Undercharged for gas bill with some extenuating circumstances - advice please!

In December my boyfriend and I moved into a rented flat (our first home away from our parents). Since our move in, there have been problems with the boiler. The flat was fixed yesterday, after a drawn out discussions between ourselves, the property agents and the landlords. In which we were blamed and then cleared of causing the fault.

The problem we are having is that our estimated gas bill came in yesterday, and the estimated unit use is well under what is on our meter, by around 140 units. I believe this was cause by the faulty boiler, but I am unsure how to proceed from here.

• Should I alert the provider ASAP? Will we be immediately charged? Because we cannot afford to pay what I imagine the bill will be.
• Should I contact the agents?
• Is the landlord responsible?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Gem_Stew

Why not put aside cash to cover the 140 units and wait for the bills to catch up with the reading ? The provider will probably correct things at the next bill if you phone them the correct reading. your question regarding the agent/landlord seems to suggest you believe you haven't used the gas. I assume you read the meter on moving in? It would be hard to blame someone else if there hasn't been a major gas leak. Please could you clarify how you believe this happened. BB

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Circumstances alters cases!!

I wondered about the landlord/agent because the fault in the boiler caused a greater use of gas - I was told this by the heating engineer sent in by the letting agents.

Something to do with a gage inside the boiler causing the temp not to be maintained every time it got to the desired level, so it would fall to the lower level and then be reheated back to the desired temp over and over I presume. I'm not an expert, this is just my understanding of what the problem was and it sounds like a problem that would waste a lot of gas.

As this is my first experience with anything of this nature, I'm not sure what the protocol for this type of thing is. I just imagine that because when we rented the property it was in the understanding that the gas central heating and boiler was in good working order... and as it was not, that perhaps the landlord may be liable to help us with or cover the cost of the difference between the estimated bill and what it will be once corrected.

In these circumstances it would be reasonable to talk to the landlord (via agent) you have nothing to lose, especially if the engineer is willing to write a report supporting this. BB

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Circumstances alters cases!!