Deadlock letter from BG

BrokenPepsi

Sorry this is a long one and I appreciate anyone taking the time to read/respond to this post.

I have just received a deadlock letter from BG following a dispute over my mum's final duel fuel bill.  She was admitted into a nursing home in August 19 (aged 68 with early onset dementia) and stayed there until she passed away in August 23.  No power of attorney was in place and all direct debits continued to be paid until she died.

I submitted a reading in October 21 gas = 07430, electric = 04917, this resulted in the bill being adjusted and a credit being applied of £810.

My brother was dealing with her day to day affairs (or so I thought) as he lived closer.  In September 24 he passed me all her post for my to finalise her estate.  Going through her BG bills I discovered that in Feb 23 she was £1233 in credit but in Jul 23 she was £3815 in debit, the next bill dated July 24 this had grown to £6654 and by October 24 it was standing at £7122 in debit.  In the period Feb 23 - Jul 23 the gas bill was estimated to be £5100 (approx)!

I contacted them to state the gas meter was not working and I was unable to give a reading for gas.   The electricity reading was 06797 in Oct 24 and was still 06797 in Jan 25.  Finally an engineer came out capped off the gas in January 25.  The house was sold 2 weeks later.

While they have made adjustments the final bill has come in at £2084, April 25.  I have questioned how a house with no working heating since Oct 21 (reported when reading was submitted) can have a bill that is so high during the period Feb 23 to Jul 23, their response is that the bills have been underestimated. 

They have also calculated the electricity costs at £1154 from Jul 23 to Jan 25 with usage at 1846kWh during this period.  This means that only 34kWh were used between Oct 21 and Jul 23, as the reading in Oct 21 04917 and Oct 24 06797 a difference of 1880.

If you got this far thank you for persevering.

Please can anyone offer any advice and if I am wrong please explain why.

masonic

The apportioning of the electricity away from the Oct 21 - Jul 23 period, which was an expensive period, is probably not something to dispute, as it probably works in your favour. You don't seem to be suggesting that BG has charged for more than 1880 kWh over the whole three year period. So electricity seems not to be part of the issue.

For the gas, you've not included any details of the estimated or actual readings from the bills, so it is hard to comment on this. Presumably the meter did not fail immediately after you read it in Oct 21, so there may be other readings. Electricity was clearly used over the period, so it is not a situation whereby everything was turned off for those 4 years. It sounds like meters may have been read in the lead up to the Jul 23 bill.

It would be helpful if you could provide details of the gas readings used for the bills in the first instance. That would help build a picture of normal use before the failure and when bills started being estimated.

Do you have bank statements for the whole period to confirm how much was being paid into her energy account? Is it consistent with payments received in the bills?

To move this from a complaint that "this seems like much more than it should be", to something more concrete with facts, will take a fair bit of work with some actual figures.

BrokenPepsi

masonic said:

The apportioning of the electricity away from the Oct 21 - Jul 23 period, which was an expensive period, is probably not something to dispute, as it probably works in your favour. You don't seem to be suggesting that BG has charged for more than 1880 kWh over the whole three year period. So electricity seems not to be part of the issue.

For the gas, you've not included any details of the estimated or actual readings from the bills, so it is hard to comment on this. Presumably the meter did not fail immediately after you read it in Oct 21, so there may be other readings. Electricity was clearly used over the period, so it is not a situation whereby everything was turned off for those 4 years. It sounds like meters may have been read in the lead up to the Jul 23 bill.

It would be helpful if you could provide details of the gas readings used for the bills in the first instance. That would help build a picture of normal use before the failure and when bills started being estimated.

Do you have bank statements for the whole period to confirm how much was being paid into her energy account? Is it consistent with payments received in the bills?

To move this from a complaint that "this seems like much more than it should be", to something more concrete with facts, will take a fair bit of work with some actual figures.

Unfortunately, all readings apart from the readings that I have given them for gas and electric in Oct 21 and Electric in Oct 24 and Jan 25, all readings on the bills are estimated, despite having smart meters fitted.

masonic

BrokenPepsi said:

masonic said:

The apportioning of the electricity away from the Oct 21 - Jul 23 period, which was an expensive period, is probably not something to dispute, as it probably works in your favour. You don't seem to be suggesting that BG has charged for more than 1880 kWh over the whole three year period. So electricity seems not to be part of the issue.

For the gas, you've not included any details of the estimated or actual readings from the bills, so it is hard to comment on this. Presumably the meter did not fail immediately after you read it in Oct 21, so there may be other readings. Electricity was clearly used over the period, so it is not a situation whereby everything was turned off for those 4 years. It sounds like meters may have been read in the lead up to the Jul 23 bill.

It would be helpful if you could provide details of the gas readings used for the bills in the first instance. That would help build a picture of normal use before the failure and when bills started being estimated.

Do you have bank statements for the whole period to confirm how much was being paid into her energy account? Is it consistent with payments received in the bills?

To move this from a complaint that "this seems like much more than it should be", to something more concrete with facts, will take a fair bit of work with some actual figures.

Unfortunately, all readings apart from the readings that I have given them for gas and electric in Oct 21 and Electric in Oct 24 and Jan 25, all readings on the bills are estimated, despite having smart meters fitted.

Then that puts you in a fairly perilous position. Are the meters accessible to a meter reader, or would they have to gain access to the property to read the meters? I'm guessing they are not accessible, in which case, even if BG made attempts to read the meter, and/or attempted to make an appointment to fix the gas meter, it's plausible they would get no response. Meanwhile the estimated readings were not being disputed.

I am a bit concerned that there is a confirmed 1880 kWh of consumption on the electricity meter for the period. Was the property occupied by your brother at any point?

Still, if you could share the estimated readings, and provide some info about the property type and size, we could at least comment on how reasonable the estimates were.

