Large bill after meter was not working

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A widow has approached me for advice. She doesn’t speak good English.

Her gas meter has not been working for a number years. I’ve tried to help out now and again as she has two young children. Her late husband would previously manage the affairs of the household so she is not all clued up.

A fixed direct debit has been taken each month and a regular meter reading was taken by the company every few months. The reading has been the same for 5 or 6 years it now transpires.

She’s now received a gas bill for several thousands of pounds which she cannot afford to pay as she is on universal credit.

Who is generally responsible for such issues when British Gas has been coming regularly to take meter reading and did nothing about it. As mentioned she’s not clued up on all these things because payments continue to be taken when setup by her late husband.

One can argue that she should know better but to be fair to her the bills were being paid and she never looks at the meter because no issues were ever raised.
 
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“Her gas meter hasn’t” been working for a number of years - says who and why wasn’t it reported / fixed earlier?
 
If the meter hasn't been working, how would the gas supplier know how much gas has been used? Presumably they are just estimating usage. The supplier is allowed to issue estimated bills but I don't think they are legally enforceable if unreasonable.
I'd suggest raising the issue with higher management of the supplier, or escalate to Ofgem, local councillor or MP if necessary.
 
A widow has approached me for advice. She doesn’t speak good English.

Her gas meter has not been working for a number years. I’ve tried to help out now and again as she has two young children. Her late husband would previously manage the affairs of the household so she is not all clued up.

A fixed direct debit has been taken each month and a regular meter reading was taken by the company every few months. The reading has been the same for 5 or 6 years it now transpires.

She’s now received a gas bill for several thousands of pounds which she cannot afford to pay as she is on universal credit.

Who is generally responsible for such issues when British Gas has been coming regularly to take meter reading and did nothing about it. As mentioned she’s not clued up on all these things because payments continue to be taken when setup by her late husband.

One can argue that she should know better but to be fair to her the bills were being paid and she never looks at the meter because no issues were ever raised.
Back in the day if a meter (electric) was giving the same reading an alert was placed on the ticket for the next reading -Nil advance check meter
 
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how much credit is she in, if the meter was the same then zero charge , other than day charge and so she would have a massive credit after 6 years ....... especially with the recent increase
even if the DD was £100 a month , then thas 1,200 a year so 6 years is 7,200 - LESS whatever the gas dayrate has been over last 6 years
i dont think they are allowed to hold that much credit , maybe thats a recent change

Even if you said day rate @25p a day , thats less than £100 a year , so thats £600 , so credit of £6,600

they meter has to be read I think once a year
but you said
a regular meter reading was taken by the company every few months
So they should be on the Bills the reading as READ

She must have had the DD changed for them to say she owes £1000's now
 
“Her gas meter hasn’t” been working for a number of years - says who and why wasn’t it reported / fixed earlier?

Please read my original post again. The meter reading has been the same when I looked at historical bills.

The fact that a meter reader would visit the property on a regular basis should have alerted the company if it wasn’t working. Not everyone looks at and understands meters, just because it’s easy for you and me doesn’t make everyone knowledgable on such issues. Key point is that payment (presumable estimated we’re always being taken).
 
I was expecting that response from you.

So no blame on the supplier who visited every month or so for 5 years and reported the same reading and the company’s systems are so antiquated that they couldn’t realise something is wrong and continued to take a fixed payment. Ok then.

As I mentioned, she doesn’t speak fluent English and is a widow with young children, so yes let’s make it all her fault and not Mr Big Corporate. It’s not as if she wasn’t making payment.
 
It would perhaps be worth contacting her supplier on her behalf to ask them:

-Why was the meter reading consistently the same for so long?
-Why didn't they do anything about it?
-Why has it now changed?
 
So let me get this straight;
The meter was regularly read,
Regular payments were being made,
No red flags raised for years,

If all of those are as stated then surely the connclusion is no gas was being used.
 
So no blame on the supplier who visited every month or so for 5 years and reported the same reading and the company’s systems are so antiquated that they couldn’t realise something is wrong and continued to take a fixed payment. Ok then.

So each reading is taken by a different reader, who has no access to the previous reading

Why can’t people just accept they are partly to blame

A couple of years ago I did an EICR - the meter display was dead, so I asked the tenant how they checked their bill - they said they didn’t as they couldn’t asked them why they didn’t call supplier - said they didn’t want to. Noted this on EICR for landlord, talked to the Landlord about this and went to next job.

Ignorance is not an excuse
 
So each reading is taken by a different reader, who has no access to the previous reading

Why can’t people just accept they are partly to blame

A couple of years ago I did an EICR - the meter display was dead, so I asked the tenant how they checked their bill - they said they didn’t as they couldn’t asked them why they didn’t call supplier - said they didn’t want to. Noted this on EICR for landlord, talked to the Landlord about this and went to next job.

Ignorance is not an excuse
Is the reading not processed to work out the bill, ie compared to the previous reading?
 
So let me get this straight;
The meter was regularly read,
Regular payments were being made,
No red flags raised for years,

If all of those are as stated then surely the connclusion is no gas was being used.

Gas was being used but the meter was not working so not recording any increase.
 
So each reading is taken by a different reader, who has no access to the previous reading

Why can’t people just accept they are partly to blame

A couple of years ago I did an EICR - the meter display was dead, so I asked the tenant how they checked their bill - they said they didn’t as they couldn’t asked them why they didn’t call supplier - said they didn’t want to. Noted this on EICR for landlord, talked to the Landlord about this and went to next job.

Ignorance is not an excuse
Clearly I’m not talking about the meter reader here. Logically, the systems are sufficiently sophisticated to work out that following a genuine meter reading by a reader (and not a customer reading) the figures have not changed in years.

Why do you even think that British Gas is not remotely responsible? I should also have added that her account is marked as being a vulnerable individual when I helped her out after her husband died. I suppose you’re now going to say that has no relevance either.
 
Last edited:
Gas was being used but the meter was not working so not recording any increase.
Who says gas was being used for all that time, especially as nobody verified it.
So each reading is taken by a different reader, who has no access to the previous reading
In my experience the meter reader had a book which showed previous readings, including those we had rung in. The meter reader should have had an instant indication.
We usually asked how much had been used since last time.
 

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