can i sue british gas

Max1965

I have been a customer of British gas England for over 30 years

just over 12 months ago British Gas txt me to say i have outstanding bills, i contacted them and asked where my bill was as nothing has been posted to me. I was told that for some reason there had been a mistake on their end and my account had been altered to Email billing and that this would be corrected and i should receive my outstanding bills within 14 days, these never arrived. in fact i contacted them every time they txt me and this has gone on for 12 months before i finally received a bill for both my gas and electric. they then used an out of house firm of solicitors to harass me. I pointed out to these solicitors that British Gas had in fact broken the DPA by giving all my details to an out of house solicitors and i would be suing for compensation, together wit placing the account into legal dispute until such time as i was furnished with all the individual bills for the past 12 months that were never sent to me. they handed the account back to British Gas. However, British gas have now contacted credit reference agencies saying that i have missed payments and my credit score has dropped over 200 points.

I wrote to British gas again 3 weeks ago to point out all my points where they have failed and that i would be seeking legal action against them together with compensation, I also made an 'interim' payment of £500 towards each account.

Please can anyone help with advice and how i go about taking them to court

Brie

I would think you'd need bottomless pockets to take them to court so let's look at other options.

First - your credit score is meaningless as you're the only one that sees it.  Your credit history is what banks etc look at if they are considering giving you any credit.  If you're not after a new credit card or a mortgage then this isn't an issue right now.  I do think you might want to check your credit history to see if there's anything else there of concern.

Second - why hasn't BG sent you bills?  Likely because it's billing system seems to be a mess right now, you're not the first that has made similar complaints.  As for email billing - do you have an email account? Does BG know what that account is?  Could they have sent you something that perhaps went into a junk folder so you never saw it? 

When you eventually received your bill was if just for the previous 12 months or did it go back further?  It's possible they have incorrectly back billed you more than 12 months but this depends on whether you might have actually received the bill - even if it was not as expected, i.e. as an email.

When you received this bill did you pay it at all?  If not why not?  If it was simply as they had passed the bill to solicitors and so you were in a huff I'm not sure that would be a good defense for not paying a bill that was due.

So 3 weeks back you paid £500 to your gas account and another £500 to your electricity.  And complained.  Was this marked as a complaint and did they respond in any way to the fact that you had complained?  (again, checking your emails.)  Assuming it was by post there may of course have been a delay in them responding.

If they have not responded at all in any way then I would write again, clearly marking it as a complaint and that they need to respond within 8 weeks.  If they have not replied by then you can then forward your complaint to the energy ombudsman.  

phillw

Have you made a complaint? Not just complained, but gone through an official complaints procedure (you have to say "I want to make a complaint")

If you did and you weren't happy, then you go to the ombudsman? 

A court will ask you these things and then tell you to do them.

MeteredOut

Yes, you can sue anyone you want. Whether you have a chance or winning depends on what the issue is, and that's not clear from your post. What is your claim based on? 

First thing to do: get your account in a clear state of affairs. Do you have a bill (or set of bills) based on actual readings, so you know how much energy you have used? And do you know how much of those bills are outstanding? 

If not, get these from BG. If a complaint is not already open, get one made, and then take it to the Energy Ombudsman if not resolved within 8 weeks.

Also read into back-billing rules; if BG have not billed you, you may be able to ask them to write of any unpaid energy usage prior to 12 months to the bill they eventually provide you. 

Alnat1

Due to a mix up when changing to the new system, BG have emailed you each month to notify when a bill is available to view on your online account but because you would prefer to have a hard copy sent through the post you have ignored the emails and simply decided not to pay the bills.

You eventually asked for hard copies of the bills and when received decided you would only pay £500 off the gas and £500 off the electricity, despite knowing exactly how much you owed. BG eventually passed the debt to collectors.

This is how I see what has happened and possibly how a court would see it too.

fatbelly

You can use the ombudsman then court, but not the other way around.

Suggest you do so.

Max1965

right,
1, i have checked all my emails and the only thing to come through from British gas in the past years has been marketing info and definatley no invoice/s
2, i contacted them numerous times from when i first got a txt stating my bill was outstanding and they will have recordings of these conversations. they admitted that it was their fault and they would send out paper bills but never did. i even chased this up numerous times
3, the only bill i have had from them in the last 12 months was allegedly for the 1/4 (3 month period) but was actually invoiced for the entire outstanding amount from last 12 months. this does not show and additional charges such as late payment fees or admin fees. this is why i asked for ALL the bills (4 x 1/4 period)
4, they have broken the D.P.A. by handing all my personal information to an out of house contractor (solicitors) to contact me. The solicitors are well aware of the law and this is why they handed the account back to British gas.
5, the account was put into 'Legal Dispute' at the same time, which means that until such time as the dispute is setted then no one can take any further action on the account and this includes contacting credit reference agencies or bailiffs.
6, with reference to my credit history, it has been climbing as i have been working very hard to make sure everything is paid on time and was well in excess of the British average score.

born_again

DPA will not have been broken. This is covered in the T/C & non payment of bills & the ability to pass to 3rd parties (Agents) to collect funds.
That is a non starter, so best forget about it.

