to think i cant possibly owe British Gas this much money

[stressedoutstudent]

I recently moved from a rented property that had a top up pre pay gas and electric meter. I was topping up around £250 a month divided between the two meters (Over winter, i was home alot as a student nurse and all my course is online still, thanks covid, so used a lot of heating etc). When i left in March, i gave readings etc, closed the account, and transferred to my new property, that is the same system, pre paid smart meter pay as you go with British gas. British gas issued cheques for the balances remaining on the old property. Easy, right...?

Wrong! British gas have billed me, combined, £350 for unpaid gas and electricity on the property!

HOW?! when i was on prepay smart meters? How is that possible? Am i AIBU and missing something? Or are they absolutely BU in their demand for more money.

Have you phoned them to ask them to look at the account and explain it?

No one can tell you here. You’ll have to speak to BG.

I thought the whole point of prepay was that you couldn't use gas or electricity that you hadn't paid for.

How much were the cheques closing the old account?
Did they show you a breakdown of their calculations and did it seem reasonable?
Did you read the meters when you moved into the new property?
Which is the property you have been billed £350 for - old or new?
Could it be a debt left by the old tenants?

Ask for BG to explain their reasoning and if you don't owe the money and they keep on asking for it, follow the complaints procedure and if it isn't resolved, go to OFGEM.

The cheques were for just under £50 combined.

There was no breakdown of anything, just the balance on the prepay meter after id closed the account which was the morning after i took the meter readings at aound 9pm. Everything was off when i left the old house, i turned the electric meter box to off. The cheques were for the expected amount as i knew the amounts left on the meters when i left.

The new place reset to £5 emergency credit on the day i set up the account then i immediately topped that one up. It doesn't appear to have any debts being repaid or owed on the account. And the letters state the old address as being the one the bill is for

I am planning to call yes, however my 30 min lunch break isnt long enough to call, and i dont get home from my current ward until 8.45 by which point its too late. So i havent been able to yet.

I just cant understand how, with both properties being prepaid, i could owe anything. Im really broke at the moment from having to move, and student finance isnt great, i just cant afford a £350 bill. So i was hoping for some clarity if anyone knew so i could challenge them when i do have time to call and sit on hold.

Good luck, we recently left British Gas due their awful attitude and not sorting out issues with our meters for months. Since leaving and moving to octopus (already a million times better) they've sent us 3 'final bills' one where they said they were refunding us £1500 credit, then they changed it to £500 credit refund, then they said oops no actually you owe us £200 so who the fuck knows what is actually correct 🤷‍♀️

Yes. Try the I line chat - their phone lines cost a bloody fortune - I had tons of problems with a pre pay meter when I moved into a rental, and British gas were useless. Really uninformed helpdesk. All said different things and the phone calls cost me about £50. I've changed to octopus now.

Is it the final bill they have sent? Does it show closing meter readings and do those match the readings you gave them when you closed your account?

Did you take meter readings from your new property when you moved in?

I thought there were two ways to have debt on prepay.

One - carried over debt.

Two - emergency credit, particularly if you are too vulnerable to be cut off.

Is it possible that the new tenants have not paid for emergency credit given?

You can accrue debt on a payment meter , they are not pre-paid. It works on estimated usage and then once readings are taken it is reconciled debit v credit. However that was the old meters when I worked in the sector (15+ years ago). You have said they were smart meters so I’m not sure if they work on exact usage. Died the bill give you an end reading that batches yours? Try using the webchat rather than calling.

If you're on prepayment then you shouldn't owe anything unless you were in debt.

I had a load of hassle with British gas when I moved into my house. I switched to a different supplier and when I contacted British gas to pay my final bill they denied I'd ever been with them 🥴

Maybe they've given OP your bill 🤔

I see this come up on the energy support and advice uk Facebook page quite often. Head there and I’m sure a admin can help you out. Good luck xx

I don’t know why but British Gas have recently become absolutely appalling. We left them four months ago after 38 years! They claimed we owed them money and increased our bill by £500 a month! Moved to Octopus who are fantastic. British Gas had to pay us back over £1000!!!!
Absolute cowboys. Good luck op.

Contact them via live chat OP, the operating hours are much longer.

I can't understand how you can owe this money. If you use what you've paid for on prepay, your supply goes off until you top up sgain, unless you activate the emergency credit and that's only a small amount to keep your fridge on etc. It would never run up to £350.

In this situation, what you can afford is irrelevant. You don't owe the money so won't be paying it.

Did you get the £400 from the government last winter and was it applied to your account? Maybe some of that got lost
Somehow?

EDF tried to force me to pay £1500 7 months after I moved house and had paid off the (£21.37) balance I owed.

Their call centre staff were incompetent and aggressive and the situation was resolved only when I wrote a long email to the CEO.

Can't believe you put the heating on last winter! I wear layers and live in the North, this past winter I only put my central heating on 3 times, refusing to pay money to wasteful energy companies. I've got a 4 bed detached house and pay £110 for all my energy. I can honestly say I was not cold once. But my sons do despair of me, as I can afford to put the CH on, it's just my badge of honour I'm afraid.

A lot of energy companies just chance their arm tbh. British Gas are awful IMHO- they once capped off our boiler claiming it was unsafe and needed to be replaced. By chance, the maintenance man for our building was round at the same time for another reason, and afterwards he said look, we can get someone else to look at it. Boiler was fine, it needed a spare part.