British Gas Lite - Charging Business Rates on a Residential Property

pottski

BarelySentientAI said:

pottski said:

Thanks for the reply. I moved into the property so obviously inherited the existing supplier which happened to be a business supplier. I have been billed the correct usage in terms of KWH but the rates are for Business Customers - I am not a business so how can I be charged business rates? Surely British Gas Lite should have moved be to British Gas from day 1 rather than it taking 20 days to move to British Gas (residential). How can it be fair that I was charged standing charges that are x4 for elec and x2 for gas - all because the previous owner chose to put their energy through their business, at their residential home? Your reply states if I have been charged on the right tariff then it is correct, I do not own a business so how can a business tariff be correct?

Because you don't need to own a business to have a business electricity tariff.

And the supplier shouldn't be guessing whether you want a business tariff or not.  It's your job to tell them. 

Just like it's your job to find out who the supplier is when you move in, and decide whether the tariff that you are on is right for you or not, even amongst residential tariffs.

I did tell them on day 1 when I moved in that I did not require a business tariff, as I did not run or own a business. They took 20 days to switch it to British Gas (Residential) despite being told it would take 5 working days. Out of interest, what other circumstances would you pay business rates, if you didn't own a business? 

Like I said previously, the form from the solicitors stated it was British Gas (not British Gas Lite) so I didn't think anything of it. 

For the sake of £150 it obviously isn't worth taking further but I had hoped that I would have some claim to be charged residential rates, under the circumstances. 

Hoenir

pottski said:

BarelySentientAI said:

pottski said:

Thanks for the reply. I moved into the property so obviously inherited the existing supplier which happened to be a business supplier. I have been billed the correct usage in terms of KWH but the rates are for Business Customers - I am not a business so how can I be charged business rates? Surely British Gas Lite should have moved be to British Gas from day 1 rather than it taking 20 days to move to British Gas (residential). How can it be fair that I was charged standing charges that are x4 for elec and x2 for gas - all because the previous owner chose to put their energy through their business, at their residential home? Your reply states if I have been charged on the right tariff then it is correct, I do not own a business so how can a business tariff be correct?

Because you don't need to own a business to have a business electricity tariff.

And the supplier shouldn't be guessing whether you want a business tariff or not.  It's your job to tell them. 

Just like it's your job to find out who the supplier is when you move in, and decide whether the tariff that you are on is right for you or not, even amongst residential tariffs.

Like I said previously, the form from the solicitors stated it was British Gas (not British Gas Lite) so I didn't think anything of it. 

The information was provider by the seller. Who as an executor wasn't aware of the finer details. End of the day everybody needs to perform their own due diligence and be realistic in their time expectatations of matters being dealt with. 

BarelySentientAI

pottski said:

BarelySentientAI said:

pottski said:

Thanks for the reply. I moved into the property so obviously inherited the existing supplier which happened to be a business supplier. I have been billed the correct usage in terms of KWH but the rates are for Business Customers - I am not a business so how can I be charged business rates? Surely British Gas Lite should have moved be to British Gas from day 1 rather than it taking 20 days to move to British Gas (residential). How can it be fair that I was charged standing charges that are x4 for elec and x2 for gas - all because the previous owner chose to put their energy through their business, at their residential home? Your reply states if I have been charged on the right tariff then it is correct, I do not own a business so how can a business tariff be correct?

Because you don't need to own a business to have a business electricity tariff.

And the supplier shouldn't be guessing whether you want a business tariff or not.  It's your job to tell them. 

Just like it's your job to find out who the supplier is when you move in, and decide whether the tariff that you are on is right for you or not, even amongst residential tariffs.

I did tell them on day 1 when I moved in that I did not require a business tariff, as I did not run or own a business. They took 20 days to switch it to British Gas (Residential) despite being told it would take 5 working days. Out of interest, what other circumstances would you pay business rates, if you didn't own a business? 

Like I said previously, the form from the solicitors stated it was British Gas (not British Gas Lite) so I didn't think anything of it. 

For the sake of £150 it obviously isn't worth taking further but I had hoped that I would have some claim to be charged residential rates, under the circumstances. 

They've been pretty quick about the switch compared to many.  5 days is the guaranteed switching time from residential to residential.  If you had a business tariff, your meter might have been marked with profile class 0 and this would need to be modified in the national database before any residential tariff was even possible.

Changes to the national database take 2 - 4 weeks to complete (if everything works) Given that, 20 days to convert your database entry and complete a switch seems pretty reasonable.

Part and parcel of moving property is that you end up on a tariff you didn't choose until you decide to switch away.  Nobody can do that for you.  "The circumstances" is that you didn't check (likely because you believed the information from the solicitor, which is sensible), and then they processed the change according to standard industry timings once you asked to change, which seems to have work first time without any problems.  Nothing in that is the suppliers fault, so there are no circumstances by which you should be entitled to get a back-dated tariff switch.

They shouldn't have told you "5 working days" though, because that was almost never going to be possible.