I changed address at the end of March 2013.

The energy supplier at the new address was British Gas.

Amid ongoing PDL/council tax/bailiff hell

I received the first gas/elec bill at the end of November 2013, in excess of £900.

A DD was set up to pay for usage plus arrears.

It was the first of several as I would agree the DD amount/date with Bgas who would then increase the amount and/or change the date

- making if effectively impossible to budget.

The DD ranged from £261 to £593.

My partner's son took his own life at the end of August 2014.

A friend offered to rent out a spare house to us in a different area to give us a welcome change of scene.

We could stay for 5 years, which would give us a chance to heal our wounds.

I paid the final gas/elec bill on 19th Dec 2014.

The elec was nearly £600.

Having just moved house, and just before xmas, it bounced.

I set up a new DD for the energy supplies to the new house totalling £321,

the first to be paid on 19th Jan 2015.

One (elec £220) bounced.

Bgas also attempted to take out the previously unpaid amount (nearly £600) the following day (bank account balance £21.78). It bounced. And so it continued, the bills being paid by a combination of wobbly DD's and ad-hoc debit card payments.

I gradually extricated myself from PDL hell by

a)giving up on paying them off and

b)not taking out any more...

I lost my contract at the end of October 2015 and, with no savings or any other form of contingency, had to bridge a month long wage gap with - you guessed it - a £1500 loan from myjar (£3000 by the time I paid it off). It barely covered the bills.

In 2016 our friend/landlord announced the house was being put up for sale and evicted us.

We moved again at the end of July 2016.

I received final bills from the previous address (gas £323.30, elec £535.78) and paid in full on 18th Aug 2016.

I retained Bgas as energy supplier due to the debit balance (859.08) at the time of the house move. Bgas demanded a security deposit of £90 & £215, which I paid.

Their email explains:

"What happens to your deposit

If you've paid all your bills on time, we'll refund it after your first year with us.

But if you haven't, we'll use your deposit to pay any debt you might have.

Even if it's a different gas or electricity contract."

Bgas also supplied me with 2 "sales order numbers" pending setup of my new accounts.

Over the next few weeks I signed into my accounts to check progress

(they'd advised me it could take "up to" two weeks or thereabouts).

Thinking the delay might have something to do with the old elec account,

I contacted them and asked them.

They had no record of the account or the arrears. Okay...

8 months later (not unusual for bgas, given my previous experience)

I had still heard nothing from them but received a letter from Scottish Power giving notice of gas/elec arrears of several hundred pounds and application for a warrant to enter,

noting that - as our dog had woofed when they came to the house

- they would also be charging us for the attendance of a dog handler,

advising that this was "likely" to be distressing.

A quick phonecall confirmed that Bgas had never supplied energy to us,

the arrears related to a former tenant, not us,

and new gas and electricity accounts were duly set up.

I contacted Bgas requesting the return of my security deposits, which they have repaid by cheque.

Meanwhile, my 74 year old mum fell ill and was admitted to hospital at the end of March 2017.

Cancer tore through her like wildfire, so much so that a formal diagnosis had not been reached by the time she was discharged into our care 3 weeks later.

She died at home 3 days later.

I am the sole beneficiary of my mum's will, and the executor of her estate.

She left me a modest house with about £20k outstanding on the mortgage.

My intention was to obtain a new mortgage on the house to pay off the existing

- a loan to value of less than 25%.

I have approached mortgage advisers and have been told I COULD obtain a mortgage but for one thing: the outstanding Bgas account from December 2014 is showing as "status 6" on my credit report and has done for the last 22 months.

If they had defaulted it within 3-6 months of the original late payment (i.e. March-April 2015), it wouldn't trouble the lender, and I would qualify for the mortgage.

However, it had taken them until August 2016 (when I contacted them and was told they had no record of it) to mark it as a late payment at all!

I feel a complaint to Bgas is in order for their persistent late billing, excessive variation of DD amounts and dates, gross inefficiency, lack of communication, and tardy, incompetent and inaccurate processing of my data. Would appreciate advice as to how to structure and target my complaint.

Email to [email protected] ??

Thanks in advance!

simply write very briefly and without all the waffle above

could they please move the default to XX date because XX was reg'd late

as its preventing a desperately needed mortgage on your recently deceased mothers home.

Sorry for the "waffle" - when I keep it brief I get asked for more details...

They haven't defaulted me and claim to have no record of the account.

Hi John,

Was there no life insurance policy linked to the mortgage YM had with her lender ?

Hi John,

 

Was there no life insurance policy linked to the mortgage YM had with her lender ?

 

Nope.

Sorry for the "waffle" - when I keep it brief I get asked for more details...

 

They haven't defaulted me and claim to have no record of the account.

send them a copy of the credit file then as well

Okay, thanks - drafting a (brief) letter. Can I edit my first post and if so, how?

yes how about I dump everything before

1 am the sole beneficiary

yes how about I dump everything before

 

 

1 am the sole beneficiary

If you don't think the fuller picture of their incompetence lends weight to the complaint then yes, fine, thankyou.

Complaint emailed to CEO - acknowledgement received.

Reply from British Gas: "if the bill is now paid, we can arrange to remove the negative reporting on the account which relate to the final bill".

Just need them to confirm explicitly what this entails, then cough up.

from British Gas:

"if the bill is paid the negative reporting would be removed completely as if it was reported in error"

that's great news

dx

Just to conclude, I have paid in full and British Gas have indeed wiped all adverse data back to Jan 2015. Result!

Now to deal with my PDL defaults...

Pleased to hear this !!