British Gas backbill

[Ryderneedsus]

I sold a house on the 18th of March 2021
We received a refund cheque of £30 in April 2021 for a credit on the electricity account.
On the 14th of March 2022 we were sent a bill for £667 for unpaid electricity.
British Gas are insisting we pay this. We have had no correspondence from them before this. It sounds wrong.

So if I can only be billed for the last 12 months they can only charge me for a week maximum?

Yes.

I don’t understand why you would think you can legally not pay it

Because legally she doesn't have to. The onus is on the energy companies to bill their customers properly. Surely they could have realised at some point in ten years that someone was being supplied electricity but not paying. They snoozed, they lose.

@clannig perfect thank you

www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-energy-back-billing-rules

This explains it, it’s hard to say based on what you’ve said. Guess it’s possible it doesn’t apply because you knowingly didn’t pay for electricity for 10 years. Which could be said to be theft really. I no you say you didn’t realise, but you also say your bills showed it was just for gas, so you must have not read a bill for a whole 10 years? If I’ve understood that right they I doubt they’d believe you, I no I wouldn’t. But obviously if they never sent bills that’s different. (I’ve not understood which it is from your posts sorry). Maybe citizens advice are your best bet.

@Unsureaboutit9 I assumed the bills were online and no I never looked at them. It was not theft. I thought I was paying by dad.

*dd direct debit

I get what you're asking OP.

• you thought you were paying for elec monthly with your gas
• due to BG error, you were actually not
• because of backbilling rules they are only allowed to charge you for the last year of usage, which they are now trying to do

However, what no-one here is quite sure on, and you'll probably have to get official advice from CAB or similar, is whether:
(a) they are only able to bill you for the past 12 calendar months, in which case they can only bill you for 14-18 March 2021. Presumably if you hadn't moved, they would only be able to bill you for 14 March 2021 to now; or
(b) because you ended your contract with them on 18 March 2021, they are able to bill you for the 12 months prior to your contract end date, which is what they're trying to do.

This explains it, it’s hard to say based on what you’ve said. Guess it’s possible it doesn’t apply because you knowingly didn’t pay for electricity

If OP has provided meter readings and allowed them access to the property to read the meters then she has done her part. A lot of people just pay what they are billed for and don't look in to it any further. Good luck to BG proving that she knew about it when they still can't provide a proper breakdown and final bill! Especially if OP provided both meter readings on leaving the property.

I would go back to them OP, ask for a breakdown of how this happened and explain about back billing, i understand it is a year from the time they finally rectified it not the final year of usage if you have since moved out.

Under the back billing principle yes I think they can legally enforce this but for the 12 months.

Only the CAB can fully advise.

I’m another who thinks you’ve got away lightly of only paying for a year’s worth of electricity as ignorance of not reading your bills doesn’t stand up as it’s your responsibility to do so.

I’m saying this from a position of paying two lots of tv licence for 4 years previously and received no refund as all my mistake.

@Bramshott this is exactly what I want to know

Ofgem states "You can’t be charged for gas or electricity used more than 12 months ago if you have not been correctly billed for it before."

Seems pretty clear that you are only obliged to pay for 4 days OP.

Maybe we should all just follow suit … don’t give readings, don’t let anyone in to read meters … don’t pay any bills 🙄

@Namechangehereandnow we gave them readings, we let them in to read the meter.

Unsureaboutit9

I don’t understand why you would think you can legally not pay it. It’s your electricity bill, for electric that you used, so yes you legally have to pay the bill!

But she didn't use the electricity! She sold the house 361 days ago, so is being billed for electricity used by the current owners. The electricity used for the nine years before that is irrelevant because they are not allowed to, and are not billing her for it!

Generally if these kind of things get disputed, your negligence in not realising you haven't been paying for electricity is not negated by the lack of them billing (although with energy they are limits on backdating). They are two separate issues. It would be reasonable to expect someone to notice they weren't paying for both and to rectify. Ultimately the responsibility lies with you because you would have known that your electricity bill needed paying.

If it were me, I would be skipping down the road, paying the £667 and counting myself lucky that I had 9 years free.

@KrisAkabusi no she isn’t, she hasn’t even said or suggested that, you’ve read it wrong. It’s the electricity from the last year she lived there, which was like 362 days ago which is why she’s debating if she needs to pay all of it or just 4 days worth. She admits she used it.

[quote Unsureaboutit9]@KrisAkabusi no she isn’t, she hasn’t even said or suggested that, you’ve read it wrong. It’s the electricity from the last year she lived there, which was like 362 days ago which is why she’s debating if she needs to pay all of it or just 4 days worth. She admits she used it.[/quote]
You are right

@AfraidToRun

Generally if these kind of things get disputed, your negligence in not realising you haven't been paying for electricity is not negated by the lack of them billing (although with energy they are limits on backdating). They are two separate issues. It would be reasonable to expect someone to notice they weren't paying for both and to rectify. Ultimately the responsibility lies with you because you would have known that your electricity bill needed paying.

If it were me, I would be skipping down the road, paying the £667 and counting myself lucky that I had 9 years free.

But she doesn't have to pay it - that's the whole point of the backbilling rules.

Energy companies are almost universally shit at doing the basics - it's their responsibility to provide timely and accurate bills and if they haven't done that it's not the consumers responsibility to pay up for their errors.

If you provide meter readings and they can't even figure out how to bill you for it for NINE bloody years, it is their tough luck.

I would certainly try and use the back billing rules to avoid paying this.

I would email them stating that

1. You are only liable for the period 14/03 to 18/03 as you sold the house
2. You provided meter readings throughout and the meters were read at times by their own engineers
3. They need to provide you with a revised bill for the above period
4. Fuck off suckers!

[quote Unsureaboutit9]@KrisAkabusi no she isn’t, she hasn’t even said or suggested that, you’ve read it wrong. It’s the electricity from the last year she lived there, which was like 362 days ago which is why she’s debating if she needs to pay all of it or just 4 days worth. She admits she used it.[/quote]
Fair enough. When she wrote:
They are saying we didn’t pay for 10 years and they are only billing us for the last year. However as we always allows meter readings and assumed we were paying and we have still not had a proper bill (tomorrow is the 12 months since we left) do we have to pay?

I thought she actually meant "the last year", not "the last year she lived there".
Which really needs proper, qualified advice, as my reading of it would be that they can't bill her more than 12 months in arrears.

The back billing rules mean they can only charge you for a year from the date they produced the bill. On 14th March did you receive a reminder for payment or was it the actual bill you received?
If that was the date of the bill they would only be able charge for 4 days and would need to write the majority of it off by adding a credit to your account.
If that was the reminder I would ask for a copy of the bill to start with and ask what date it was invoiced and where it was sent to.

@leftleg it was a demand for £677 without any description of what it was for. We have not received a bill. They admitted on the phone that they had failed to send us a bill.

@MrJollyLivesNextDoor love it

If they have sent a demand for £677 there must be a bill to make up that amount even if you have not received it. They have previously failed to bill for the electricity while you were there but there must have recently been a bill to make up this amount otherwise how do they know its that amount. I would call back and ask for a copy of the bill which makes up that balance.

Just an update for future readers. British Gas has agreed that I am liable for 3 weeks of electricity. Apparently that works with the date the bill was issued not received. Be aware that several BG representatives told me outright falsehoods while I tried to resolve this and only backed down when I quoted the back-billing law at them. One told me I was liable to pay 10 years worth but they were being kind by r The key word was used, as in one year since the electricity was used.

*kind by reducing it to one year.