British Gas bill

[kmbabycrazy]

Oh my god!!! Today I got a letter from british gas saying that our bills were going up from £65 a month to £179 a month

Rang them up to see what was going on as the meter readings they've taken seem crazy. When we moved in it was only 004-- (don't remember the exact number and it was OH who called) and that was last April. They said they took a meter reading in December which was 01253 which is more than doubled then in June this year it was 02758, which is more than doubled again. Bear in mind we have an electric oven. The only gas "appliance" is the boiler and we rarely use the heating as this house gets so warm because it has lots of windows which bring the sun in and down stairs have their heating on so we don't really need to. Even in the winter it wouldn't be on every day and even when it was on it was only a couple of hours on low.

But the guy at British Gas said it was strange and to check they are reading the right meter which they are and the figures match. So what is causing this? Could the meter be broken? I can't afford to pay that much and I don't think we should be as I just don't understand how we could possibly be using that much gas!

 

[beth_terri]

Omg that's loads!! Hopefully it's broken :/ I've only got electric and its gone up from £99 a month £149 a month which is ridiculous so I'm switching suppliers.

 

[sue_88]

Is the boiler a combi boiler? If so it would be being used each time you switch on the hot water?

 

[C_baby]

Is it an old boiler, ours is 14 years old and desperately in need of replacing our bill is now £193 a month because its so inefficient. The landlord is taking their sweet time replacing it though british gas have been out to fix it 3 times this year, It's so depressing!!

 

[kmbabycrazy]

No it's not, the house was only renovated from a shop a couple of years ago, that's when the boiler was fitted. And with regards to the using gas every time we turn the hot water on, we leave the hot water switched on as we were told it was the most effective way to use the boiler. If we shut the whole thing off it would cost more to turn it back on every time we needed it. Going to ring the landlord tomorrow

 

[Quackquack99]

Your bill shouldn't be that much. I have a combi boiler and use an electric oven and currently my gas bill is less than £5 a week. That must be wrong.

 

[Incubus]

That's crazy high!

I just got my April to may bill and its only £67, we have a gas combi boiler and electric oven.

 

[suzib76]

That's rediculous I am on a prepayment meter and I only use a fiver a week in summer and a tenner in winter

 

[Quackquack99]

That's rediculous I am on a prepayment meter and I only use a fiver a week in summer and a tenner in winter

That is exactly like mine.

 

[lhancock90]

I'd be switching companies myself! That's insane!

 

[C_baby]

No it's not, the house was only renovated from a shop a couple of years ago, that's when the boiler was fitted. And with regards to the using gas every time we turn the hot water on, we leave the hot water switched on as we were told it was the most effective way to use the boiler. If we shut the whole thing off it would cost more to turn it back on every time we needed it. Going to ring the landlord tomorrow

Definitely is really wrong then, will they come out to check the meter? Perhaps the meters turning too fast.

 

[kmbabycrazy]

Hopefully they'll come check it out gonna give them a ring later x

 

[Loozle]

Have you checked to see if your meter reading matches theirs? Also check the meter serial number (msn) matches. I work in a debt collection call centre for utilities so have experience with npower, British gas, EDF etc. The first thing to check are those things. Do you know where your meter is?

 

[maryp0ppins]

omg thats insane! we pay about £52 a month for gas and electric and I have the heating on for hours everyday in the evenings in the winter. if you do switch go thru quidco or topcashback sites and get some money aswell!

 

[kmbabycrazy]

Well we may have figured out what's wrong. The meter matches both the reading and serial number but I rang the estate agent this morning and she said that she was about to ring me because downstairs have complained of a water leak coming from us. So if it's hot water that's leaking the boiler will be having to be constantly used. But as of this morning the boiler is broken anyway. Went to check there was notjinb accidentally on and it wasn't on and I can't get it to turn on again so they're sending someone out to take a look.

But if it's a hot water leak will that change anything? Won't we still have to pay as technically we've been using the gas? I can't afford that money

 

[Incubus]

Well we may have figured out what's wrong. The meter matches both the reading and serial number but I rang the estate agent this morning and she said that she was about to ring me because downstairs have complained of a water leak coming from us. So if it's hot water that's leaking the boiler will be having to be constantly used. But as of this morning the boiler is broken anyway. Went to check there was notjinb accidentally on and it wasn't on and I can't get it to turn on again so they're sending someone out to take a look.

But if it's a hot water leak will that change anything? Won't we still have to pay as technically we've been using the gas? I can't afford that money

You'll have to pay for gas that has been used but you may be able to get help from the landlord as it was broken. Give the estate agents a call to see where you stand once you've figured out what's going on with the boiler/leak issue.

 

[sue_88]

The gas company will definitely want paying so the bill wont go away, however I would definitely try and see if the landlord can help recover some of the cost as well.

When did downstairs ring up about the leak? Has the LL been sitting on the complaint and leaving the water still leaking or was that only reported this morning?

Seems like your meter reading has always been ticking over quite fast, so wouldn't sound like a new leak?

 

[Piggywinkle]

Have you been submitting quarterly meter readings to them? I had this problem last year - we moved from a 2 bed flat with a prepay meter to a 3 bed house and completely buggered up when we estimated how much gas/electric we would use. We weren't paying enough for what we were using. This went on for 12 months as we were online billing only and I wasn't checking my account to find out that I needed to submit meter readings every 3 months. This meant that when they billed me from the actual reading, instead of the estimated readings, a huge deficit was built up and they wanted to put our bill up from £88 per month to £258, which we just could not afford.

When I rang them and explained my naïvety, they were really nice. They helped me to work out what we could reasonably afford, as well as giving me plenty of energy saving tips in order to get my bill down over the next 12 months. We were paying £160 for around a year and the last reading I gave them made them reassess our monthly payment and reduce it down to £128 a month, so we're getting there.

Hope you get something sorted out - I've always found British Gas to be pretty helpful in a crisis so give them a ring and you should be able to sort something out.

 

[kmbabycrazy]

They are going off actual meter readings. They take them every 6 months but it's just too much, hopefully they'll be nice about it because I can't afford to pay that much a month x

 

[Piggywinkle]

Yeah, just give them a ring. In my experience, they can be really understanding. Good luck