They would just decline the transfer. You would still have a supply.

They can refuse the transfer if you have a balance over 28 days that is over £250. I think it has changed, or is about to, as someone else pointed out, to £500. Unless you are making payments on the outstanding balance expect your credit score to get murdered.

It doesn't 'run faster' it is emergency credit that is available incase the shops are shut and you cannot top up. When you next top up it will refresh that 'emergency balance', it will also take any 'arrears'. Simple answer is that you aren't paying your arrears rate, you are using your emergency 24/7 etc. That's why you are on that meter.

Taking a guess here...(could be many reasons) The read when the original poster 'moved in' differs from a read of the former tenant in that it is lower, so the account has 'locked' hence a credit of £1000 as the account isn't releasing bills/invoices so any payments made are stacking up a nice balance but the account isn't recognising usage. He/Her isn't responsible for usage of a prior tenant, a quick proof of tenancy/proof of indentity will solve that.

I think their is a lot of poor information in this thread, including from the 'Site Admin' who although some of what he says is true, some isn't. Part of my problem lies with wanting to help genuine people against issues from my previous experience in the industry but then part of me views threads like this where everyone wants financial compensation for minor issues and I just can't help but think that it means the information ends up in the public eye for less genuine people to take the p**s. £50 compo for time? As the guys post says, he didn't register with the provider until someone knocked on his door. It's the first thing I do, even for rental properties. Yes, companies DO get things wrong every day but so do individuals. Did he think fuel was free?

They will change them back for free as long as the next tenant achieves the needed credit score. As a landlord myself, I have had them fitted into my properties and it is clearly stated in their tenancy agreements that they cannot change it to a credit meter, little chance of getting a poor or non-paying tenant that way (those that dodge bills and move frequently will not entertain a property with a pay as you go meter and they are the ones that sit in a place and do not pay rent) and they sure can't turn it into a weed farm if they are not stealing from the grid. British Gas do not care one iota if you are looking for a new house and will have them fitted at that address, it's little more than a promise to pay. It's this address and this debt that they want sorting. Have you put something in place with them? Whilst there is no agreement in place you are subject to further debt action.

As I have stated a number of times, I am a former British Gas employee. Some of what you post is very true, some is complete rubbish. For me, the proof in the pudding is having seen first hand what British Gas charge for the cover, what they offer and what they deliver. Would I take out a Homecare agreement having worked for the company? NO WAY. Your service is cancelled, even in summer (I know that overtime was being thrown out left, right and centre as a mate still works there). I know that if it snows you will be waiting upto a week with no heating or hot water and they will offer to pay for a £20 electric heater for you. (LOL). They do not have the resources to match the demand this winter. They didn't have them in the summer. Yes, you can kick off and they will 'fit you in' but I can 110% guarantee it will get cancelled as soon as a drop of snow lands. The Homecare service is crap. That's a compliment. £4-5k for a boiler though? Seriously lad, take your head for a wobble. I only paid around that for a full installation of a wood pellet boiler, (I took the pipes between the rads to be ceramic coated by a friend) and 13 rads being fitted into an old stone 1880's property.

I am no expert here, I would like to point that out. I believe it is from the date of default. It looks as if it has been in the hands of a DCA for a few years. Checks are against the address and associates. Unless you can show company error it will stand for 6 years.

Storage heaters are bad for usage. If the 'cottage' is older than the 50's house you live in it is likely it may not have a cavity wall so could be even worse for retaining heat. Modern houses (what year?) will be upto the building regs at that time as a minimum and the newer the boiler the better as it has had to have a certain efficiency rating since 2007 IIRC?

It does to be honest on that basis but a back boiler is really, really bad for usage. I am fairly certain that there are a lot of schemes out there that will replace a boiler for a modern condensing one even if you are a tenant. Have a google. (Condensing boilers are crap because they create a by product that by their design means they have a very short life span, condensate pipes freeze up causing them to lock out unless they are rooted to an inside drain but they are FAR cheaper to run)

