British Gas Final Bill - Big Sum for what exactly?

MintSoil

So I moved out my flat in late Feb with tenants in there from start of March. Shortly after I cancelled direct debits. I was using British Gas for both electricity and gas. 

I don’t understand my bills though. 

In mid February, I was debited for the period of 3rd Jan - 3rd Feb. I understand that, and the total cost seems reasonable. 

In mid March, I was debited for the period of 20th May 2024 to 3rd March. It was around £50 which is under half of the previous month’s bill, but that probably makes sense given I wasn’t in the flat for the last 1-2 weeks before March 3rd. 

Then, in late March, I had a final bill of just over £200 credit to be paid to me within ten working days. And it was. 

Perhaps it was then after this that I cancelled my direct debit. 

Then, at the end of April, I had *another* “final bill” asking me to pay BG almost £300 for the period of 20th May 2024 - 6th March 2025. It’s just a list of new re-calculated electricity charges 

from different quarters over the last year. 

I don’t understand this at all because I’ve been paying my bills every month, so why on earth are they asking for more money now? 

I rang BG up and the guy I spoke to couldn’t really understand it himself. He told me it’s because the final meter reading supplied could have been wrong and asked me to find out what it was. So I did. He said he’d call back and never did, but BG are now sending me reminders to pay them this money saying it’s overdue. 

No. 

QrizB

If you can share your meter readings and tariff details, we can help you understand what's going on and work out whether it's correct or not.

Mark_d

Paying your bills each month does not mean you're paying the correct amount for each month.  It is only when  meter readings are taken and successfully validated that we know how much you really should have been charged - and this is where you get a refund or a request for more money.

You bills might indicate where bills have been based on actual or estimated readings.  I also note that sometimes you were billed until 3rd March and sometimes 6 March.  Whatever they're doing, BG are certainly messing things up here.  You need to raise a formal complaint to get it resolved once and for all.

Exodi

Were you regularly supplying readings? Or at least when you moved out? Is it possible you've been paying against estimated readings the whole time.

We see this all the time with a similar attitude to yours (which I don't understand).

Think of it another way, your friend desperately needs a car to drive to work and you no longer use yours so you decide to lend it to them. You both agree that they'll pay you 25p per mile they drive, to cover fuel/depreciation/etc. You have exactly 10000 miles on the clock (how convenient) and instead of messing about again and again with asking how many miles they drove, you both agree until they give the car back they can make one monthly payment, and calculate that as their drive to work is 10 miles in total, and they drive to work 5 days per week, that £50 a month should be close to the right amount.

A year goes by and they've paid you £600 for 2400 miles. Unfortunately when you receive the car back, you notice the odometer is showing 12900 miles, meaning they've driven more 500 than you charged for. You turn around to your friend and mention the agreement to pay 25p per mile, to which they respond:

MintSoil said:

I’ve been paying my bills every month, so why on earth are you asking for more money now? 

You point out that they agreed to pay a price per mile and that the estimated monthly payment was just an estimate, but they're free to double check your calculations, to which they respond:

MintSoil said:

No. 

Side Note: I'm aware my long rambly story about estimated readings may be totally irrelevant as that may not be the issue, and I've seen British Gas re-calculating bills a few times, but I had fun typing it.

MintSoil

Mark_d said:

Paying your bills each month does not mean you're paying the correct amount for each month.  It is only when  meter readings are taken and successfully validated that we know how much you really should have been charged - and this is where you get a refund or a request for more money.

You bills might indicate where bills have been based on actual or estimated readings.  I also note that sometimes you were billed until 3rd March and sometimes 6 March.  Whatever they're doing, BG are certainly messing things up here.  You need to raise a formal complaint to get it resolved once and for all.

I was billed from around the 3rd of one month to the 3rd of the next month the whole time, until my February - March bill this year, when on the British Gas bill, instead of saying “Feb 3rd - March 3rd 2025,” it says “20th May 2024 - 4th March 2025.” I guess for whatever reason it’s gone right back because at this point maybe BG had received notice that there were tenants and they’d requested to go with another energy supplier. I don’t know and wasn’t even in the country then. 

