for the electricity that they believe they aren't providing, and if not can anyone else? This is our first home so we are really worried we are about to get a whopping bill from an electricity supplier or even worse, a knock at the door from the police for fraud.

Would you advise we just switch suppliers and quietly slip away from BG?

MWT

JoeRidley1997 said:

We haven't received anything from EON either to say they are still supplying and a check online shows it is in fact British Gas supplying....

If we do switch providers will BG be able to charge us for the electricity that they believe they aren't providing, and if not can anyone else? This is our first home so we are really worried we are about to get a whopping bill from an electricity supplier or even worse, a knock at the door from the police for fraud.

Would you advise we just switch suppliers and quietly slip away from BG?

Given you have already checked that BG are your supplier and you are still within 12 months of the commencement of your supply, BG are fully entitled to bill you for the electricity used once they get them selves sorted out.

You can't 'quietly slip away' as the industry process involves both the losing and gaining supplier agreeing the meter reading for the transfer...

It is still possible that BG will mess things up and refund you even though they shouldn't, but they are allowed to reverse any refund in these circumstances so you are not safe to spend that money even if it does happen...

The only safe path is to continue to point out to BG that they are your supplier and be prepared to pay what you owe...

JoeRidley1997

MWT said:

JoeRidley1997 said:

We haven't received anything from EON either to say they are still supplying and a check online shows it is in fact British Gas supplying....

If we do switch providers will BG be able to charge us for the electricity that they believe they aren't providing, and if not can anyone else? This is our first home so we are really worried we are about to get a whopping bill from an electricity supplier or even worse, a knock at the door from the police for fraud.

Would you advise we just switch suppliers and quietly slip away from BG?

Given you have already checked that BG are your supplier and you are still within 12 months of the commencement of your supply, BG are fully entitled to bill you for the electricity used once they get them selves sorted out.

You can't 'quietly slip away' as the industry process involves both the losing and gaining supplier agreeing the meter reading for the transfer...

It is still possible that BG will mess things up and refund you even though they shouldn't, but they are allowed to reverse any refund in these circumstances so you are not safe to spend that money even if it does happen...

The only safe path is to continue to point out to BG that they are your supplier and be prepared to pay what you owe...

So if we leave BG once the supply is switched is when it's likely to find out the previous 6 months are uncharged?

BG also offered to set up the electricity again so if they do this will they then find out they were already supplying us and look to charge?

Thankfully we have a large amount in credit due to the tariff we signed up to, BG have accepted responsibility that this setup was done incorrectly, are we still liable?

MWT

JoeRidley1997 said:

So if we leave BG once the supply is switched is when it's likely to find out the previous 6 months are uncharged?

BG also offered to set up the electricity again so if they do this will they then find out they were already supplying us and look to charge?

Thankfully we have a large amount in credit due to the tariff we signed up to, BG have accepted responsibility that this setup was done incorrectly, are we still liable?

Yes you are still liable, typically the supplier may make a token gesture for poor service (around £50).

To what extent BG notice their mistakes remains uncertain, but the correct way to proceed is to get the account set up correctly with the right start date and opening readings from May. When you actually moved in has no real bearing on any of this.