If it was previously in both names then the debt will have carried over to you as you were already named on the account. Back boilers are good in terms of reliability but very, very poor in terms of efficiency so in that respect £115 a month doesn't strike me as an obscene bill to be honest but for the fact that we haven't had the bad weather yet. As you rent off a private landlord you would be entitled to free loft/cavity wall insulation, you will need their permission but I do not see why they would decline it, assuming it hasn't been done already that is and you fit the criteria. See here for T&C's; http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/energy-saving/home-insulation/terms-and-conditions.html It appears you must apply by the 30th of this month so you have little more than a week. Have you applied for the warm homes discount? You must apply for that by new years eve. You are entitled to it, arrears or not. It's £130 credit on your electric account. If you had owned it I would have told you to get the floor boards up and celotex everything between the ground and upper floor, it's the absolute mutts nuts but it isn't cheap. I did it to my Mothers house last year to help her with her heating bills and fitted a log burner for her (never again, what a horrid job). She was paying £56 a month on gas with an old boiler that was forever failing when it asked for heating, now she pays £7 which is basically just her cooking and hot water. She has a free supply of wood and has a little device to make waste paper into little fuel bricks. If your former partner was in the trade would he be able to get on the roof and fit a flue liner for a log burner? It stood me at £420 all in to buy and fit it but I did it myself. That was all parts, materials etc and paying £20 to have the register plate welded to fit the flue adaptor as my welder was knackered. It could be an option? This was the brick device in question: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Galaxy-613-Briquette-Maker/dp/B000OAXWOW/ref=tag_stp_s2_edpp_url

Things should drop off your credit file after 6 years or was it late being reported for some reason?

The old debt is 'wiped' as such, they will chase him for it (he will now have a default registered if he hasn't paid or made arrangements to pay!) but as long as you were not named on the account previously your account would have been set up with a clean slate. The fact you were living there previously is irrelevant if you weren't named on the bill, that's a private dispute and he is accountable for the arrears at the time. Regarding your question about the standing charge, that's on the link I posted. Pop your postcode in and it will tell you. Is your home of normal construction? Is it owned/private rented or council? Has it been insulated? Depending on the above and a few other things you may be entitled to get that done free of charge. Is he paying CSA?

If you know their account details you can set up a standing order as that is set up by the customer, if your account doesn't support a Direct Debit (set up by the company) then that's another matter. The date shouldn't matter if it lands on a weekend as a Direct Debit cannot go out on a weekend, it will go out on the next banking day - the Monday (unless it's a bank holiday Monday!).

If they have never serviced it, they wouldn't have your boiler make/model on file to let you know. Check your agreement but I don't think they offered a breakdown policy without a service 3.5 years ago. Was this the first time they have been out to your boiler in 3.5 years?

No. You may have got the warm homes discount which is a credit placed onto your meter for 'vulnerability' issues. You can thank OFGEM for the daily charge thing, they said bills had to be 'clearer' although it was easy enough in my eyes already. Now, if you have a meter with ZERO usage you will pay for it (excludes existing contracts which must be honoured!). OFGEM really are complete donuts.

You have a choice to some extent. If you have had 2 failed payment schemes such as direct debits you will not be offered another. You could do Fuel Direct where it comes from your benefits, that's the limit of your options to be honest. They will fit meters for you free at your current stage, if they obtain a warrant you would be charged and it's over £250 per meter. It would only be £3.55 a week towards your outstanding balance if on means tested benefits. So you could stick £100 on, it will take the standing charge each day, your usage and £3.55 each week towards the debt. It's done each week, not each top up. Bear in mind if you go away for weeks anything you put on goes towards the recovery rate first, same with using emergency credit but if you pay each week it will only take £3.55 towards the balance each week.

Part of the reason for the annual service is so they can let you know that part availability may be limited for your boiler. When did you last have a service? Do not let fob you off with a £30 gesture of goodwill if it hasn't been done, they charge nearly £100 if they ONLY service the boiler. As I said above, they only deal with their suppliers and will not spend ages phoning around places. If you can obtain the parts (genuine ones, not some cheap rubbish from China!) then they will come out and fit them and refund you for the parts.

I suspect it is rarely or never. I had a previous reply deleted as to be honest this guy has an awful attitude. He is 'the victim', he has no regard for the fact he owes money and decent payers subsidise him. Strange? I offered help but as many people in his situation he wanted to blame everyone else, including those trying to help him, rather than being man enough to face upto his debts.

Gemma, this thread is almost a year old.

Nicely worded letter that. Problem is that as far as I am aware any agency that British Gas debt factor to have the ability to report on your credit file (I may be wrong on that but I am 99% certain) so it will nuke your credit history. It sounds off the above as if they do not include things like mobile/SKY etc in their income and expenditure forms?

