im making monthly payments of 105 towards it.

 

so if they refuse the transfer would they just continue to provide my electricity and gas or just close down my account and then leave me with nothing?

 

thanks

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

ahh ok then do you know what the process is after would they accept payment plans or is it the usual let it go to an agency then set up the plan with them?

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.

British Gas pre-pay meters are fitted with 'emergency credit' on them at the outset. British Gas say that this "runs faster". When asked whether this means: "costs more" they answer that it just runs faster, therefore ten pounds only lasts three days, implying a useage of £3.333 daily against an average consumption of 30p daily. The meter having been set to claw back the amount under the Code for those in financial hardship, on benefits etc., at £3.55 per week should take that every Wednesday, however if it is not already present the meter claws back a percentage of that as soon as you make a top up, plus 90% of anything remaining and continues to use a recovery rate of 90%. A £1.00 credit will give you 10p of gas until that ten pounds plus the £3.55 plus any remaining percentages of 90% are repaid. If you cannot afford to pay £13.55 immediately once the ten pounds 'credit' has rushed its way through you will be on a 90% clawback and will remain on that until you can overtake this cycle. The runs faster credit of ten pounds appears to be a Penalty as pre-pay customers are either getting less gas or paying more in this scenario, but British Gas refute this totally but also refuse to explain how this is calculated. The question still remains for British Gas (and no doubt other Utilities) to answer and I have been unable to get a reasonable explanation from them myself. How does this 'credit sum' run faster? Does my neighbour's gas run faster? Sounds like a penalty of the poor again. Despite recommendations British Gas still cut off during the night.

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.

so you know the answers then tell us where we are going wrong

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?

Also if im looking for a new house is it a good idea to put pre payment meters in here? Will they change them back to normal meters for free if i say moved in 2 months?

Am i better off telling them that im looking for a new house and i am happy to have them fitted in my new house?

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.

Trouble is there are to many bad stories

and allot more you do not hear about,

 

People are set in there ways they trust BG

then wham can not get parts need new boiler £4000-5000 thank you

 

reality probably the average cost £2000-2500 from an indy as you put it

 

£121 for a service on a newish boiler

 

is a good return considering they only stick a prob in the flue and if the readings are OK

Average boiler service out side London £40-60

 

year 1- 2 under warranty from the manufacturer , so parts covered

 

Numbers game very High return.

 

Leakie

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.

Was thinking the same thing. It turns out the default is for a £40 odds pounds debt as a result of my husband leaving a council flat in 2004 to live with me. He paid the bill when he left but this was charges for the 3 week period after he left and before new tenants moved in as a result of failing to give a final reading...

 

The property was given back to the council on or around September 2006 when he moved into my house and all energy supplies had already been in my sole name since 2002

 

the credit report says default date 28/7/08 - it has my current address on it even though supply was not provided to this address

it then says satisfaction date 10/2/09

 

and then also partial settlement 1/3/09

??

 

is this statue barred? does that go from date of last payment or date of default

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.

ok, well i at the moment i am looking for another smaller house. as far as fuel prices go there are 2 im looking at,

one is a 2 bed modern house with newish boiler.

the other is an older 3 bed cottage with a multi fuel burner (installed in 2012) in the living room and storage heaters in some of the house. 2 beds don't have the heaters.

or i can look in to all you have advised above and try and make this house cheaper to run. my ex could fit a fuel burner.

i will aplpy for the 130 on my electric account tomorrow.

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?

also what do you think of the last bill for 42 days, does it seem a lot. half of the last 42 days has been very mild so the heating hasn't been on.

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)

well the account was in both of our names and i just asked to have his name taken off. as far as i know he has never been chased for it.

my house is and 1950's semi detached ex council house with an old baxi back boiler.

3 bedrooms but we only use 2, kitchen, dining, living rooms. all the rooms are quite large.

im not sure about insulation.

i rent it of a private landlord.

i am looking for a small 2 bed house as this house is to big and i do think the back boiler doesn't help with the costs of heating. do you think that 115 for gas and elec a month is a lot?

its just me and the 2 kids. i have a bath every day and the kids have one together. we are home a lot as it never stops raining so heating probably on 5hrs a day altogether. hot water 3hrs a day. but i am cold a lot of the time and the kids room is freezing and has damp on the outside wall. the living room is the warmest as its only got 2 small outside walls at either end and has the boiler in the cupboard. we also have an old gas fire but rarely use it, i did a bit last yr as my baby was born in december and i used to give her a bath in front of it!

yes there dad does pay csa but is in the building trade so work is very unreliable and when it rains he can't work much. he is also self employed so doesn't get sick pay or payed when they get sent home due to the weather so he's not that reliable but does help out.

