British Gas estimated my bills for 5 years despite meter readings being sent in

harri56

I have just been sent a notice by British Gas, that my Direct Debit is going up from £42.01 to £168.57, as they claim they have been estimating my bill since 2019, despite me sending quarterly readings in.
Plus I had no gas usage between December 2023, and July 2024, as the engineer who attended to do maintenance on the boiler, said that the fire was a risk. so they isolated the supply, and put a disc in the meter, but during that time, they said I was using £60 of gas per month.

I have asked for details of usage, and get met with silence, and they will not listen to my complaint, and they say they cannot send any old bills as they have been archived.

I know my original amount was low, but all I use, is the gas for hot water, for washing up, and heating for 2 hours once a day at most, but not every day. 

The boiler is just over a year old, so is in good working order.

Robin9

Make a written complaint as their  procedure. 

p00hsticks

Were you not receiving bills ? Either by post or via an e-mail telling you that a bill was ready for you to look at online If so, do they show your submitted readings or that estimates were being used ? 

QrizB

harri56 said:

I have just been sent a notice by British Gas, that my Direct Debit is going up from £42.01 to £168.57, as they claim they have been estimating my bill since 2019, despite me sending quarterly readings in.

As asked by p00hsticks:

p00hsticks said:

Were you not receiving bills ? Either by post or via an e-mail telling you that a bill was ready for you to look at online If so, do they show your submitted readings or that estimates were being used ? 

Have you had any bills at all since 2019? If you have, what meter readings have they used - Actual or Estimated?

On your most recent bill, does the meter reading match up with your current Actual reading?

elsien

Are you taking the standing charges into account in your figures for when you weren’t using any gas?

Ectophile

Check if the back billing rule applies: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/what-do-if-you-get-back-bill . If it does, British Gas are not allowed to charge you anything more than you have already paid for energy used over a year ago.

British Gas have an obligation from Ofgem to obtain accurate meter readings at least once a year.  6 years is ridiculous.

If it's been 8 weeks since your original complaint, you can go to the energy ombudsman.  If not, make sure they have opened a formal complaint.  Just having a general whinge to their customer service people may not count.

Scot_39

Scottish gas did the same for 2.5 years - to my mum - disabled and on PSR for failing eyesight and physical inability to reach meter to read it. Unfortunately that was before the days of back billing.  They had all readings on her account records - 3 family including theone I submitted at end to get actual bill - and 2 by meter readers they had sent - as mum on PSR - just had never copied over onto billing system apparently.

As above we need more info on past and any revised current bill to justify the demand.

The question you need to find out initially - is exactly what the basis of the new £168.57.

Does it include repaying a newly created debit on the account - and crucially what period might they have calculated that debit over.

Have they sent you any calcs or details - like a new series or one off bill to bring your account up to date for a current reading - showing you now in debit by several £100 pounds.

Any extra - as a rough rule - for a period longer than 12 months before the corrected demand - may fall under so called back billing rules - and BG if not already done so - might have to "right them off" - due to its own failure not to provide an accurate bill at least once every 12 months.

It may not even be real - there were many issues around the transfer of user accounts between the old and new BG systems over the last couple of years.

How good are your records of the readings and any bills that followed ?

harri56

Thank you to all for your replies and advice. I will collect all the information required over the next few days as life taking over at the moment, so I thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.
Kind regards.

harri56

Hello. After a prolonged period of illness I am now able to answer the questions/ provide details for those who kindly replied to my previous post.
I have received bills online, but they only go back as far as 2023.They show 1 actual meter read in 2023, 1 in 2024 and 4 in 2025. The total amount of estimated reads in 2023 (from the end of June) was 3, in 2024 was 5 and in 2025 was 6 up until the 26th of September. When I spoke to a British Gas advisor at the end of October, she asked me to give her an up to date reading, which shows on my online account, but I have never received a bill showing this reading. I have a bill covering the period from 29th June 2023 to 23rd December 2024. It is 4 pages long, very confusing and hard to understand, as in all the calculations there are 6 cancelled energy charges, 6 revised energy charges, 6 cancelled standing charges and 7 revised standing charges.
I have taken into account the standing charge for the 6 month period that I couldn't use any gas in my property, but BG estimated my usage for that period to be approximately £260. They dispute that their engineer who condemed my boiler ever gave them a gas meter reading nor that I gave them a reading when my new boiler was installed and unfortunately I have no record of this reading.
The new direct debit of £160.57 is to cover a debit of £1,089.07. They don't say what period of time that covers, but I was firstly in debit on my account in March 2025 and that was for £1,357.65. On my online account it simply states that they reviewed my account on 26th October of this month and my direct debit has to increase to pay off this debit plus future gas consumption.
I am not sure about the back billing issue, but I have noticed that on my final  bill in December 2023, they credited my account with £522.16 and it states the reason for the credit as "back billing".
One of my arguments with BG is that it states on every bill that they "regularly review your payment amount to make sure that you are on track to cover your expected energy use". How can they say this, when my direct debit payment has suddenly quadrupled! When I challenged the BG advisor about this statement that they make, she said that they only review direct debit amounts once a year, so how can they be allowed to get away with still making the statement?! Also, to placate me, the BG advisor said that she would switch my account to a cheaper tariff, but to date my online account still shows me being on the same tariff that I was on back in 2023. It is the Standard Variable Tariff. Is this the tariff that Martin Lewis calls the "pants" tariff? Many thanks in advance to all for your help.

MWT

harri56 said:

Hello. After a prolonged period of illness I am now able to answer the questions/ provide details for those who kindly replied to my previous post.
I have received bills online, but they only go back as far as 2023.They show 1 actual meter read in 2023, 1 in 2024 and 4 in 2025. 

So they have had at least one actual meter reading in each of those years so although more would be better, they have met the minimum standard.

harri56 said:

I am not sure about the back billing issue, but I have noticed that on my final  bill in December 2023, they credited my account with £522.16 and it states the reason for the credit as "back billing".

Looks like they took care of the billing they could not claim due to the 12 month limit before that date with the credit.

harri56 said:

One of my arguments with BG is that it states on every bill that they "regularly review your payment amount to make sure that you are on track to cover your expected energy use". How can they say this, when my direct debit payment has suddenly quadrupled! When I challenged the BG advisor about this statement that they make, she said that they only review direct debit amounts once a year, so how can they be allowed to get away with still making the statement?

Once a year is indeed 'regular', it is not 'frequent' but they didn't say they were doing it frequently, which is why it is a good idea to keep a close eye on the bills...

harri56 said:

Also, to placate me, the BG advisor said that she would switch my account to a cheaper tariff, but to date my online account still shows me being on the same tariff that I was on back in 2023. It is the Standard Variable Tariff. Is this the tariff that Martin Lewis calls the "pants" tariff? Many thanks in advance to all for your help.

Did the advisor give you a name for the tariff?

Either way, call back and see if the tariff change is in the notes on your account and then check that the tariff really is cheaper for you... (Probably will be if you are still on the SVT and have been for the last 2 years...)

harri56

Thank you for all your help and advice. Merry Christmas.