WiserMiser

BrokenPepsi said:

I have questioned how a house with no working heating since Oct 21 (reported when reading was submitted) can have a bill that is so high during the period Feb 23 to Jul 23, their response is that the bills have been underestimated.

Did you really leave a house empty with no heating for over three years?  Sounds like guaranteed burst pipes and mould?

BrokenPepsi

masonic said:

BrokenPepsi said:

masonic said:

The apportioning of the electricity away from the Oct 21 - Jul 23 period, which was an expensive period, is probably not something to dispute, as it probably works in your favour. You don't seem to be suggesting that BG has charged for more than 1880 kWh over the whole three year period. So electricity seems not to be part of the issue.

For the gas, you've not included any details of the estimated or actual readings from the bills, so it is hard to comment on this. Presumably the meter did not fail immediately after you read it in Oct 21, so there may be other readings. Electricity was clearly used over the period, so it is not a situation whereby everything was turned off for those 4 years. It sounds like meters may have been read in the lead up to the Jul 23 bill.

It would be helpful if you could provide details of the gas readings used for the bills in the first instance. That would help build a picture of normal use before the failure and when bills started being estimated.

Do you have bank statements for the whole period to confirm how much was being paid into her energy account? Is it consistent with payments received in the bills?

To move this from a complaint that "this seems like much more than it should be", to something more concrete with facts, will take a fair bit of work with some actual figures.

Unfortunately, all readings apart from the readings that I have given them for gas and electric in Oct 21 and Electric in Oct 24 and Jan 25, all readings on the bills are estimated, despite having smart meters fitted.

Then that puts you in a fairly perilous position. Are the meters accessible to a meter reader, or would they have to gain access to the property to read the meters? I'm guessing they are not accessible, in which case, even if BG made attempts to read the meter, and/or attempted to make an appointment to fix the gas meter, it's plausible they would get no response. Meanwhile the estimated readings were not being disputed.

I am a bit concerned that there is a confirmed 1880 kWh of consumption on the electricity meter for the period. Was the property occupied by your brother at any point?

Still, if you could share the estimated readings, and provide some info about the property type and size, we could at least comment on how reasonable the estimates were.

I created a spreadsheet these are the electricity readings:


Orange shows estimated readings, green are my actual readings, white are reading that I have taken from their final bill.


All readings are estimates except Oct 21.  Red shows the period I am contesting as this caused a £5000 bill.

These are all the bills that I have received.

BrokenPepsi

"I am a bit concerned that there is a confirmed 1880 kWh of consumption on the electricity meter for the period. Was the property occupied by your brother at any point?"

Over the period of time (3 years) it works out at 1.6kWh daily, we had left a fridge on (oversight on our part).  We occasionally visited the house.  Once the fridge was switched off no electricity was used in a 3 month period.  

masonic

BrokenPepsi said:

"I am a bit concerned that there is a confirmed 1880 kWh of consumption on the electricity meter for the period. Was the property occupied by your brother at any point?"

Over the period of time (3 years) it works out at 1.6kWh daily, we had left a fridge on (oversight on our part).  We occasionally visited the house.  Once the fridge was switched off no electricity was used in a 3 month period.  

Expensive fridge!

Regarding the gas bill, the spreadsheet is helpful. You are missing a row for 19/07/2023 - 20/07/2023 where consumption was -2462 units or -28464 kWh, which should reduce the debt from the previous bill by £2,014. That would be in the missing 20/07/2023-19/07/2024 statement you highlighted, so your next step would be to get a copy of that statement. They can't start the next statement from a lower meter reading without refunding the money charged for those units in the previous bill, but it looks like they might have.

What are the three "Adjust" entries? If those are written off charges from the earlier bills, it looks like you've had more than your £2k's worth, which is the only part of the reading history that is overtly incorrect. Things stop making sense for me in the accounting section after 23rd Jan. Did you make a payments of £9410.34 between 23/01/2025 and 11/03/2025, nearly £3k more than what was owed on the account at that time? What do the figures £1524.29 and £1627.98 represent?

For a back-of-the-envelope calculation, I reckon you owe something of the order £500 for electricity consumption, another £600 for standing charges, £2.5k for gas consumption (as you cannot really dispute their estimated readings now), another £350 for standing charges, call it £4k over the three and a bit year period from 26/10/2021 to 07/01/2025 based on those meter readings and estimates. Starting with a balance of £74 and ending with a balance of about -£2k suggests regular payments totalling a little under £2k were made to the account. So what was actually paid in to the account? If it was a lot more than £2k and you have evidence of that, then you have a complaint to take to the Energy Ombudsman. If not, the overall outcome looks about right.

BrokenPepsi

Masonic, thank you for explaining this.  It is certainly helpful and more help than BG have been.  The fact they sent 5 different bills all with different amounts has not helped me to understand their calculations.  I offered to pay just the standing charges for the period after mum died Aug 23 as I had made them aware that the heating was not working in Oct 21, had I known she was paying for Homecare I'd have had them out to look at the boiler.  As I have now received the deadlock letter I will just pass to the ombudsman as this issue is only part of the problem I have experienced.

masonic

The billing certainly looks way more complex than it should have been, so I dare say you'll get some compensation for that and BG's lack of helpfulness. Good luck and do let us know the outcome. I'd be interested in how they deal with the broken meter issue in particular.

MWT

BrokenPepsi said:

As I have now received the deadlock letter I will just pass to the ombudsman as this issue is only part of the problem I have experienced.

Just be aware that the Ombudsman will not investigate anything, they will simply review whatever claims you make with your supporting information, and the same from BG, then make a ruling. So be very clear in what you are asking for from BG, do not rely on the Ombudsman checking anything.