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

Can you please advise on who I can from email at ScottishPower about wrongful information on my credit report from 2004.

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

ok i have just looked into all my history on BG website and i have made a huge mistake. i moved into this house in august 2011, my ex left in feb 2012. i rang up BG to change name on bill and the account had some arrears. the bloke on the phone said he would start me a new account and to 'he would sort the old bills out'. i didn't really know what he meant but it looks like he has cleared all the debit from 1st august to 25th feb 2011. maybe he felt sorry for me as he knew i was on my own with a newborn and 15month old or maybe it was a mistake?

so this changes everything, i have now worked out my monthly usage as 115 for gas and elec. the house is always bloody freezing so this seems a lot. this still makes the latest bill over the average.

climate, is it possible that he just wiped the debt?

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?

Thank you very much!!!!

 

Credit rating doesn't really matter as that's knackered anyway...........I've got no issue with paying what I owe it's just the fact that this company are ****bags who have cancelled my payment plan (when it's so close to being finished) to probably add more charges on just coz I was a couple of days late ringing them.

 

The problem I have is that they can't set up a standing order as I have a maestro card so I have to ring and pay it every month. Sometimes the payment date will land on a sunday so then I have to ring on a monday which counts as me being late and as this has occurred 3 times in a year they won't allow me to pay £30 and want the full amount.

 

The debt is originally from my previous address, I had got into financial difficulty and not paid gas for a while so a meter was installed and the debt was being repaid through that.

 

I then moved house so had to stay with British Gas to continue paying my debt to them but there was an issue regarding the previous tenants of my current property and it took a while to get my saccount set up here.

 

This is where BG screwed up as I was led to believe that my previous debt payments were rolled into the payments I was making for my gas at my current property. This wasn't the case and the first I knew of it was when PDCS wrote to me requesting this account be paid. Then followed the farce I have endured this last month.

 

Posted that letter off today so can't wait to see what response I get.

 

They allow for phone but not things like hire purchase, ie: Brighthouse payments and also wouldn't amend the I&E even when I rang back straight away to correct the error.

 

PDCS were saying that I had a disposable income of around £250 per month which is most definately not the case!!!!!!!!

 

After coming off the phone I realised that my sons nursery fees had not been accounted for which is £62 per week...........there goes that disposable income!!!!!

 

But they wouldn't adjust it even when I said I could send them proof that's what I have to pay out.

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!).

I have never had it serviced. Not once have BG phoned me to arrange a service (maybe this isnt included in my cover) or more to the point ever stated that the service also is when they determine if my homecare is valid. Surely if they just kept my boiler make and modle on file they could keep me in the loop if they can uphold their agreement.

 

The websites i have found the parts on say genuine.

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?

They should refund the standing charge annually, shouldn't they? I'm sure that i've had it re-credited to my key in the past.

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.

CLIMATE, i know you say it is not possible for the arrears to be higher than 3.55 a week but the fact is my usage is no where near the weekly payments.

so do i have a choice about having a meter or not if i am offering a to pay?

do i have to pay to have them fitted?

when i leave this property will they change them back to the meters that are here now? (or similar)

will the payment towards the debt definatley be 3.55 a week and not half of every 5 i put into the meter? (i have heard of these kind of charges on meters)

is it possible to get british gas to tell me the exact cost of the gas and elec in units compared to what i pay now?

im just going to read the link now climate so sorry if the answers are in there!

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.

Our electric usage for a 1 bedroom bungalow for the 2 of us is £1100 per annum so £1500 could be about right. How often have you been paying in the past year and how much?

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?

I have asked both BG and IS how much of the payments are for debt and how much are for usage but no one will tell me. I have worked out my last 12 months of bills for gas and electric and it averages out at £67 a month. i am very careful with my gas and electric. So i can't see how only 3.55 is for the debt as i am not usage doesn't cover the rest. Is it possible someone has made a mistake somewhere when working it out? Or just put my usage as the average for a 3 bed house?

Arn't the pay as you go meters notoriously expensive? I have lived in a flat with one about

7 yrs ago and we were putting at least a £5 in a day. That was on electric with storage heaters.

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.

