Anomalously high gas bill - from British Gas

Gerry1

Here are some better calculators.

Gas Volume to kWh (rounded to 1kWh)

Gas Volume to kWh (option to show bill)

edels

Since British Gas has admitted the reading anomaly but is still demanding payment, you can escalate the complaint to the Energy Ombudsman

Petriix

Personally I'd be taking them to court (or letting them take you to court), but there are a number of ducks you'd have to get in a row first. Ultimately it's pretty simple: they're trying to charge you for usage which isn't practically possible. In order to prove the alleged debt they would need to prove the impossible usage. 

If it happened in my house I'd be collating data from my smart thermostat and water meter to demonstrate the real level of usage. I could easily show that it wasn't possible. Are you able to do that? 

The complication is in trying to rule out the usage having happened over a longer period of time. I'm still suspicious of some (or all) of those older 'actual' readings. It would be interesting to see what evidence you personally have of actual readings prior to the erroneous switch. 

They can claim that you owe them the money as long as they like but, until they can actually prove it (in court), you don't have to pay. Debt collectors can't actually take anything without a court order, and those can only be obtained with a court judgement against you. I'd be confident that no such order could be obtained as long as you are able to provide evidence refuting the alleged debt. 

TroubledTarts

What size is your boiler in kWh?

What flow temp is your boiler set to?

What hours do you set your boiler to be heating?

What temperature do you set the house to reach?

What hours do you heat your hot water (if you have a cylinder)

What temperature do you set your hot water to?

CazeryBird

TroubledTarts said:

What size is your boiler in kWh?

What flow temp is your boiler set to?

What hours do you set your boiler to be heating?

What temperature do you set the house to reach?

What hours do you heat your hot water (if you have a cylinder)

What temperature do you set your hot water to?

I'll need to check the top few. I think the boiler is 28kWh.

The thermostat is set to 17 during the day and 18 at night (18.5 if it's a particularly chilly night). Hot water at 45⁰ (I like it lower but my partner loves it hotter).
Thermostat position in the main bedroom as we need to maintain this rooms temp for the babys naps. We don't use rads downstairs really (living room doesn't have one anyway) as we have two log burners there.

CazeryBird

Petriix said:

Personally I'd be taking them to court (or letting them take you to court), but there are a number of ducks you'd have to get in a row first. Ultimately it's pretty simple: they're trying to charge you for usage which isn't practically possible. In order to prove the alleged debt they would need to prove the impossible usage. 

If it happened in my house I'd be collating data from my smart thermostat and water meter to demonstrate the real level of usage. I could easily show that it wasn't possible. Are you able to do that? 

The complication is in trying to rule out the usage having happened over a longer period of time. I'm still suspicious of some (or all) of those older 'actual' readings. It would be interesting to see what evidence you personally have of actual readings prior to the erroneous switch. 

They can claim that you owe them the money as long as they like but, until they can actually prove it (in court), you don't have to pay. Debt collectors can't actually take anything without a court order, and those can only be obtained with a court judgement against you. I'd be confident that no such order could be obtained as long as you are able to provide evidence refuting the alleged debt. 

Petriix said:

Personally I'd be taking them to court (or letting them take you to court), but there are a number of ducks you'd have to get in a row first. Ultimately it's pretty simple: they're trying to charge you for usage which isn't practically possible. In order to prove the alleged debt they would need to prove the impossible usage. 

If it happened in my house I'd be collating data from my smart thermostat and water meter to demonstrate the real level of usage. I could easily show that it wasn't possible. Are you able to do that? 

The complication is in trying to rule out the usage having happened over a longer period of time. I'm still suspicious of some (or all) of those older 'actual' readings. It would be interesting to see what evidence you personally have of actual readings prior to the erroneous switch. 

They can claim that you owe them the money as long as they like but, until they can actually prove it (in court), you don't have to pay. Debt collectors can't actually take anything without a court order, and those can only be obtained with a court judgement against you. I'd be confident that no such order could be obtained as long as you are able to provide evidence refuting the alleged debt. 

I've just received my latest quarterly bill and it seems normal (high, but then it's the majority of our usage for the year..). The super high period I'm contesting really does stand out as unusual against all other bills. But that's all the evidence I have: that it is remarkably high compared to all my other usage and there is no reason why: no changes in our life/use. 

CazeryBird

I'm still plodding on...waiting for British Gas to respond to the Ombudsmans resolution (they have until the 6th May), so I can talk again to the person in head office who I was communicating with before.

The Ombudsman has made a point of mentioning in their findings that the queried usage looks very unusual compared to our other usage and there may well have been an issue with the recording of usage at some level.
In the meantime BG have sent me a letter from a solicitor (Flint Bishop).

My partner wants to take them to court, but I'm not sure whether we have enough evidence. I think I need to meet with a solicitor and talk it through?

MeteredOut

CazeryBird said:

I'm still plodding on...waiting for British Gas to respond to the Ombudsmans resolution (they have until the 6th May), so I can talk again to the person in head office who I was communicating with before.

The Ombudsman has made a point of mentioning in their findings that the queried usage looks very unusual compared to our other usage and there may well have been an issue with the recording of usage at some level.
In the meantime BG have sent me a letter from a solicitor (Flint Bishop).

My partner wants to take them to court, but I'm not sure whether we have enough evidence. I think I need to meet with a solicitor and talk it through?

What is the solicitors letter saying? Is it threatening court action, for example?

I'd suggest taking BG to court ahead of resolving things with the Ombudsman is a bit premature.

CazeryBird

It just says, please talk to BG about paying your bill. Don't contact us.

Oh not going to do anything ahead of the Ombudsman resolution, and I still want to try and talk to the lady in the Chairmans office again. But I'm thinking ahead to if it can't be sorted out any other way.

MeteredOut said:

CazeryBird said:

I'm still plodding on...waiting for British Gas to respond to the Ombudsmans resolution (they have until the 6th May), so I can talk again to the person in head office who I was communicating with before.

The Ombudsman has made a point of mentioning in their findings that the queried usage looks very unusual compared to our other usage and there may well have been an issue with the recording of usage at some level.
In the meantime BG have sent me a letter from a solicitor (Flint Bishop).

My partner wants to take them to court, but I'm not sure whether we have enough evidence. I think I need to meet with a solicitor and talk it through?

What is the solicitors letter saying? Is it threatening court action, for example?

I'd suggest taking BG to court ahead of resolving things with the Ombudsman is a bit premature.

brianposter

What has happened to your SAR ?