Hy I replied with our experiences of british gas but i am not sure if you saw it we had similar probs but 3 bed semi paying over £720.00 did you read it

I agree with everything that has been said to you, WitterQ, and would suggest that you put your complaint, very clearly, backed up with your facts and figures, etc, to BG. Deal with them from now on in writing of some form - letter or email - and be persistent. There is absolutely NO WAY you should be liable for a previous occupant's consumption. Keep all correspondence, and, if you do speak to them by telephone, take notes, including the name and extension number of the person to whom you are speaking, the date and the time of the call.

Your complaint will end in one of two ways - either in your satisfaction, or in deadlock, which occurs when you are still unhappy andthey are not willing to further entertain your complaint. At this juncture they are required to send you a deadlock letter, stating that they will take the matter no further and providing you with details of how to approach the relevant Ombudsman.

You can then take the matter further for adjudication by the Ombudsman.

HTH

Cat

You are not responsible for the consumption for the previous tenant.Neither is it your responsibility to locate or identify his new address. Check your first bill and see that the reading when you moved in was the one used on your bill.If not ,you are due a refund.If they don't refund it,take the matter to Energywatch as advised.

The ongoing consumption doesn't sound right either.Monitor it daily for a while and note the heating/appliances you use.If you think it is excessive there may be a metering problem for which you can have a check meter installed.Quite often, in shared properties meters get mixed up or the meter may be faulty.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Hi Witterquick,
I agree with conmankiller, you should fight these sharks all the way, I was left with hundreds of pounds to pay when the last tenants did not pay the bill, although I knew who they were and there address, the fuel company still took the money from me, and said they would pay this back when they got the money back from the other tenants this was never going to happen, so I took on the company it took me a year to this sort out, because there were two companies involved in this problem the last tenants, gas company and my new one. They were fighting between themselves who should pay the money it was obvious to me. I bought in energy watch the regulators, in the end who sorted it out for me, and managed to get my money back. They are on 0845 0607 08 or e-mail them on www.energywatch.org.uk good luck.

cheers for the adivce - not goin to let these scoundrels get away with it!

You have your readings when you took the flat, and your new supplier has the readings now. You just subtract your readings from when you moved in to the flat from the new readings your new supplier has now got.
Those amount of units multiply them by the charge per unit shown on your gas & electric bills, that will tell you what you roughly owed British Gas over that period, then minus the amount you've already paid, any credit amount left over is your money that they owe you.
You are not responsible for any money the previous tennant owed british gas, you are only responsible from the readings you supplied when you moved in.
Do not let them get away with it, go to citizen's advice if they won't refund any money they've charged you for the previous tennant or see a solicitor. It's your money they are holding onto, the other chap is their problem if they want to hunt him down they have their ways & means if they don't it's tough, either way that's not your concern. Just keep sticking it to them for the return of YOUR money.

Yea, switched to Atlantic energy December there - just thinking if it's worth chasing up these cowboys and trying to get any of my money back or whether I should just leave it as expensive lesson!

QUOTE : Does this seem right, that such a small flat can cost so much to power/heat? = No

Just switch.

Hi,

Just wanted to vent my frustrations and share the experiences I've had with this sham of a company.

I've been having problems with British Gas since day one. I did everything right - when I moved into my flat, I took my readings, and called straight away to set up a direct debit (was a very busy time for me, so I had no chance to shop around). Two months on, I noticed that they had failed to take any money from my direct debit account, then all of a sudden hit me with a £300 bill, which even apparently covered the previous tenant's bill! I explained this to them, but as I had no note of the guys new address, I had to pay. Fine, I thought, I'd pay and carry on. However, British Gas have consistently disappointed me - for over 6 months they couldn't even tell me how much my gas bill was! "Systems are being upgraded at the moment", I was told, time and time again.

I won't bore with details, but the combination of shoddy customer service, being kept in the dark about my bills, and extortionate prices was enough to convince me to change companies.

I cancelled my direct debit payments with them, and a month ago I received two letters - one saying that my gas bill was in £120 debit and my electricity was £140 in credit (after they upped my direct debit bills to £51 a month). I called last week and was told that when I'd paid my 120 gas bill, I'd be sent any credit that remained on my electricity bill. A couple of days ago I got an email saying that my electricity balance was now £59 in debit!! Apparently I'd used just shy of 200 quid's electricity over 1 month??

Over the last year I've spent probably around £1200 on electricity and gas bills, but here's the strange thing. I live in a small, one bedroomed flat (lounge + kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom). We're very energy concious, and our flat is fully insulated (also first floor flat, so we're not losing too much heat). We rarely have the heating on. I live there with my girlfriend, and we're both full time workers, so nothing is on during the day (apart from the fridge and freezer). Does this seem right, that such a small flat can cost so much to power/heat?

The literature that comes with the bills often has a guide as to how to understand your bill. I looked at this one day, and noticed that the example was of a three bedroomed house, and yet the bills in this "guide" were lower than what we were paying for our small one bedroomed flat!

I have tried speaking to British Gas several times about this, but it's like speaking to a brick wall.

One thing is for sure - I will never, ever be supplied electricity or gas from British Gas again. I'd rather go without!