I haven’t paid for any gas for 3 years. How to get out of it?

[Gastheif]

I know I have been unreasonable, looking for advice.
had a smart meter fitted 3 years ago since then and despite the company sending out meter readers all bills I have received for gas say £0 usage.
I want to get out of this situation, ideally without having to pay it back and before the price hikes mean that I may have a debt I can’t even afford, also before government help starts.
if I switch supplier, do you think this will fix itself?
WWYD?

There are a few houses in the UK that receive Gas and Electricity but are not actually on the " System" Due to being marked as disconnected when they are not. Like this

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/07/no-electricity-bill-20-years

I had this with eon. the smart gas meter wasn't sending readings. Our account was massively in credit because our DD stayed the same after the meter was put in it took many phone calls to sort out. As far as they were concerned l wasn't using any gas. They eventually came to try and fix it. Now the gas meter still not sending readings and neither is the electric.🙄
I have to send manuel readings every month
If l was you l would ignore it. Start trying to save for a year's worth of gas incase they notice

They can only charge you for the last twelve months at the most. I'd leave it if you've already tried to tell them numerous times and have complied with their instructions to have a smart meter fitted.

Fuck them and all who sail in on them, the incompetent, chiselling, thieving fuckwits that they are. I don't think they should be able to go back more than the charges for the current month if they have made a mistake and the customer has pointed it out even once to them.

So true.
The food banks are full of people asking for food that doesn’t need to be cooked but the gas and electricity companies are making billions of pounds of profit.

Something similar happened to me when I was a student in a flat-share. After a year, we just phoned the gas company and said we had only just moved in, and could they begin billing us please. Not sure that will work for you though, if they know you've been there a while .

We had a similar problem, had a smart meter fitted, paying a fixed DD each month, but we realised after about six months that the meter hadn't been connected properly and was reading gas useage as zero, so we ended up owing them about £800 which was very annoying.
Our fault in a way for not checking the bill each month, but we just didn't think about it when paying a set DD amount.

I don’t think anyone needs to lose sleep over “stealing” from companies that are price gouging elderly, disabled and vulnerable people, putting our independent traders out of business and ruining the economy. Fuck them!

My sister has never paid for gas - same home 20 years.
Its always boiling in there and she has the windows open !

It's a dilemma. You're not going to win any fans especially now when we have all been paying the full price. Looks like you want to do the right thing but for the wrong reason. Though we all like a bit of good luck and would understand if you had got away with it for 3 months but for 3 years you should have done something knowing this day would come.

We had a similar problem years ago. We were getting charged for electricity but not for our flat, it was for the flat next door which was rented to the local
MP who hardly lived there so our bill was tiny. We rang the electricity company multiple times, emailed etc but they never resolved it. I presume our neighbour wasn’t complaining about his bill as it was his constituency home so would have been reclaimed as expenses. In the end we sold the flat still having paid for hardly any electricity. Once something goes wrong with one of these companies it is almost impossible to rectify it.

I'm sure when my mum had a broken meter the just didn't charge her. There broken equipment ment they couldn't say what she had or hadn't used so never charged anything.
But that's wasn't as long a 3 years.

The smart meter reading says zero. Just checked the actual meter and it just looks dead, like it isn’t switched on! I’ve had at least 3 visits where the company have come and taken readings, the last one was in April this year. I have the funds to pay for 12 months if necessary. Been here decades so nothing to do with previous occupants, it’s a house not a flat and I have gas central heating. I think the bills are actual but I deliberately don’t look at them online so I can feign ignorance!
im feeling a bit better about it after most of the responses. Might just leave it!

if they know about the problem but have done nothing about it they can only charge you for 12 monthes
if you haven't told them there's a problem you will have to pay it all back

@PauliesWalnuts You can find your supplier here:

www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/finding-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator

I believe CAB can also find the supplier for you.

Some years back we had free gas for 2 years. Moved into a rental and gave the readings to the gas company. It was summer so when the meter didn’t change after 3 months, didn’t think much of it. After 6 months we realised it still hadn’t changed so reported it broken. No one came. Reported it again. Still nothing. Told it was on a long list. Ok. When we moved out after 2 years it still hadn’t been fixed, gave final reading (same as first!) and left. No one has ever contacted us and tbh I don’t know how they could as there’s no record of what we actually used, only that we reported it broken.

If the meter is broken and not recording anything I don’t see how they could claim anything. If you’ve been giving readings and access when requested I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. They are the ones at fault.

Have you kept the bills showing zero?

Happened to us when we moved house, didn’t get any bills and couldn’t find out who the supplied was. They caught up with us eventually and we had to pay the full amount, luckily we’d been putting it aside.

I would have to ring them and say you have been reviewing your bills in view of all the price rises and you have realised you haven't been charged for your gas. Put the onus on them to sort it out. Keep a record of the exact time and date you called and who you spoke to.

bills are all online, I haven’t logged in for years and just pay the DD for dual fuel, the electric is correct

Jsut leave it and start putting money aside to pay when they notice. I can't get worked up by an energy company losing out on yet more profit.

On these circumstances I really don't think it's morally right for them to back charge you atall. It's their fault, their inefficiency, their crap customer service, their business decision not to follow up and rectify. They have no right to expect people to save up to be able to pay back some huge bill.

If you e made an honest attempt to tell them/ to pay, then it's on them. (Morally, not talking legally).

How could they work out what to bill me if the meters don’t work?

I hope you have to pay it back. People like you annoy the shit out of me.

That makes me petty af. I don't care.

Not true!
I’ve been paying full price and am not bitter at all. Totally rooting for her.
op good luck to you 👍🏻

I wasn't charged for years due to a faulty key meter, even though I told them a couple of times but they ignored it until we moved.
There's a rule they can only go back a certain amount of time. Had to quote the law at them and argue about it, but I didn't have to pay. It was thousands. Good luck.