In Feb last year i recieved a huge £700 electricity bill

Turned out the water heater thermostat was broken leaving it on all the time

contacted the councill straight away Asked to put a claim in to there insuresrs

Sent all the electricity details they said they required ( took me approx 12 phone calls to british gas over a 2 month period )then waited and waited and waited

Sept chased it up was informed they hadnt enough details needed to go back to the previous year

Got onto british gas another dozen or so phone calls over the next few months but asked for statements arrived 12 dec with a copy being sent by email to the council neighberhood officer Tracy Gillpin (strange when i first talked to her she was the receptionist must have got promotion to chief decision maker )

Las week chased it up was informed that yes they had recieved it but couldnt print it out so had ignored it

Sent a hard copy

Today recieved a letter

" after carefull consideration of the facts we do not believe we have any responsibility to compensate for the increased usage (3500 kw)

you believe that the increase was due to a faut with your thermostat and immersion heater after checking our repair record i can confirm that there was a fault reported on 6th march which was attended and repaired 12 march

as we completed your repairs within the relevant response time from when it was reported to us we can not be held responsible for the increased usage

ps apologise in the delay in completeing this investigation

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Because of the huge bill was forced by british gas to go on prepayment

with taking the debt of and being all electric am putting £180 a month into the meter ( was retired bt Tesco 5 yrs ago deformed hip 2 fused vertebre lower spine arthritis in both knees am on incapacity and £140 per mnth pension after tax

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Have i a case against them

thnx LES

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Hi,

I had a similar case quite a few years ago when I had a solid fuel central heating system installed by my council. A couple of years down the line, the back boiler ruptured, flooding my living room with dirty water and ruining my carpet. I claimed on the councils insurance but got a letter back stating that as they couldn't have known the boiler would rupture, they couldn't be held liable for the damage.

I think the same would apply to your case as how would they have known the thermostat was faulty. The only way I can see to make them liable is to find the proof they knew it was faulty.

Just my opinion of course.

I would be contacting BG to lower the amounts you are paying them back. They have a duty of care to you but if they don't know your circumstances they can't help.

You may have to get the CAB involved as BG can be difficult to deal with.

fox