Lived in a rented accomodation and I made a quarterly payment for the time i was there and a month after was still there but I told BG cancel the service and take payment, this was in 2007. Told them to cancel as I moved houses. Not sure if payment was made through direct debit or post office. I have no reciept at this moment in time as it was a very long time however 2 YEARS LATER they have got back to me saying you havent paid.

Do I have to pay when I honestly knew I paid for everything which I had to at the time when i cancelled and moved houses? Also are these procedures followed properly as i would expect British Gas to get back to me if i didnt make payment within a couple of months latest. This is 2 yrs on and now they remember to say there is a overdue bill. How outrages is that or are they just making it up? Im not to sure whats going on but I hope someone gives me an insight of what I have to do.

Phat Beamer:

Also are these procedures followed properly as i would expect British Gas to get back to me if i didnt make payment within a couple of months latest.

Get these expectations of reasonable behaviour out of your head. You are dealing with (1) a Utilitity and (2) British Gas.

These organisations do not have a good consumer report card.

First of all they cannot charge for energy consumed more than 12 months before sending a bill, but that is not necessarily the circumstances you are in. I don't blame you for losing your records, easily done, but to fight this you need every scrap of documentation going. I strongly suggest you make a £10 Subject Access Request of BG requiring your previous bills, your customer files including record of contacts, and your account payment history.

To answer your question, if they properly billed you at the time and your didn't pay then I think you owe the money. If the latest demand is for energy not billed at the time then, assuming you participated in the account closure, I don't think you owe the money.

But you need to get the documentation to prove it one way or the other. You can also get advice from Consumer Direct.

Phat Beamer:

Don't disbelieve you. But the problem is you have not retained your records and (implicitly) BG are saying something else (and have more clout).

Get help from Consumer Direct if you don't want to take on BG yourself.

I have decided to pay up as I rather not make this a long thing. As for my bank statements there is nothing on there saying they have taken anything as everything was paid via the Post Office (cash). Its the only bad thing in dealing with cash no records really.

Seeing that I havent got any hard proof available now I think it would be just best to pay up.

Thanks for all who posted a reply on this thread.

Appreciate it alot.

Decided to quickly just found a important part of payments from all the Energy Companies.

As of July 2006, the main domestic suppliers (those who belong to theEnergy Retail Association) agreed a new Code of Practice which stipulated that, where suppliers were at fault for not billing a consumer, they will not backdate (or back bill) more than two years. This dropped to a one year timeframe with effect from July 2007.The members who belong to the association are: British Gas, Scottish Power, e-on, npower, Scottish & Southern Energy and the last one is EDF Energy.

Also Click here for more info - Consumer Focus

Therefore it should be okay to say I will not pay up.

Doesn't it depend on whether they are claining that you were billed at the time but didn't pay ? If they did then they ahve a right to chase you for the payment. To prove this they would need to provide you with a copy of the bill with a suitable invoice date. Then as you say you can't prove that you paid it you may have to pay up.

If the disputed bill is dated more recently then you should be able to argue that they shouldn't be billing you at this late stage.

BTW I keep all bills and stamped receipts (when I pay cash) for 6 years to avoid this sort of problem.

Phat Beamer:

Therefore it should be okay to say I will not pay up.

Indeed, That's what I alluded to in my first post in this thread and in other posts.

If the circumstances are right the Code applies. The issue is whether BG agree the Code applies in this particular case or are going to attempt to wield a big stick as per normal. It's whether the latest demand is for the previous bill which they are asserting you didn't pay and you can't prove you did, or a new bill. The Code applies differently to those two scenarios.

Yep, put your case to them and see how they respond.

One thought that has crossed my mind, you paid but due to an account transcription issue (at the Post Office perhaps) the money didn't reach your account.

Yes however they should have made contact beforehand and if there was a bill which came through then most definately I would have paid it off. Assume that I didnt pay it off then 100% without a doubt they would have sold the debt off to a debt collecting agency of some sort and got their money back.

I'm sure it doesnt take 2 years to get back to a person or something and say look your bill is outstanding!

Speaking as someone who works in accounts - yes it could take 2 years to work out a bill needs chasing. If the bill was issued at the right time then they have got 6 years to start the chasing process before it become statute barred.

It could be that they've been sending statements / reminders to your old address.

Yeah and how long does it take to send a bill to my current address?

In other words was it it officially sent to me but did I see it? The answer is obviously no therefore concluding that I am not in the wrong. If they wanted to contact me earlier on they could have chased me up. However I think it is their loss this time.

Also another thing is that if they knew they sent reminders and nothing was done I would assume that BG would have disconnected the Gas. Not my fault at the end of the day I told them that I wanted to close my account as I was MOVING HOUSE.

Sorry but things do get lost in the post. You also can't prove that you didn't just throw it in the bin when it arrived.

You're way to get out of this is to ask for the disputed bill and check the invoice date. If it is dated around about the time you moved out then it will be their word against yours and they are likely to pursue it. If it is dated more recently then you are home and dry as they can't back bill for more than 12 months.

I dont see how many letters would actually get lost in the post. One or two how about three no I didnt officially recieve anything from them as I moved houses and my council should have records of when I was living there and when I wasnt. Also another thing if it was dated about the time I was there but nothing reached at my end I dont see how it would be my fault.

If BG knew that I was moving houses and maybe send it earlier they should have or either asked for a alternative address.

Also ttlady I moved out 2 years ago and the bill is dated 2 years ago. There have been many others who have been billed for the outstanding bills from BG and they have now recieved bills around June, July this year.