Urgent Help Needed – Gas Supply Issue Potentially Leading to Court Action

Aidy50

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, so I hope this is the right place to post. If not, I'd appreciate it if a moderator could kindly move this to the appropriate category.

I run a medium-sized gym business and I'm currently facing a serious issue with our gas meter and supply. Back in 2019, I used a broker called "Make It Cheaper" (now known as Bionic) to switch both our electricity and gas contracts to Scottish Power. Everything was working fine — we don’t actually use any gas at the premises, so we were just paying a standing charge of about £60 per month.

However, I’ve recently discovered that in late 2021, our gas supply was moved from Scottish Power to British Gas Lite without my knowledge or consent. This only came to my attention when, in 2023, I received letters from a debt collection agency claiming I owed British Gas Lite £481.88. I initially assumed this was a mistake, as we had never agreed to switch from Scottish Power. I contacted the debt agency, and they said they would inform British Gas of the issue.

Unfortunately, I’ve now received another letter directly from British Gas stating they are applying for a warrant to disconnect our supply, which could result in additional charges and force me to attend court. To make matters worse, the letter is dated April 28, giving me 21 days to respond — but I only received it today (May 13).

I’ve repeatedly asked British Gas for documentation proving I authorized this switch, but all they keep sending me is a 2019 document from Bionic that I signed to authorize them to seek contract renewals. This document specifically excludes British Gas and Opus Energy, as we had past issues with those suppliers and explicitly didn’t want to work with them again. So I’m confused — and concerned — as to how British Gas got involved at all.

British Gas has been extremely difficult to contact. When I do get through, the support is unhelpful and often language barriers make the conversation even more difficult. I now suspect that our broker may have switched our supply without proper consent — possibly even fraudulently. We were never notified of this change; had we been, we would have rejected it immediately.

I'm planning to send a final formal email to Bionic to try to resolve this before it escalates to legal action. I’d really appreciate any advice on what to include in that email to help support my position and possibly stop this before it reaches court.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!

born_again

Aidy50 said:

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, so I hope this is the right place to post. If not, I'd appreciate it if a moderator could kindly move this to the appropriate category.

I run a medium-sized gym business and I'm currently facing a serious issue with our gas meter and supply. Back in 2019, I used a broker called "Make It Cheaper" (now known as Bionic) to switch both our electricity and gas contracts to Scottish Power. Everything was working fine — we don’t actually use any gas at the premises, so we were just paying a standing charge of about £60 per month.

However, I’ve recently discovered that in late 2021, our gas supply was moved from Scottish Power to British Gas Lite without my knowledge or consent. This only came to my attention when, in 2023, I received letters from a debt collection agency claiming I owed British Gas Lite £481.88. I initially assumed this was a mistake, as we had never agreed to switch from Scottish Power. I contacted the debt agency, and they said they would inform British Gas of the issue.

Unfortunately, I’ve now received another letter directly from British Gas stating they are applying for a warrant to disconnect our supply, which could result in additional charges and force me to attend court. To make matters worse, the letter is dated April 28, giving me 21 days to respond — but I only received it today (May 13).

I’ve repeatedly asked British Gas for documentation proving I authorized this switch, but all they keep sending me is a 2019 document from Bionic that I signed to authorize them to seek contract renewals. This document specifically excludes British Gas and Opus Energy, as we had past issues with those suppliers and explicitly didn’t want to work with them again. So I’m confused — and concerned — as to how British Gas got involved at all.

British Gas has been extremely difficult to contact. When I do get through, the support is unhelpful and often language barriers make the conversation even more difficult. I now suspect that our broker may have switched our supply without proper consent — possibly even fraudulently. We were never notified of this change; had we been, we would have rejected it immediately.

I'm planning to send a final formal email to Bionic to try to resolve this before it escalates to legal action. I’d really appreciate any advice on what to include in that email to help support my position and possibly stop this before it reaches court.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!

Time to dig out the T/C as these companies will look for new deals & just switch you over. 

If you do not use gas, why have you not had gas disconnected to save on standing charge?

tacpot12

I'm not sure you need to put very much in your email to Bionic. Just express your frustration at having signed a contract excluding BG as a potential supplier you now find that you have been switched. See what they say. 

They may confirm that you weren't switched to BG, or perhaps that you were switched to a supplier who was bought/absorbed by BG, so the transfer happened with out them being involved. 

You must defend the warrant that BG say they are seeking. I doubt a judge would allow a warrant when you haven't been informed by Bionic that they switched you to BG. 

Unfortunately a contract that says you don't want to be switched to BG, doesn't mean you don't owe BG money if they have become your supplier through a mistake. (Have you taken any professional legal advice on this?) 

sheenas

The obvious question for me is they must have sent bills to be claiming a debt. They need to have invoiced within 12 months to be able to recover the debt?

FreeBear

sheenas said:

The obvious question for me is they must have sent bills to be claiming a debt. They need to have invoiced within 12 months to be able to recover the debt?

This is a commercial contract so back billing rules do not apply.

As long as a bill has been raised, BG would have up to six years (5 in Scotland) to start a court claim from the date payment was due. If they haven't issued a bill, it is presumptuous on their part to be threatening legal action..

MWT

sheenas said:

The obvious question for me is they must have sent bills to be claiming a debt. They need to have invoiced within 12 months to be able to recover the debt?

The 12 month period related to back-billing isn't going to be much help here as there is no billable usage, just the standing charge, and this is a business account but it is not clear if they would qualify as a 'micro-business'.

Aidy50 said:

However, I’ve recently discovered that in late 2021, our gas supply was moved from Scottish Power to British Gas Lite without my knowledge or consent. This only came to my attention when, in 2023, I received letters from a debt collection agency claiming I owed British Gas Lite £481.88. I initially assumed this was a mistake, as we had never agreed to switch from Scottish Power. I contacted the debt agency, and they said they would inform British Gas of the issue.

Unfortunately, I’ve now received another letter directly from British Gas stating they are applying for a warrant to disconnect our supply, which could result in additional charges and force me to attend court. To make matters worse, the letter is dated April 28, giving me 21 days to respond — but I only received it today (May 13).

So your bills from Scottish Power have not included the gas standing charge for the last 4 years?

Wasn't this noticed in 2023 when you got the first debt collection letter?

Sometimes you need to decide which battles are worth fighting, and you will have to pay the standing charge to someone so it may as well be BG Lite...

It is also very possible that your Agent did nothing wrong and did not move your account to BG at all, but to another 3rd party that subsequently failed or was acquired by BG as mentioned above.

Olinda99

I agree with the above - presumably you are not paying the gas standing charge to Scottish power so that money is sitting in your account so you might as well pay it to British Gas