Being taking to court for extortionate Gas and Electric bill - please help.

MikeJXE

Looking at the old readings 1st July 23 all estimated and if assumed correct

You have used approx 22,400 kWh Gas, average for your house is 17.000

You have used approx 7.000 kWh Electric average is 4,100 

For this period SC should be correct, usage will depend on accuracy of the estimates and the rates at the time during the cap

The best I can say is if they were taking direct debits as they were before something is very wrong 

cannugec5

For electricity the estimate they have billed you for is higher than the reading you are saying for today. 

I would you suggest accurate readings tomorrow so they can re- issue with accurate bills. ( Personally I submit readings on the last day of the month, every month to make it easy to remember). 

I’m not sure what your actions should be regarding the “claim”. 

I hope others could give appropriate advice. 

I think that at the very least you should contact BG, stating that you dispute the amount owed and to cease debt recovery while it is investigated. 

I think it might also be useful to contact your Bank and see if they are able to give you a list of all transactions to British Gas in the past 2 years ( unless you can get that from your own online account) The payment in July is helpful, but when was the last before that etc. 

What, if any, communication about this ‘debt’ have you received prior to the letter from BW Legal -  ‘claim’? 

Have you made a formal complaint to BG - actually titled “complaint”. If so you can go to the ombudsman after 8 weeks if necessary. 

MikeJXE

cannugec5 said:

For electricity the estimate they have billed you for is higher than the reading you are saying for today. 

I would you suggest accurate readings tomorrow so they can re- issue with accurate bills. ( Personally I submit readings on the last day of the month, every month to make it easy to remember). 

I’m not sure what your actions should be regarding the “claim”. 

I hope others could give appropriate advice. 

I think that at the very least you should contact BG, stating that you dispute the amount owed and to cease debt recovery while it is investigated. 

I think it might also be useful to contact your Bank and see if they are able to give you a list of all transactions to British Gas in the past 2 years ( unless you can get that from your own online account) The payment in July is helpful, but when was the last before that etc. 

What, if any, communication about this ‘debt’ have you received prior to the letter from BW Legal -  ‘claim’? 

Have you made a formal complaint to BG - actually titled “complaint”. If so you can go to the ombudsman after 8 weeks if necessary. 

I think you will find the reading went round the clock 

cannugec5

MikeJXE said:

cannugec5 said:

For electricity the estimate they have billed you for is higher than the reading you are saying for today. 

I would you suggest accurate readings tomorrow so they can re- issue with accurate bills. ( Personally I submit readings on the last day of the month, every month to make it easy to remember). 

I’m not sure what your actions should be regarding the “claim”. 

I hope others could give appropriate advice. 

I think that at the very least you should contact BG, stating that you dispute the amount owed and to cease debt recovery while it is investigated. 

I think it might also be useful to contact your Bank and see if they are able to give you a list of all transactions to British Gas in the past 2 years ( unless you can get that from your own online account) The payment in July is helpful, but when was the last before that etc. 

What, if any, communication about this ‘debt’ have you received prior to the letter from BW Legal -  ‘claim’? 

Have you made a formal complaint to BG - actually titled “complaint”. If so you can go to the ombudsman after 8 weeks if necessary. 

I think you will find the reading went round the clock 

Sorry I should have been clearer. I was looking at the first bill posted, with estimated usage as of June 2024. That gives a higher electricity reading than today . It surely hasn’t gone that far round the clock in a couple of months? 

But, although there is clearly something amiss here what should the OP do about the Official Court letter? To be honest I was expecting it to be an empty threat, but it does show the court stamp, so I’m guessing should not be ignored. 

BarelySentientAI

cannugec5 said:

MikeJXE said:

cannugec5 said:

For electricity the estimate they have billed you for is higher than the reading you are saying for today. 

I would you suggest accurate readings tomorrow so they can re- issue with accurate bills. ( Personally I submit readings on the last day of the month, every month to make it easy to remember). 

I’m not sure what your actions should be regarding the “claim”. 

I hope others could give appropriate advice. 

I think that at the very least you should contact BG, stating that you dispute the amount owed and to cease debt recovery while it is investigated. 

I think it might also be useful to contact your Bank and see if they are able to give you a list of all transactions to British Gas in the past 2 years ( unless you can get that from your own online account) The payment in July is helpful, but when was the last before that etc. 

What, if any, communication about this ‘debt’ have you received prior to the letter from BW Legal -  ‘claim’? 

Have you made a formal complaint to BG - actually titled “complaint”. If so you can go to the ombudsman after 8 weeks if necessary. 

I think you will find the reading went round the clock 

Sorry I should have been clearer. I was looking at the first bill posted, with estimated usage as of June 2024. That gives a higher electricity reading than today . It surely hasn’t gone that far round the clock in a couple of months? 

But, although there is clearly something amiss here what should the OP do about the Official Court letter? To be honest I was expecting it to be an empty threat, but it does show the court stamp, so I’m guessing should not be ignored. 

As I noted earlier - electricity charges look to be a couple of hundred pounds too high because of the estimates, and the gas looks plausible.

That still leaves a debt near £4500 because there haven't been any payments onto the account since April 2023.

The missing payments are the issue, not the readings.

And you're right, this isn't one of the chancer's letters.  This is a proper court claim asking for an acknowledgement and giving time to prepare the defence before the court date.  Finding out where the payments have gone (because we know there have been payments based on the bank records) will be a big part of that defence.

LuisDiaz

cannugec5 said:

For electricity the estimate they have billed you for is higher than the reading you are saying for today. 

