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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

247 replies

Gastheif · 30/08/2022 10:16

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?

OP posts:
Imthedamnfoolwhoshothim · 30/08/2022 13:03

Mannymoomin · 30/08/2022 12:58

@MumofSpud op has done none of those things.
OP hasn’t contacted the supplier at all

Show quote history

Neither did I until I had to. Result was 6 odd years of not paying Gas.

Original poster
Gastheif · 30/08/2022 13:05

StuntEgg · 30/08/2022 12:59

Hi OP,

This current energy pricing crisis, and now your post, are both reminding me of the job I used to do when I worked for British Gas, which was to deal with the excessively high bills and the zero bills.

Not sure what supplier you are with, and procedures will have changed since my day, but I'd say both you and the supplier are equally at fault here. They should have a procedure to deal with zero bills, and you, having noticed your £0 charges, should have reported this straight away.

I understand how some PPs have compared it to scanning an item and it not charging a price, but what you are doing is the equivalent of going back to the shop and "buying" an endless supply of the free item before anyone notices, i.e. you know it's an error and are exploiting it for your own gain.

I doubt if meter readers are trained to inspect meters any longer, and smart meters will rarely be seen by a reader anyway, so the company should be picking up on this at the billing stage.

You, however, know the cost of gas and if you are using gas, you know you should be paying a bill so you should keep yourself in the right by reporting it. If they fail to act, that is not your problem - you have at least (and at last!) done the right thing and brought it to their attention.

Re. the backdated charges, IIRC, they cannot force you to pay anything at all, but given how long you have left this, refusal to pay a penny may be interpreted as you wilfully avoiding payment all along. The usual outcome when I did this was to negotiate an estimated usage and amount with the customer, and agree a one-off tailored payment plan if required.

And your non-indicating meter should be replaced with a new one, unless it's just not been set properly in the first place.

You wouldn't have got this far with it in my day!😄

This baffles me too. I work in IT, I can’t believe they can’t just run a query to pick up zero bills then double check them. I’ve never switched supplier, just switched to smart and my gas bill (which was pretty high!) just stopped. Also baffled at what the meter reading people
are seeing when they visit and read the meter that’s next to my combinboiler and gas hob!

OP posts:
Mannymoomin · 30/08/2022 13:05

Gastheif · 30/08/2022 13:01

Yeah sorry @MumofSpud . I haven’t. In your situation I wouldn’t worry one little bit. That really isn’t your fault at all.

I am surprised there’s so many of us. DH has gone to faff with the meter, see if he can get any reading or just switch it on or something.

Yea there are so many of you.
But everyone else has done the decent thing and informed the supplier that they were being incorrectly billed. If the supplier failed to act after that it’s different.

You haven’t told them once that you are being billed incorrectly.

You inform the supplier, in writing, an email perhaps. It isn’t difficult. If they do fuck all after that then that is their problem, you would’ve at least tried to rectify.

Except you haven’t tried.

Having someone come out to read your meter but failing to tell them the meter doesn’t work is again another attempt at deception.

HannahSternDefoe · 30/08/2022 13:05

Good luck OP, I hope you don't have to pay a penny! 🤞
Not RTFT...but I think there's a limit as to how far back they can charge you - especially as you have a really incompetent smart meter and have given the meter readers access to it (pos 12m?)

Diyextension · 30/08/2022 13:06

Donkeys years ago I didn’t pay council tax for a few years ….. they didn’t bill me , they didn’t take any money out the bank so I didn’t pay anything 🙂.

Indoctro · 30/08/2022 13:06

Personally I would say nothing

Especially as you can only be back charged a year.

Just wait till they find out and sort it...if they ever do.

When they do you will come to a payment plan for the owed year

Stay quiet

Diyextension · 30/08/2022 13:07

Indoctro · 30/08/2022 13:06

Personally I would say nothing

Especially as you can only be back charged a year.

Just wait till they find out and sort it...if they ever do.

When they do you will come to a payment plan for the owed year

Stay quiet

Yes this exactly

HannahSternDefoe · 30/08/2022 13:08

Having someone come out to read your meter but failing to tell them the meter doesn’t work is again another attempt at deception.
Bullshit.
I'm not a meter fitter or an electrician - how the fuck would I or anyone know if it's faulty?
They take the readings from their own equipment, so it's up to them if someone is returning zero usage after fitting their alleged "smart" meter to chase up a fault.

Sunflowergin · 30/08/2022 13:10

So…
if your meter is dead/ blank your supplier needs to change it.
they will then look at your usage to work out what you would have been using and back bill you for 12months only at the prices for that time

BUT if you have repeatedly told your supplier of the issue and they aren’t offering to fix it or trying to resolve it that is where you could contest the back billing as you have been trying to fix it and THEY haven’t taken the right actions…

There is no reason you can’t change supplier though… if you did this then your current supplier needs to issue a final bill or they could advise you have a meter dispute which will stop you being able to change supplier

Pasithean · 30/08/2022 13:10

We still cannot find out who a relative of ours receives gas from. All companies have denied knowledge. They are not allowed to suddenly produce a bill. They can only go back a couple of years or so we where told.

Diyextension · 30/08/2022 13:11

I would say they think you don’t use any gas ,as you are all electric but still have a gas standing charge because you are still connected at the property.

probably a lot of people still pay a standing charge but don’t actually use any gas ?

WhereAreMyAirpods · 30/08/2022 13:13

HannahSternDefoe · 30/08/2022 13:08

Having someone come out to read your meter but failing to tell them the meter doesn’t work is again another attempt at deception.
Bullshit.
I'm not a meter fitter or an electrician - how the fuck would I or anyone know if it's faulty?
They take the readings from their own equipment, so it's up to them if someone is returning zero usage after fitting their alleged "smart" meter to chase up a fault.

