MERGED: Missing Gas Bills/No Gas Bill

want2no · 1 May 2007 at 10:03PM

I am quite suprised that it was not only me. I have not received a gas bill over 5 years. During my marriage my ex paid for the bills so that I did not know who was the supplier when I separated. I called a number of gas companies but could not find my meter. Transco did not have it either. They said that I could call the major companoies to find my supplier. Otherwise, nothing I can do. So, I have not received any bills. Now I am thinking to rent out my property and what the consequence would be. I found out that the supplier can charge only 1 year back bill. It is the only my peace. I wonder if I should write a letter to transco at least to show that I tried to find the suppier as 5 years back, it was only telephone conversation. Any advice ?

tripled · 1 May 2007 at 11:00PM

Technically they can back bill two years, although my understanding is if there is no registered supplier this rarely happens. Your best bet is to call Transco again with your meter serial number, if they still can't find you then call up a supplier and register as a shipperless site.

smoothasf · 18 March 2009 at 11:33PM

this is very a comon undealt with flaw.

Origin:
when the gas service was installed the MPRN (serial number)was not created for the gas supply and the meter not registered.

Your situation is you are whats called a 'Shipperless Site' meaning you have no gas supplier. you cannot simply phone a gas supplier and register. the sales rep on the phone will think its his lucky day but it wont work.
you need:- your meter serial number
the make and model (U6 for domestic)
you need an mprn created for the gas service.
you will need to supply your current meter reading

you cannot be charged for the gas you have used as your new supplier wasnt paying shipper charges on the service at that time (no one was).
you've basically gotten free gas.
if you dotn tell them sooner or later the gas service will be maintained and as they dont have it registered as a live service it could be disconnected at that time and the cost of relaying it would be the property owners.
Warning 90% of energy center staff will not have a clue where to start. Ask for the british gas energy department to resolve issue.

sunFlower knows her stuff others are waffling rubbish

Premier_2 · 20 March 2009 at 11:46AM

smoothasf wrote: »

this is very a comon undealt with flaw.

Origin:
when the gas service was installed the MPRN (serial number)was not created for the gas supply and the meter not registered.

Your situation is you are whats called a 'Shipperless Site' meaning you have no gas supplier. you cannot simply phone a gas supplier and register. the sales rep on the phone will think its his lucky day but it wont work.
you need:- your meter serial number
the make and model (U6 for domestic)
you need an mprn created for the gas service.
you will need to supply your current meter reading

you cannot be charged for the gas you have used as your new supplier wasnt paying shipper charges on the service at that time (no one was).
you've basically gotten free gas.
if you dotn tell them sooner or later the gas service will be maintained and as they dont have it registered as a live service it could be disconnected at that time and the cost of relaying it would be the property owners.
Warning 90% of energy center staff will not have a clue where to start. Ask for the british gas energy department to resolve issue.

sunFlower knows her stuff others are waffling rubbish

This thread is originally from 2004 and it was almost 2 years ago that someone last posted in it! :eek:

What's more, the information you have given in digging up this thread is not entirely correct

2.8.3 SHIPPERLESS/UNREGISTERED SITES

...
Suppliers are allowed to bill for all fuel that has been used, even if they were not the registered supplier at the time, therefore consumers should not be surprised to receive a bill for the entire period that they have lived at the property.
However, in many cases, suppliers will only issue a bill from the time that the consumer contacted them.

http://www.cravendc.gov.uk/craven/documents/StrategicHousing%5CPrivate%20Sector/Energywatch%20-%20Big%20Book%20Of%20Energy.pdf

User_name_6 · 20 August 2009 at 1:03PM

I too am in this position with my gas.. no supplier & no bills. a new build and I moved in in march!

I've been told they can only claim back 3 months if a supplier eventually bills you?
there seem to be quite a few different opinions here though

master_of_puppets · 20 August 2009 at 9:44PM

i've not had a bill for 3 1/2 years now. we have phoned british gas 3 times. the third time the technical team were looking into it, that was over a year ago, and we still get a bill saying we are £317 in credit???? our direct debit is still live they just choose not to charge us. what more can we do

i've looked into it and as far as i know they can't back bill us for more than 1 year.
i've given up wasting our time and money chasing them for a bill.

stewie_griffin · 20 August 2009 at 9:50PM

User_name wrote: »

I too am in this position with my gas.. no supplier & no bills. a new build and I moved in in march!

I've been told they can only claim back 3 months if a supplier eventually bills you?
there seem to be quite a few different opinions here though

The back billing rule means that your supplier can only bill you for the last 12 months of usage however this only applies if you have made an effort to find out who your supplier is and register with them.

Swimming_Geek · 17 April 2010 at 11:59PM

I've got a bit of an usual problem...

We live in a shared house. We use Npower for gas and electricity. When the person who deals with the energy bills moved out she closed the accounts with them, so we could create a new account.

Then when we ring up to create the account they tell us that we still have an account open! News to us, as we thought she'd closed them all. It turns out that it was the electricity account. In over 2 years, we hadn't had a bill! So we gave them a meter reading, and it turned out to be lower than the one when we moved in! We were told that it would be unlikely that we would have to pay or if we did it wouldn't be for the full amount as it was their fault.

After things having been quiet for 6 months, we assumed that it had been sorted out. Then yesterday, a bill for £827 i.e. 2 years electricity based "wholly on our estimates" landed on our door mat.

Does anyone have any advice?

macman · 18 April 2010 at 6:48AM

Was the account in the sole name of the person who has moved out? If so you are not liable for any unpaid usage during that period-she is. Were you paying her for your share during those 2 years?
You don't make it clear if, when you discovered this, you then closed the account and opened a new one?
If you didn't receive a bill in 6m, why did you think it had been sorted out?

Swimming_Geek · 20 April 2010 at 4:20PM

Hi Macman,

Thanks for your reply. It seems it is more complicated than I realised!

The bills were in her name, but we should have been sharing the electricity bill, but we all assumed they were a duel bill.

We (and Npower) discovered the mistake when she had moved out and were paying the outstanding amount on the gas account (what we thought was duel). Then they discovered that we hadn't had an electricity bill for the last two years. Then in order to swap the account payee over we gave an electricity reading to close that account with the understanding that we'd pay the outstanding balance, but the meter reading was lower than when the meter was read when we moved in? I did the meter reading the second time, I don't know who did it when the account was opened.

We assumed it had been sorted as we were told by the customer services team that due to the error (of the meter reading being lower), we would either pay just for a year, or it might slip the net as it would have been logged in the system as no electricity being used for two years!

Does that make things a bit clearer?

MERGED: Missing Gas Bills/No Gas Bill

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