Regardless, I then get a “final bill”
dated March 22nd which is for May 20 2024 again until 6th March 2025 which credits me £200 approx. 

It’s then one month or so later I get that second final bill debiting me for £280. 

I just don’t get it. They cocked up because you don’t send two final bills. That doesn’t add up. 

Will have to raise a complaint I think! 

MintSoil

Exodi said:

Were you regularly supplying readings? Or at least when you moved out? Is it possible you've been paying against estimated readings the whole time.

We see this all the time with a similar attitude to yours (which I don't understand).

Think of it another way, your friend desperately needs a car to drive to work and you no longer use yours so you decide to lend it to them. You both agree that they'll pay you 25p per mile they drive, to cover fuel/depreciation/etc. You have exactly 10000 miles on the clock (how convenient) and instead of messing about again and again with asking how many miles they drove, you both agree until they give the car back they can make one monthly payment, and calculate that as their drive to work is 10 miles in total, and they drive to work 5 days per week, that £50 a month should be close to the right amount.

A year goes by and they've paid you £600 for 2400 miles. Unfortunately when you receive the car back, you notice the odometer is showing 12900 miles, meaning they've driven more 500 than you charged for. You turn around to your friend and mention the agreement to pay 25p per mile, to which they respond:

MintSoil said:

I’ve been paying my bills every month, so why on earth are you asking for more money now? 

You point out that they agreed to pay a price per mile and that the estimated monthly payment was just an estimate, but they're free to double check your calculations, to which they respond:

MintSoil said:

No. 

Side Note: I'm aware my long rambly story about estimated readings may be totally irrelevant as that may not be the issue, and I've seen British Gas re-calculating bills a few times, but I had fun typing it.

I wasn’t regularly supplying meter readings and never had to in previous years. They only started asking me to do that in the last year or so, and whenever I went to check my meter (which I believe is a smart meter) the numbers on that ALWAYS matched the estimated numbers on British Gas’s website, so I never confirmed my meter readings because it’s exactly what they predicted every time. I’m guessing this may have been an issue? But I don’t see why it would as it was never inaccurate. 

Lol - I get your friend mileage payment analogy, point taken. 

Scot_39

With a smart meter - a functioning smart meter - there should have been little reason to go back in time for readings corrections - say on cap changes if not on a fix.

(I have seen others like S Gas do a terrible job of splitting past usage between billing periods - after estimated billing accumulated large final reading error - but it was for several months worth of gas - so rate chages made a difference to correct bill amount - when finally forced to apply a true reading)

But that doesn't as above mean that your bills were fully paid - as things like annualized DD plans are just an estimate of cost - so you get credit / debit cycles traditionally.

I am confused as in your post you say you think it was smart - but are discussing presence of correct final readings.

So does the version with £200 credit or £300 debit demand reflect those final true readings.

The only safe thing to do is to look at the readings - at both end of the two 10 month (May 24 to Mar 25) bills - and try to see that they match reality - certainly the final reading as you gave them when moved out I assume.

Assuming you gave start readings in the distant past - or paid based on an actual real reading - not a close estimate - but an actual real reading - strictly only the final reading really maters now (and not the May 24 one).  As a series of estimated bills could well trigger a full recalc - just because thats how they do it - even if only a few units out.

And then try and work out the actual cost for those units + standing charges.

And compare that to opening balance + amount actually paid.vs credit / demand

They may easily have messed up dates of just one reading at either start or end for one of the fuels on one of the two variants.

You could as above try summarise them -  not sure your yet able to upload redacted pictures (as a relatively new member)

Bigphil1474

I'm with British gas and for some daft reason they treat gas and electric as two completely separate accounts, and never the twain shall meet. Have you checked something along the lines of - the bill you owe money on is for electric and the refund is for gas? Or vice versa.