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?

So, they've been "reading" your smart meter which you knew wasn't plugged in...?

Happened to me when I moved into a new property and they didn't recognise the meter number. I was actively trying to rectify the situation (for a long 6 months) and I STILL had to pay back what I hadn't been charged for, (around £500). So I really wouldn't like to be in your position. You should have told them as soon as you realised or at the very least kept back the money each month in case it caught up with you.

I don’t understand what you mean. They read the actual meter not the smart meter.

Anyway I’m at peace now, he’ll either flag it and I’ll deal with it or he won’t and I’ll just carry on. I told him I use gas.

I think she means the little plug in monitor that shows how much you're spending at any given moment rather than the actual meter?

Yes I get that but engineers don’t come and read that do they? Whether it’s switched in or not it doesn’t matter. If it being off affected billing I’m sure a lot of people would just stick it in a drawer!

Why did you unplug the monitor after a year OP? And did you never query why you were getting meter reader visits when you have a smart meter? One of their main purposes is to eliminate the need for readers to visit.

The monitor not being plugged in means that the system can’t talk to them. Mine was disconnected whilst we had building work and our bills had to be estimated during this time. When we plugged it in again everything then resolved itself and the correct figures came through

This is apparently because we live somewhere without general network coverage though

@Lemonblossom and @StuntEgg

as I understand it and I may well be wrong but the meter itself is smart. The in-house display is just for my own use.

How do smart meters work?
Your smart meter measures how much gas and electricity you use and securely shares this directly with your energy supplier at least once a month and your portable in-home display in near real time. You won't have to take any meter readings manually - your smart meter will send automatic readings to your energy supplier via the secure smart data network which is solely for smart meters. This works in a similar way as other wireless systems but does not use the internet.
From
www.smartenergygb.org/faqs/how-do-smart-meters-work

It depends on where you live. If you don’t have good mobile signal coverage it won’t send anything though

So the meter, the meter in the cupboard is smart and shares the data with my display which I can unplug if I want.

So for us if the monitor is disconnected it doesn’t send anything. When the monitor is connected it can use our Wi-Fi to send the data.

Haven’t read reply’s .
this happened to us years ago. Bought a new build , didn’t pay gas for 10 years 🤭 we rang both companies ( were not in uk ) both said we were not registered so no idea where we were getting it from.
we ended up signing up to gas company before we sold the house and that seemed to have sorted the problem 🤭

I think this is good advice

You cannot switch at the moment, nobody can

@Lemonblossom I think you’re wrong sorry. The actual meter is the smart bit and this is what sends the readings. Not the little display unit.

Similar situation happened with a family member.

He was initially billed for the full amount owed over the years but eventually argued it down to a much more reasonable sum. Stressful but ended up with a better outcome than if he had been paying his gas properly throughout his time.

Also they don’t use Wi-Fi, it uses its own network, a WAN. Imagine the chaos if energy billing relied on the little things being plugged in and having a strong signal.

You’re wrong. In most cases they use wan but in some cases where the signal isn’t strong enough they have to use different methods. In most cases either a separate serial or no smart meter.

Anywag I’m not arguing with you. IMO you’re completely in the wrong. You’re knowingly gaming the system which helps to make everything more costly for everyone else.

I would keep a record of dated meter readings for when they realise the error and need to calculate 12 months usage for you to pay back and I'd start saving to cover that eventuality.

If you had deliberately tried to con the supplier out of gas then I would think it was reprehensible but this isn't your mistake and given how much profit they are making whilst bleeding customers dry I've joined the fuck em camp. Enjoy your free gas, the senior company executives won't be going cold this winter.

*separate aerial

We have switched suppliers recently. We had gas with supplier 1 and electricity with supplier 2 and switched electricity to supplier 1 as well.

I'd move and hope they never realise 🤣
I would not be signing up to pay them back right now.

This is how I understand it too. The "smart meter" we have for electricity is a digital display which sends data straight to the energy company. We do not have a monitor or screen inside the house.