Yeah ive heard that storage heaters are expensive. and the flat was boiling at night and freezing during the day!

how did you end up getting the meter? did they make you get it?

i don't mind having a meter if there not more expensive but im worried about my landlord and if they would mind. i don't really want to tell them im in any trouble with bills as they are freinds with my ex's family and i know they will all end up gossiping about it (small town!)

do ypu have a newish boiler or an old one?

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.

ok, do you know if the gas meters are overpriced. i do know some one who has meters for both and has her tumble dryer on 24/7 so can't be that expensive! there seems to be alot of posts on here about problems with meters.

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.

Ok we have progress!

Income support have canceled the payments and british gas are willing to work out a paymant plan with me. They are pressuring me to have meters but im really not sure. I don't want to be paying a penny more than i do now!

Any advice on how to sort out a reasonable payment plan with bg?

Last time i spoke to them we came to an agreement of 100 by direct debit a month,20 of that was towards the debt. But they were trying to get me to agree to sums of 200-250 a month.

With a direct debit can they take more out of my account without any notice?

Is a stasnding order better?

Thanks for all the help!

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.

Hi

 

I have just had an engineer out as my boiler would not turn on. He has told me that the parts I need are now obsolete and I need a new boiler.

 

Whats the point of having this homecare if they just throw that at you.

 

Any advice would really help as I cant afford a new boiler.

 

Thanks.

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.

Npower cancelled the payment plan not my daughter.

Npower set the original amount she was to pay @ £65 which Npower were splitting between Gas and Electric, So that to me is their fault.

 

My daughter knows she owes them money and was paying it but THEY cancelled the plan and she is now getting letters from a DCA.She has NEVER missed a payment !

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.

"I suspect the reason it has taken 4/5 months for that to catch up is because they have had to trace her new whereabouts by other means."

 

Npower were notified of change of address and my daughter is still a customer of Npower at her new home.

 

Maybe THEY are just crap at doing what THEY should do eh ?

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.

Hi

I am having trouble finding out how to stop this warrant of entry that B.Gas obtained in a Magistrates Court. I have spoken to Mag. Ct and they say they have never heard of anyone applying to suspend or cancell such a warrant. They have no procedure for it and no forms for it. Neither could the County Court assist when I asked them. I know that some of the CPR rules apply to the Magistrates Courts in the same way as for County. Since I have received no notice of this application, and the letter from B.Gas only arrived this morning, with no name on it, just my address, I am at a loss as to how I am able to contest it?

I have spent a long time on hold and had a frustrating conversation with B. Gas and they say they cannot give me the reference number or date for their application. Their engineers are due out to me on Monday coming and I am very cross about this. I have tried to resolve various issues with BG without success for over a year, and now they have managed to get this warrant saying that a man visited me in July. This is an absolute untruth and I wish to see all the papers from them. Does anyone know how to apply to a Magistrates Court to overturn this erroneous warrant of entry? thanks

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.

Hi - I've just been quoted (by British Gas) a consumption of £1,512.00 per year! - I live in a two up two down house with just me and my son - this seems totally inaccurate to me - where can I find a comparison please?

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.

HI - well the meter is outside so they can look at it all they want. I am interested in the procedures re Magistrates and why there seems to be no process in this circumstance - after all, if you are being taken to court one would like to know about it, especially if using fiction to do so.

If it's outside and someone comes they will read it. They are only obligated to do so every 2 years though!

British Gas again said they would apply for a warrant and I asked them why when the meter is in the garden? They know the meter is in the garden so why am I paying for a warrant. I know they will add a cost to me over this.

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!

This is killing me - I have so many wolves at the door and in May will probably be homeless anyway so they can just cut me off - I will stop paying them for electric and boiler cover, and of course, they say i dont qualify for help in insulation, warm front or anything ever.

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.

Hi - I am waiting for a court date from the water utility company - they are taking me to court and guess what, they already did this before but they got a judgement without my knowledge on a bill that had been paid, so I had to jump through all the hoops to get that set aside and they admitted their errors - that did not stop it being stressful and keeping me from dealing with my son's school, or help my confidence trying to get a job. Now they are at it again and I have two bills, exactly the same details, same house, same dates, same water meter but for different amounts. Which one should I think is true? As for British Gas, I am in no doubt that they are overcharging me and that if they get a pre-pay meter in, through the back door so to speak, they will set a huge rate of claw-back on it for sums in dispute, but, I will have to pay it to get any gas at all, hence they should close the service instead, as they will never get it right.

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!