British Gas Rip off Final Bill- Completed on new House

SpangledGerbil72

Hi there

I completed on a house 25th Nov 2025

Ofcourse, took meter reading immediately & found out the house was supplied by British Gas- I did not want to stay with them

*Old style meters, not smart meters FYI

I was not at the new property for the 1st night & in between houses till 27th Nov restoring my rental to hand it back to landlord (so not even using any energy at the new house & had even turned the heating off)

My old supplier at my rental was Eon

I checked for best tariffs on the MSE site decided to stay with Eon but go on fixed tariff for 18 months 3rd Dec 2025 that was switched over & Eon were provided with meter readings for the 3rd

Final bill at old address Eon £87 ish (G&A) for 4 bedroom Semi (smart meters) for a couple of weeks usage- about normal (usually £170 pcm) so seems about right

I started receiving “Sorry you’re leaving” type letters from British Gas & ignored

Then received £57 final bill To Occupier from British Gas to which I ignored as I presumed was vendors last bill as Eon had said I did not need to do anything with British Gas they would contact them & sort any final bits out (bill in question equates to about 8/9 days usage- 2 of which I was not even using any energy as I wasn’t living there!)

I finally called them yesterday 9th Feb 2026 after I received 2 letters at once (dated 26th Jan and another 2nd Feb) basically saying it had escalated to debt collection

Although the meter reading check out from the 3rd I am not convinced they have generated a correct bill- I gave start readings for 25th Nov

How on earth is it £57 for around a weeks usage? That would be approx £228 pcm
The new house is a 2 bed semi one bath (significant downsize to my previous place)

My old rental was 3 bed extended into 4 with 2 bathrooms & was £170 pcm G&A with Eon

Queried cost with useless person at British Gas and she muttered standing charges & when I complained just kept asking if I wanted to go on a payment plan which was not the point of my call, she could not give breakdown of the cost

£57 is not the end of the world but clearly this is not right

I feel like I have had to pay for the vendors usage rather than my own

Has anyone else had a rip off final bill with British that seems to be plucked from the sky?

Kim_13

You would owe British Gas for standing charges for completion day to 3rd Dec (9 days) plus any change in the reading between completion day and the opening reading with Eon.

What was the difference in the readings for those dates and the British Gas standing and unit charges? (those should be on the bill they sent)

FrugaiMacDugal

You say ''Although the meter reading check out from the 3rd I am not convinced they have generated a correct bill- I gave start readings for 25th Nov,''

Was that to Eon or BG?

When you completed on house 25/11/25 you are then on a deemed tariff with the existing supplier, BG.

You should've contacted BG with a reading, you are then free to switch.

Are you being billed for usage by previous occupier?

Grumpy_chap

Does the bill the OP has correctly quote the meter readings for the day the OP completed and the final bill date?

Is the conversion based on the correct meter units (m3 or cuft)?

Are the correct dates noted on the bill for the calculation of the standing charge?

Once the OP gets all of the above corrected by British Gas, the bill should become simple.

Keep_pedalling

What were the readings you took on the day you got the keys and the day of your switch? Do these match your BG bill and your first Eon bill?

EssexHebridean

I'd agree that your first step is to check that the dates and the readings tie up with what you know to be correct. You have a note of your call to BG confirming that you owned the property from the date of completion - ideally with the name of the person you spoke with?

For reference for anyone else reading this, a bill to "The Occupier" when you have moved in to a property isn't likely to refer to the previous customer - thinking about it logically, why would it, the supplier have their name, after all!

IOWJJBTM2025

Just to understand your notes: -

24th Nov 2025 you completed and took over responsibility for energy supply. You state Meters so assume it is both Gas and Electric. You took meter readings and therefore the previous occupier was responsible up to this point.

On 3rd Dec 2025 you applied for a switch to EON with new meter readings.

It normally takes up to 5 days to switch supplier.

You will have a bill from British Gas from a start date of 24th November to a date when EON took over the supply - lets guess this was 8th December 2025 which means you owe 14 days of standing charges to BG.Lets assume this was on price cap so roughly 45p per day Elec and 35p per day Gas Standing charges = £11 standing charges alone.

The energy used between 24th November and the reading you took on 3rd December will be owed to BG.

Electric 27p per kWh and Gas 6p per kWh.

We are in the winter so guess heating would be more than average especially if you are moving in with doors open etc.

If I use my personal usage as a guide I would expect Electric 10 kWh per day = £2.70 per day.

Gas per day in winter guess 200 kWh per day = £1.20 per day.

10 days x £3.90 = £39 energy costs. Therefore my quick guess inc. standing charge would be very roughly £50 owed on price cap.

Your bill of £57 is not a million miles away from my very very rough guess.

The rates charged should not be more than the price cap - if you search on MSE you can find the rates for your area and check if they are correct. Suggest you recheck the bill. Please let us know the detail and we can check for you.

EssexHebridean

That's quite a bit more electric than the average household would use in a day though, so far from a realistic comparison for the OP, probably.

We average out at around 5.5kWh a day for electric.

dunstonh

Ofcourse, took meter reading immediately & found out the house was supplied by British Gas- I did not want to stay with them

So, that should be your opening reading with BG. Did you give that reading to BG?

I checked for best tariffs on the MSE site decided to stay with Eon but go on fixed tariff for 18 months 3rd Dec 2025 that was switched over & Eon were provided with meter readings for the 3rd

Were those readings used by Eon for their starting point?

If so, you are required to pay for your period of BG to Eon.

Then received £57 final bill To Occupier from British Gas to which I ignored as I presumed was vendors last bill as Eon had said I did not need to do anything with British Gas they would contact them & sort any final bits out (bill in question equates to about 8/9 days usage- 2 of which I was not even using any energy as I wasn’t living there!)

Not a safe assumption on your part. BG became your supplier the day you moved in.

I finally called them yesterday 9th Feb 2026 after I received 2 letters at once (dated 26th Jan and another 2nd Feb) basically saying it had escalated to debt collection

That doesn't seem unreaonable seeing as you ignored the bill.

I feel like I have had to pay for the vendors usage rather than my own

Quite possibly, you have if you failed to give BG a meter reading on the day you took ownership of the property.

Its easy to tell as you say you took a reading that day. Does it match?

Has anyone else had a rip off final bill with British that seems to be plucked from the sky?

Rather than calling it a rip-off, it seems more likely that you have made several mistakes and are misattributing them to BG.

• you should have given BG the opening reading as owner.
• BG should bill you from that point until you join EON
• You pay the period from ownership to switch

FrugaiMacDugal

SpangledGerbil72 asked,

Has anyone else had a rip off final bill with British that seems to be plucked from the sky?

dunstonh commented,

Rather than calling it a rip-off, it seems more likely that you have made several mistakes and are misattributing them to BG.

you should have given BG the opening reading as owner.

BG should bill you from that point until you join EON

You pay the period from ownership to switch.

Exactly what I was thinking, don't think SpangledGerbil72 will be back admitting that he messed up.

EssexHebridean

As they posted in the early hours of the morning it’s a reasonable assumption that they may work irregular hours. It’s hardly fair to assume they won’t be back quite so soon after what was their first post on the forum - although if they return and read those sorts of comments, they might just go away again!