Have I or have I not made that completely clear? It is £3.55 towards your debt each week. There are no exceptions. It is £3.55 a week. If someone from British Gas cannot explain that then they are very poor at their job, same as whoever works for the DWP. It is entirely possible someone has got your usage wrong, depending upon how they arrived at that figure? One of your statements will give you a breakdown of what you have used in a 12 month period and it will say 'We expect you will use X' in the next 12 months. The person should divide that by 52 and fill that in as the figure for you application. They CANNOT specify the amount towards the arrears, it isn't physically impossible on the form they complete. That's a fact. Your Landlord doesn't need to know to be honest. If it ever did get out, say it helps you with your budgeting as a monthly direct debit wasn't working for you as it was leaving you short some weeks. No, they are normally fractionally cheaper than a normal standard quarterly bill, only fractions of pence (though marginally dearer than a direct debit), see this link and put in your postcode; http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/gas-and-electricity/our-energy-tariffs/clear-and-simple/clear-and-simple-rates.html People complaining about the costs of the meters are those who have arrears on them set at a high figure towards the debt. They will set it at £3.55 a week towards your balance if you are on means tested benefits. British Gas should not be looking at a payment plan for you if you can have a pay as you go meter. Look at the link I posted above (please note that you will not get the direct debit price if you set up a direct debit with them as that is based on customers with no outstanding balance). Yes, with a direct debit they are in control and they do look at them twice a year, they can jump massively either way, normally up at this time of year. My advice would be to look at your statements, one of them should have an annual usage figure on (normally one in 4 statements do), divide that by 52 as your average usage to give you an idea of your average spend. Then get a pay as you go meter, you will use a lot less energy. Oh, off your circumstances and the age of the children in your house you should get the 'Warm Homes Discount' from them, it is £130 this year that is placed onto your electric account as a credit between January and March. You must register by New Years Eve! As said previously, expect to be kicked back by the trust fund, I'm not being harsh, just honest.

How long have you had your agreement for? As others have said, the part may well still be available but they use certain suppliers so unless they can source it through them then it is 'beyond repair' in their eyes. That doesn't mean that a small plumbing supplier somewhere hasn't got a part on the shelf that's been sat there for years though. My boiler is also not 'service listed' as far as British Gas are concerned and hasn't been for many years, it's around 20 years old but I still have a source of parts from another source.

As I say, it will have cancelled because it is effectively a payment towards a credit scheme, as she is no longer in the property it should be stopped to prevent her potentially paying for someone elses usage. So did she move straight from the address in question and into another N-Power supplied address? If so it is a clear company error. If she provided a forwarding address, again it is company error. I do not believe that N-Power perform a credit check for new customers but if you are getting letters from debt collection I would say it is prudent for her to check her credit file through experian as she may well have had late payment markers placed on her account. The service is free for the first 28 days or so I think but she must remember to cancel it. If anything has been placed on her file it is easier to deal with it now because they can stay on the file for 6 years but it certainly sounds like company error so if anything has been placed on there and there are no other circumstances then they should remove it.

So how is it erroneous? Do you not owe them any money? You will have been sent a series of letters, I think it is 7 in total (plus a debt visit card) and the warrant letters. The warrant letters are always sent out to the name on the account and a duplicate is sent to 'the occupier', these are all archived as evidence that they were sent. They send one to 'the occupier' as it's illegal to open post not for yourself so there really is no excuse then for anyone in the property. It's entirely plausible. The average bill used to be £106 a month, but they have just put up prices by about 6% or so, therefore about £112/113 a month, only fractionally below your yearly usage. If it's outside and someone comes they will read it. They are only obligated to do so every 2 years though! You could have had the meter for free at an earlier stage. Why didn't you? You are paying for a warrant because court action isn't free and you obviously wouldn't commit to a pay as you go meter at an earlier date. You will be charged for that visit. It is also prudent to have access in order to check the supply after the meter exchange to ensure that everything is safe, in some scenarios it can be done without entry though! Genuinely sorry to hear that. By all means, cancel the boiler cover. If it goes wrong within the next three months you will be given the option to pay the missing payments and they will reinstate it. After that they offer a product you can take out in a breakdown anyway. Why do you say you cannot get the insulation? They are even offering to do it for non BG customers too. There are certain criteria though, such as the property cannot be clad (have to drill holes for cavity insulation) and the existing loft insulation would be brought upto current building regulations as long as it is below 6cm or there is none etc. This again ties in with the above about the usage, it's entirely possible, especially if it's poorly insulated. They will not be over-charging you if all the reads are right. They are a regulated company. Stay in the property on the day of the warrant execution, show them details of your benefits and the engineer will set it at £3.55 a week claw-back towards your debt. The problems start if you do not stay in the property on the day as sometimes they have to change the locks and then you are into the realms of collecting new keys etc. Hope all that helps shine some light on things? If you are on means tested benefits and your son is under 5 years old you are entitled to the warm homes discount, there are other criteria you may qualify for it through too but that jumped out at me. It will put £130 on your electric account as long as you register by the end of the year!