I would you suggest accurate readings tomorrow so they can re- issue with accurate bills. ( Personally I submit readings on the last day of the month, every month to make it easy to remember). 

I’m not sure what your actions should be regarding the “claim”. 

I hope others could give appropriate advice. 

I think that at the very least you should contact BG, stating that you dispute the amount owed and to cease debt recovery while it is investigated. 

I think it might also be useful to contact your Bank and see if they are able to give you a list of all transactions to British Gas in the past 2 years ( unless you can get that from your own online account) The payment in July is helpful, but when was the last before that etc. 

What, if any, communication about this ‘debt’ have you received prior to the letter from BW Legal -  ‘claim’? 

Have you made a formal complaint to BG - actually titled “complaint”. If so you can go to the ombudsman after 8 weeks if necessary. 

Hello again everyone and thanks very much for all your helpful insight and advice, I really do appreciate it.

In terms of next steps, should I contact British Gas again and dispute what they are saying, as you correctly stated, the amount is certainly in question and also, where have all my DDs been going ? 

The fact that BS messed up the entire DD, which was setup and running for years successfully,  when they migrated my account from the now old system to the new system, is that not mitigation enough as this looks to be the root cause of the issue ?

My bill statements for the last few years, which I read today, clearly show I was in credit with my account with BS but later this all changed and is it a coincidence during the time they, BS, changed thier systems ?

And when I did make contact with them beginning of this year, they set me up on a new deal - those payments look to have been taken by them, though I do need to check for the other statements, but where have all those payments gone ? And why was the entire debt thing not shut down then, when they set me up on a new deal ? Why have they now decided to start this entire claims thing.

I am honestly just shocked ... they have driven me to the edge and if I had not posted on this forum and if you guys had not responded to me...I really dont know what would have happened....you've given me some much needed support.

I honestly dont know what, if any, BS had sent to me in regards to ''debt'' but if you look at the statements, example below, theyve taken £2224 from me in 6 months ?? this is surely excessive payments ?? Am I reading that correctly, CR means in credit...so money BS have taken from my account ? 

HillStreetBlues

BarelySentientAI said:

As I noted earlier - electricity charges look to be a couple of hundred pounds too high because of the estimates, and the gas looks plausible.

That still leaves a debt near £4500 because there haven't been any payments onto the account since April 2023.

The missing payments are the issue, not the readings.

And you're right, this isn't one of the chancer's letters.  This is a proper court claim asking for an acknowledgement and giving time to prepare the defence before the court date.  Finding out where the payments have gone (because we know there have been payments based on the bank records) will be a big part of that defence.

I  agree it's the payments that's the issue.
If the OP has been making monthly payments from their bank account then I feel that's what needs to be proved to the court.
I don't see  the OP has to show where it have gone as a DD is a pull from their bank. So by showing the debit from the bank account shows BG has taken it.

BarelySentientAI

LuisDiaz said:

I honestly dont know what, if any, BS had sent to me in regards to ''debt'' but if you look at the statements, example below, theyve taken £2224 from me in 6 months ?? this is surely excessive payments ?? Am I reading that correctly, CR means in credit...so money BS have taken from my account ? 

On that statement they had taken £2224 from your account.  You also used £2440 worth of energy (although it was on estimates because you haven't been giving meter readings).

At the start of the statement you were in £386 of credit.  By the end of the statement you were in £170 of credit.

Paying not quite enough to cover what you used is certainly not excessive payments.

LuisDiaz

BarelySentientAI said:

LuisDiaz said:

I honestly dont know what, if any, BS had sent to me in regards to ''debt'' but if you look at the statements, example below, theyve taken £2224 from me in 6 months ?? this is surely excessive payments ?? Am I reading that correctly, CR means in credit...so money BS have taken from my account ? 

On that statement they had taken £2224 from your account.  You also used £2440 worth of energy (although it was on estimates because you haven't been giving meter readings).

At the start of the statement you were in £386 of credit.  By the end of the statement you were in £170 of credit.

Paying not quite enough to cover what you used is certainly not excessive payments.

Is it because, Ive actually used that much more of electricity and gas (which I dont know how I could have) or because they have pushed their prices up, even though I was on a fixed rate (at least I believe I was) ?

and, do you think from what you have seen, the £2224 is part of the debt they are now requesting ? or are the 2 not related ?

BarelySentientAI

LuisDiaz said:

BarelySentientAI said:

LuisDiaz said:

I honestly dont know what, if any, BS had sent to me in regards to ''debt'' but if you look at the statements, example below, theyve taken £2224 from me in 6 months ?? this is surely excessive payments ?? Am I reading that correctly, CR means in credit...so money BS have taken from my account ? 

On that statement they had taken £2224 from your account.  You also used £2440 worth of energy (although it was on estimates because you haven't been giving meter readings).

At the start of the statement you were in £386 of credit.  By the end of the statement you were in £170 of credit.

Paying not quite enough to cover what you used is certainly not excessive payments.

Is it because, Ive actually used that much more of electricity and gas (which I dont know how I could have) or because they have pushed their prices up, even though I was on a fixed rate (at least I believe I was) ?

and, do you think from what you have seen, the £2224 is part of the debt they are now requesting ? or are the 2 not related ?

No, I think that money is before any of the debt.  And based on the readings you have given us, the estimates seem close enough to represent real usage.  Plus, given that there are actual readings on the bills from early 2024, any overpayment back then will have meant less debt now.  Actual readings make things catch up.

The debt seems to start somewhere between May and September 2023 (see how the CR disappears from the balance?).  That's when the direct debit payments suddenly disappear from the bills.