Also agree with this. The first time DH phoned the energy supplier he said there must be a fault with the meter. No, said the energy company, it is "talking" to our system just fine.

DH is neither a gas engineer nor an IT expert and neither am I.

Original poster
Gastheif · 30/08/2022 13:14

Diyextension · 30/08/2022 13:11

I would say they think you don’t use any gas ,as you are all electric but still have a gas standing charge because you are still connected at the property.

probably a lot of people still pay a standing charge but don’t actually use any gas ?

Thanks, that makes sense.

anyone definitively whether you can switch suppliers at the moment? Looked at meerkat and another big comparison site and both said no.

OP posts:
Sunflowergin · 30/08/2022 13:15

You can switch supplier - but not many are taking on nee customers due to current price cap etc

mam0918 · 30/08/2022 13:27

I dont pay the gas (my DH does) but I have had 2 strange instances with the electric meter.

Our house had to be rewired (electrician declared it was against mordern regulations) and when the power came back the meter never came back on but the electrics still worked.

This was right at the point our electric company Npower was bought out by another company. We requested a new meter but they told us we had to wait until the transfered all the databases across to the new company as we werent on their system yet.

That took 3 months for them to recognise us on their system then they finally came to fit the new meter, they said its a common problem but never changed us for the 3 months it wasnt running (I theorise there was no way to know what was used in that 3 months so they couldn't just charge us a made up amount).

It wasn't our fault they took 3 months to fit the new meter though.

Dadalus · 30/08/2022 13:28

A long time ago I had a flat for about 3-4 years that all the energy companies denied being the supplier to ( and IIRC I couldn't change supplier without letting my current supplier details) Had to phone various companies and agencies and give my meter serial number but it was never resolved and I was never billed. I was young and skint so although I tried to resolve it, I was pretty happy that it never got sorted.

mam0918 · 30/08/2022 13:28

mam0918 · 30/08/2022 13:27

I dont pay the gas (my DH does) but I have had 2 strange instances with the electric meter.

Our house had to be rewired (electrician declared it was against mordern regulations) and when the power came back the meter never came back on but the electrics still worked.

This was right at the point our electric company Npower was bought out by another company. We requested a new meter but they told us we had to wait until the transfered all the databases across to the new company as we werent on their system yet.

That took 3 months for them to recognise us on their system then they finally came to fit the new meter, they said its a common problem but never changed us for the 3 months it wasnt running (I theorise there was no way to know what was used in that 3 months so they couldn't just charge us a made up amount).

It wasn't our fault they took 3 months to fit the new meter though.

a similar instance not 2 strange instances lol

Desmondo2021 · 30/08/2022 13:30

We had 2 years without a water bill for usage due to a faulty meter. When we realised and notified them they came and out a new meter in and the back payment was never mentioned. In our case we had set up the direct debit and had opted out of paper statements hence the reason we hadn't realised for so long

Flymetothezoom · 30/08/2022 13:32

Start saving the payments each month for this year going forward. In one year and a day contact your gas suppliers about your bill. They can only charge you for 1 year for gas used and standing charges. Then you are home free.

Abraxan · 30/08/2022 13:33

We had a similar issue several years back, but with electricity. But we had kept telling them. It was after we moved and they simply never billed us. We had records of our contact to tell them, incase anyone requested them.

In the end we only paid back a certain amount - they can't back charge you further than a year iirr. Our repayment was tacked on to future bills, a set amount each quarter (was several years ago when quarterly bills were still the norm) over several bills. Though as we had saved what we thought might be due we took it out of that.

Water did the same, at the same time - didn't charge us for over a year. They simply wiped off the charges as they acknowledged it was their fault, and we could show how we had contacted them several times.

Westfacing · 30/08/2022 13:38

Some 20 years ago I worked for a professional Chartered body in quite large premises - a new boss started and discovered that they had not had a gas bill for years! The previous boss, newly retired, knew and never bothered to deal with it.

The new chap sorted things out - I've no idea how much they had to pay back.

saleorbouy · 30/08/2022 13:43

You havenot evaded billing since you have sent reading or the meter readers have. It is thoer billing process that is incorrect so their issue.
I would notify them and then make an arrangement with them to pay part of it bit not all of it since it is their issue.

perenniallymessy · 30/08/2022 13:50

Metering is usually contracted out by energy suppliers, so you're probably getting caught between your supplier and the metering company and information isn't being passed on.

My DPs had an issue with their economy 7- the time reset so they were getting their cheap electricity in the middle of the day. DDad did let them know but nothing happened. In the meantime they had taken out the last of their storage heaters and retired, so could take full advantage of the cheap daytime electricity. That continued for years until they moved to a normal tariff with DDad reporting the issue once a year and nothing happening.

uncomfortablydumb53 · 30/08/2022 13:54

It's correct they can only backdate a year, but realistically they can't as there is no record of your usage
Now, I'm a very honest person but in your situation I'd keep quiet
They're making billions in profits

Original poster
Gastheif · 30/08/2022 13:57

someone just called to read the meter. I don’t expect to be believed because it is unbelievable that I started this thread and then that happened. DH came into the lounge looking really worried and said you won’t believe who’s in the kitchen. I peered through and he’s laid in the meter cupboard! Expecting troll accusations but it’s completely true! I plugged the smart meter in yesterday after it been disconnected for a couple of years. Wonder if this triggered the visit?

anyway he said this meter has never been used, do you use it? I said well it gets read. He said so you don’t use much gas? and I said a normal amount I think. He said ok and left. I was too shocked to think straight.

OP posts: