old problem............please help

[meg&mog]

Hi all

I am here on behalf of my mum,she was one of thoes unlucky british gas customer who did,nt get a electric bill for in my mums case 3 YEARS she made numerous telephone calls only to be told her "electric was fine" i am going back to 2001 when this all started she had a knock on the door at 8;30pm on a saturday night by a woman from british gas wanting to speak with her about her "debt" she advised her that due to british gas,s error(although she tried to blame my mum) my mum now owed them £1900 my mum immedialty got my sister to write a letter to tell them it was there fault,however they only agreed to deduct £100 my mum was at the time working and was paying £80 per month anyway she became unwell with her back had to stop work at that point she asked for a prepayment meter to be fitted as she could not afford to pay £80 per mth,she has had his instaled for what must be 5 or so years now and put £60 per mth in it her meter is set at 13.9 which i understand is high she is of august last year now a pensioner getting only £114.00 per week she tried to change suppliers a while ago but of course british gas would not let her go however she has recently tried again to change supplier and it seems to be going through(i,ll update on this when we know for sure)after reading energy watch website and seeing the new law that came out about collecting debt more than 2 yrs old in july 2006 i guess my questions are


1.can they collect this debt now?
2.can we "s.a.r" them or something similar to get a true balance?
3.what do i do?


i would be very grateful for any help from anyone at all on this

and ill keep everyone updated because i think my mum needs a explaination

thanks

[gondukin]

1) Yes, because they billed it before the new regs came in
2) A S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) would simply give you the information they have on their records, which probably wouldn't iclude a correct up to date balance.
3) Has your mother tried phoning with a meter reading and asking them what the current balance is? Easier said than done I know, negotiating through their customer service, but she should try. You should also be aware if there is an outstanding balance they will immediately send a bill for it once the transfer has gone through so your mother would need to renegociate a payment scheme with them.

[meg&mog]

hi gondukin

thanks for your reply she has a prepayment meter now you can check your debt on them it currently stands at £711.12 shes been paying it since 2003 just cant make sence of it

i have wrote to energy watch just to ask them to investigate if they say tuff pay it she is anyway so no big deal just nice to know is,nt it

thanks again ill keep you posted