BG account 'lost' bill to pay

Jane1C

Hi there

I am hoping to get some advice over the gas bill we have built up over the past 10 months.

We moved into our home last spring and set up account for BG to pay for gas and electric, got a letter back saying this had been done. Meanwhile we set up a homecare 100 account, must admit I saw BG on bank statements but own fault for not checking the amounts.

Just before Christmas we thought we ought to go through bank account to check what we could spend and that is when we noticed there were no payments for the Gas supply and contacted BG by phone at that time.

We explained the situation and it appears that although we had set up the direct debits, when the people who moved into our previous address moved in, they were incorrectly allocated to our current property. I understand this mistake was soon rectified and they were allocated to the correct address, but it seems we were never reinstated to the account.

I was told it would take approximately 19 days and until this was done we were not able to make any payments. The amount worked out at approx £60 per month that we had used and not paid for (£600).


Anyway, they still haven't contacted us and yesterday I got a caller asking for the previous occupant stating they had come to read the gas meter. I explained he no longer lived at this address and hadn’t done since last April. I let him in to read the meter and filled in details that previous occupant didn’t live here and we did and had done since last April. Seems they still hadn't got it right.

We want to set up the direct debit again for the gas we will use in the future.

This is my question to you:
I want to ask if you think it is reasonable I if write to BG to ask for a period of a year to pay this amount over with no additional interest incurred and to say I want to pay the rate the gas was consumed at not the current higher rate.

Also does anyone know what address I should write to?

I look forward to any other suggestions you may have too.


Thanks

Jane

whatatwit

Hi Jane, yes I do think you should write to them.
I think if you offer to make the payments, then they should play ball, possibly Cardew may be able to advise more on that point.

When they actually get round to sending you a bill, they should split it into periods and apply the various rates for that time.

If you decide to change suppliers, then BG will no doubt want a full payment of any monies owing before they will agree to a transfer.

I'm not sure of the correct address to contact, maybe Cardew will have a link.

Good luck.

SwanJon

They should do this no problem, weatehr you call, write or email. Just make sure that you are gettiung the DD discount (maybe even push for it to be taken off the past biill), as sometimes the system doesn't add it automatically if there's an old balance.

You could probably even ask for 18 months and get it.

Terrylw1

That shouldn't a problem at all. They will simply just add the debt into your projected next years use and divide the payment over it.

If it's a lot to afford, they may spread it further. I've seen Suppliers spread them up to 3 years. However, 12 months is the most common due to reaching the anniversary date when DD's tend to get checked.

Suppliers thesedays are checking DD's more often (think BGas is 6 months now?) so they are more on the ball than years ago with checking DD's.

Change of tenancy in error is a very commion scenario. Get your MPRN and include it with your move in date on the letter. They will then be able to set you an account up.

They owe you the DD discount (if extra for dual fuel) because this is their error.

Try contacting them with the MPRN, the address should be on here somewhere as well.

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/Help_Advice/ContactUs/

Cardew

Agree with the 2 posts above(as always!)

Personally I would simply wait and see what they do, rather than write to BG.

As Terry said I suspect that they will simply add the £600 to their estimate of your spend over the next year, say £800(as an example) and you will pay them back £1,400 over a year.

The time to negotiate is if your requirements have not been met.

It is not unknown for them to reduce your £600 debt by 10% or more as a goodwill gesture! - without you even asking.