Friend not paid gas bill in 3 years

[huggybear]

I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were discussing bills when she casually dropped in that she hasn't paid her gas bill for 3 years! The story is she moved into her house 3 years ago and wrote to goodness knows who and said hello, please bill me. No one did... So she just left it. Other friend thinks it will be written off as it's the "company's fault". I think she will end up with a massive bill one day.

Anywhere I've ever moved in I've chosen my provider and given them a meter reading to set up my account.

Who is right?

Of course you are right. We had a mix up and didn't pay gas bill for 12 months, we still had to pay it but supplier agreed to spread debt over 6 months

www.ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/household-gas-and-electricity-guide/who-contact-if-its-difficult-paying-energy-bills/energy-backbilling-your-rights

This happened with my electric, kept on and on at them, then mahoosive bill arrived, eventually, paying it off in installments. They will want their money!

Read a pice link about back billing

*above

Bollocks, mine was 11 months worth

This actually happens. We have just moved into a new build. Im pretty sure british gas supply us. They told us its spark energy. I have rang them and the gas board and given them our meter serial reading. Meter is registered to another house number. Rang british gas back they said they cant do anything its spark. Rang spark they asked us to do a burns test and email across pics. Did this and have had no response. At a loss of what to do now.

Apparently all properties were with british gas and would only be elsewhere if occupiers changed them. So confusing. We are just going to bank what we would expect to pay a month until it can be resolved.

I thought that legally they could only claim the last 12 months, but could be wrong.

I worked for a phone company who in their start-up dates sold people mobiles without billing... It was a good 7 years before it was picked up upon and we're talking 1000s of phones!

They started trying to track down the users. Most told them to get tae fuck and of course the phone company only knew them as a voice at the end of the line.

The ones who came clean were back-billed for 12 months.

Weird shit happens!

Good luck getting away with it with gas/leccy though.

Meter is registered to another house number.

This happens a lot, apparently.

Utility companies are famous in the data industry for having "dirty" databases – riddled with falsities and very unreliable.

This happened to us - a long time ago though. We rang and faxed them (told you it was a long time ago). We never received a bill in the 4 years we lived there. We sold the house to an acquaintance and kept in touch with him, but never received anything at all.

Thank you for the link, that's interesting.

This happened to my friend. They bought a house but couldn't locate the gas meter but they definitely had a gas supply... numerous calls to the gas companies turned up nothing & no one billed her... after 2 years the large house next door was sold & it turned out friends house had been built on land belonging to the large house & they shared a gas supply & meter - the previous owners had essentially been paying her gas bill for 2 years.

@VintageFur did they go under because of it or how did they cope with that much of a loss? Or is it not as significant as I'm imagining?

Backbilling means they can only ever be charged 12 months worth

So this has happened to me this week! We let out our house and the tenant went in. I notified the electricity company of the tenant's name and they wrote to him but he failed to respond in 21 days so apparently it reverted back to my name. However they sent no bills at all in that time (according to tenant). He said he kept ringing and tgey said they woild change to his name but didn't. He has now left and he tried to notify them. However they needed me to call as it was still in my name £5400!!!! Anyway I emailed them the tenancy agreement and the meter reading from when I moved out (their records show my old account, my notifying them I was moving out etc. So they have now opened an account for me starting this week and will be billing the tenant at his forwarding address.

I asked what would happen and she said he would have to pay but they would arrange a payment plan if he couldnt pay all in one go. She said sometimes they will even reduce it because it has been building up on a deemed rate rather than one of the deals he could have had, so it will be a bit negotiable.

The bill above is for over 3 years and he will be responsible for it.

They can claim back as far as 6 years I understand.

A business we had for 22 years. We called and called. Nothing.
Recently we sold the building and had to get it sorted. Months of calls. Nothing. Eventually they said they'd bill us last 12 months. But they owed us compensation for calls/time etc. So we got a cheque for 50 quid and 22 years free electric.

This just happened to me over electric and they could legally only bill me for 12 months despite being aware we've lived here for well over that, the error was on their part. I'd keep my mouth firmly shut if I was your friend!

Happened to me.

They can't charge over 12 months of usage so the other 2 years will be written off.

I've not long paid mine off. Not impressed with the company at all. I contacted the ombudsman so I wasn't left with a huge debt and that's when I found out about the 12 month thing.

Read backbilling. I had huge problem with getting a bill sent to us on one probably we rented. Chased them several times then left it. After a few years they realised no bills had been sent. Pointed out tried to contact them and due to back billing they could only claim for one year. They wrote apologising and wrote the whole bill off. My dad had similar with 5 years. Honestly its a nightmare getting bills from some companies.

Good luck to her, they are robbing bastards!
The gas company can only bill her for 12 months worth, and they are clearly not doing their job properly if this can happen.

We didn't pay for water for the entire 5 years I lived in my previous flat. Never got sent a bill or anything.

Well we’ve been in our new house since May.
Took three attempts to set up an account with Scottish Power including letting them know twice our meter wasn’t changing.
I’ve now have an emailing saying it will be 28 days before they can get back to me but I’ve been waiting 2 months to hear back 🙄
I’m a bit worried about what’s going to come back.

They may bill her, they may not. They’re extremely disorganised and often don’t know meters or even properties exist. Good luck to her I say