Declined for a mortgage because of fucking British Gas

[forgodssakes]

Honestly I could cry and the house will likely be gone by the time this is sorted. I switched to direct debit last year and had a smart meter installed which was faulty and didn’t work for months, I repeatedly rang British Gas and told them that I wasn’t being billed properly. When it was finally sorted I set up a repayment plan and I thought that was that. I have got a proper copy of my credit file today to try and see why my agreement in principle has been declined and the fuckers have put 5 months of arrears on my account. I could honestly cry. I have called then and they said they will try and remove it but probably not in time for this house. Feeling very sorry for myself tonight .

Can you not send evidence of all this to the mortgage company? They may take it and approve the mortgage.

It's very much computer says no but if you get this in front of a person it may be different.__

We’ve just had an absolute nightmare with BG, I don’t know how they get away with treating their customers so badly. They basically made up an ‘estimate’ bill that we owed them when we switched provider which was 5x our usual monthly bill. Safe to say this was wildly wrong but we were threatened with bailiffs if we didn’t pay the bill. Luckily we had the money from savings but many others wouldn’t. The bill was actually more than our bloody mortgage payment. It took months and a complaint to the ombudsman but we managed to get the money back. It has been horrific. Sorry I don’t have any advice, just absolute solidarity.

Could you try a mortgage broker?

This is a broker who has discovered it.

I would suggest logging a complaint with BG. They can amend your credit file, if they agree they have applied incorrect information. I work for a bank and I regularly request data amendments on credit files where we can prove error. It takes around 30 days to update with the credit agencies once submitted. I'd also ask for compensation for the impact of the error.

This exact thing happened to me. I was devastated, luckily I had the emails from when it happened that showed me telling them about the problem at the time. I had given notice on my rental and we didn’t have anywhere to live, I phoned them in tears explaining my family would be homeless and they took it off my credit rating, it only took a few days.

I hope it works out ok for you.

British has are complete arse holes. They are currently refusing to speak to a widow about her and her recently deceased husband’s gas and electric account. Apparently they don’t have a bereavement team, or anyone who can simply deal with removing a he deceased name from the account, so the bereaved have to wait until someone gets off their backside and emails them. So far she’s been waiting six weeks …. Absolutely disgusting service.

Eon on the other hand hand dealt with my exact same situation in 20 minutes by phone and could not have been more helpful. Even held on the phone whilst I downloaded and logged into my account via the app to check I was ok using it. Brilliant service.

so @forgodssakes im really sorry and really angry on your behalf. Fingers are crossed you get a resolution and some compensation.

We had issues with British Gas too, informed them of it month after month snd they didn’t sort it. In the end we went to the ombudsman snd miraculously it was solved.

Definitely give your broker any emails you have and hopefully they can reconsider for you

is this evidence? I didn’t receive a statement between June and December so how could I pay a bill I didn’t get!

Could you not have logged in online and paid roughly what you thought it might be when you weren't receiving the bills?

I used to work in complaints for British Gas. They'll have dated notes written by whoever took each call you made and they would be able to produce a letter for the mortgage company explaining the situation. Don't be fobbed off.

Besides being utterly stupid to ignore not receiving a bill, try explaining the circumstances to your mortgage broker.

She didn’t ignore it. She rang them and told them repeatedly!

British gas are the biggest shi**iest company I have ever dealt with.
Complaints department are rubbish.
Never speak to the same person twice, even if you had their name.
Shannon
Isabel
Raj
Trudy
Yigit
And 20 other names.
Didn't believe my late mum was dead even with a death certificate.
Told me mum owed nearly £3k. Got all bank statements and it was them
that owed mum money. Even contacted the CEO. No apologies.
Ombudsman got involved and it still took 5 months to sort out.

Second shi**iest company The Halifax.

Complain in writing, copy in guardian or daily mail, ask for costs snd escalate to ombudsman

Ours was wrong for a year when the smart meter wasn't working properly, I kept telling them I wasn't paying enough and I put my direct debit up and they put it down again, in the end it got sorted and we pay more now for the DD to cover the debt as the debit is spread over the year. I haven't noticed anything on my credit file though. Was you paying an amount by direct debit that they told you to, OP

Email the ceo, we did years ago for dh when we got this house things can removed instantly and we got the mortgage.

Thanks for posting and hope you can get it sorted in time. I still haven't caved in and got a smart meter. This nonsense is so off putting.

They lied to me that my DH had signed a document, nope, I then told them I was reporting them for fraud.... they lied again, and again.... in desperation, found a number of their executives emails, within minutes a PA rung to ask how they could remedy my issue!! They are a rancid company.

We haven't got a gas smart meter yet, all the do with the electric one put me off, also there is no benefit to having a gas one as ours is very easy to read and also there are never any peak save offers with gas.

British Gas are robbing bastards. When I switched they sent me a final bill for over £1000. I was up to date with my direct debit. They literally just plucked a number out of the air. They took 2 months to send the final bill and in that time my credit report plunged 200 points because they said I defaulted on the bill. I couldn't pay it because they hadn't sent it! I'm with Octopus now and they are amazing.

No this would not be evidence. An email or a letter from BG confirming that it is an error may work. The broker can ask the lender it they would be willing to ignore the adverse based on that evidence. Really is pot luck with lenders will allow that or which ones would need it fully removed from the credit file to continue. If all else fails there are lenders that offer mortgages with adverse on the credit file but they charge higher rates.

British gas are absolutely shite. They kept sending my friend two different bills for his energy supply.....one for his new build flat and one for the previous building!!!! They kept sending it to him because he was the first tenant of the new build!!! Took months to get it sorted out

I’ve saved a fair bit of money on my gas bill on Octopus Tracker, which is a smart tariff. So there can definitely be a major benefit.