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/gas-and-electricity/supply-terms-and-conditions.html

What happens if you owe us money 21.
 If you don’t pay us money you owe (even if it’s from a different contract with us or for a different property), we and our agents will contact you to recover the money. You agree we can: • Change how often we provide your bills • Use a deposit that you’ve paid us or ask you for one • Ask you to use a different payment method, for example prepayment • If you pay by prepayment, add what you owe us to the meter at your property, which you pay back by adding extra credit when you top up • Use money you’ve paid us under another contract or account, even if that account is for a different property • Use money that we owe you (for example any credit balance you have with us) • Sell your debt to a third party. We’ll decide how your payments or credits will pay off what you owe. For example, we could pay off your oldest bills first or pay off any other costs you owe us. Or, if you have separate electricity and gas accounts, we can use any overpayment on one account to pay some or all your debt on the other account.

dunstonh

I pointed out to these solicitors that British Gas had in fact broken the DPA by giving all my details to an out of house solicitors and i would be suing for compensation

That is not a breach of the data protection act.   Third parties are allowed to be supplied information in a range of areas in most walks of life and their data protection notice will cover it.

I wrote to British gas again 3 weeks ago to point out all my points where they have failed and that i would be seeking legal action against them together with compensation, I also made an 'interim' payment of £500 towards each account.

By only making a part payment, you have left yourself open for reporting on the credit record.

You haven't mentioned anything about making a complaint and the response to that complaint.   If you have failed to complain, then going straight to legal action will be viewed poorly on you by the courts.  Indeed, they may decide to refuse to consider your case.

MattMattMattUK

Max1965 said:

right,
1, i have checked all my emails and the only thing to come through from British gas in the past years has been marketing info and definatley no invoice/s

They do not email invoices, they make them available in your online account. 

Max1965 said:

2, i contacted them numerous times from when i first got a txt stating my bill was outstanding and they will have recordings of these conversations. they admitted that it was their fault and they would send out paper bills but never did. i even chased this up numerous times

I very much doubt that they admitted that it was their fault and in reality that does to change that you have to pay the bills.

Max1965 said:

3, the only bill i have had from them in the last 12 months was allegedly for the 1/4 (3 month period) but was actually invoiced for the entire outstanding amount from last 12 months. this does not show and additional charges such as late payment fees or admin fees. this is why i asked for ALL the bills (4 x 1/4 period)

They could issue one bill that covers all usage, they are not required to issue quarterly bills. 

Max1965 said:

4, they have broken the D.P.A. by handing all my personal information to an out of house contractor (solicitors) to contact me. The solicitors are well aware of the law and this is why they handed the account back to British gas.

They have not, they are allowed to use your information in that way. The solicitors handed it back because they viewed it as a billing dispute, not a debt collection issue. 

Max1965 said:

5, the account was put into 'Legal Dispute' at the same time, which means that until such time as the dispute is setted then no one can take any further action on the account and this includes contacting credit reference agencies or bailiffs.

What do you mean by "legal dispute", you mention you did this above, but that is not something that exists in law that you can just apply on a whim. This is not something that exists.

Max1965 said:

6, with reference to my credit history, it has been climbing as i have been working very hard to make sure everything is paid on time and was well in excess of the British average score.

You mentioned credit rating and score, both are meaningless and do not matter. 

DullGreyGuy

Max1965 said:
4. they have broken the D.P.A. by handing all my personal information to an out of house contractor (

(solicitors) to contact me. The solicitors are well aware of the law and this is why they handed the account back to British gas.

5, the account was put into 'Legal Dispute' at the same time, which means that until such time as the dispute is setted then no one can take any further action on the account and this includes contacting credit reference agencies or bailiffs.

4. you grossly misunderstand the DPA/GDPR. You can see their privacy notice here which correctly states that they will share your data with those outside of their group for the purposes of debt recovery and debt sale. Even if it wasnt in the Privacy Notice it almost certainly could be justified to the ICO that there was a legitimate business need to perform debt recovery using outside parties. 

The solicitors most likely chuckled at your poor knowledge but sent it back to BG because its a disputed debt not just a cant pay situation 


5. Again you are incorrect, all of the above continue to process and deal with matters whilst you dispute the debt... were there any truth in your thoughts things could be perpetually frustrated by someone just claiming its in "legal dispute". 



To answer the original question, anyone can sue anyone. How you do it will depend what you are wanting the court to do.... award compensation of under £100,000? Then you use the Money Claim Online tool to initiate the claim. Give an injunction for them to write off the debt? Then you need to complete a N1 form and send it to the courts. 

Just be aware that judges have a high level of discretion and can decide that the claimant has to cover the defendants cost even if the claimant wins or if it goes to Small Track etc if they believe the claimant has been unreasonable and not followed due process. Given your illustrated lack of understanding of the law to date it feels this is a bigger risk than most posters here