Advice needed re British Gas, BCW and Old Bills

[CAGNewbie]

Had two letters from BCW today, saying that they had been legally allocated a Debt from British Gas, one account for £190 ish and one for £130 ish. Now, I moved home in the summer and do owe money on those, but the amounts were not for these. Nor do I use british gas currently. So I rang BG.

 

They say that these amounts relate to accounts from an address previous to these. Now, I left that address in May 2006, and told British Gas, and asked them to run any outstanding amounts into new address bills. They agreed, didn't do so, were told to do so again and then said this had been done.

 

Now they tell me that these amounts were "allocated but not invoiced" to the new address I gave them. And asked me to call a different company (a 0161 number) as these accounts are so old.

 

My questions are - if I asked them to change it, gave them new address, asked them to change it again and they agreed both times, and then I have heard nothing more since summer 2006, and only moved again in summer 2008, how can they now be demanding these? And using BCW to do so?

 

Do these things time out? Is there a way to find out where the error has happened (they assured me these had run into new ones, now they say that didn't - which do I believe?)? Am very confused by this...

[ATD]

The none transfer of a final bill from one account to the next does happen for any number of reasons - ranging from the reasonable (the new property had prepayment meters and transferring a debt was not allowed under the Utilities Act) to the typical (the advisor you spoke too forget or couldn't be bothered!).

 

With regard to the final bills "timing out", I believe it would have to be 6 years with no contact for them to be Statute Barred... sure someone will correct that if I'm wrong though.

 

Not sure how you can proceed if the "debt" has actually been sold on to BCW - BG only used to use BCW and the like for collection and were able to recall an account to make amendments when an error like this came to light - not sure if that is the case now.

 

I would imagine, and I know it will sound harsh, that the line you will be given is that you were aware of the final bill(s) being owed and should have checked that they were indeed invoiced to the new property...therefore the debt stands payable. If NO final bill was recieved, either at the old or new property, that may cast a different light on it...

[BankFodder]

Firstly you need to find out if there is evidence that BG made these mistakes.

 

You will have to send them an SAR asking for dislcosure of all information they have about you including screen notes and records of telephone calls.

 

If you find that you have evidence that BG received your instruction but failed to act upon them then you can begin a claim. They are contractually bound to run yur account correctly.

If you have any further telephone dealings with them, record your calls.

 

A few years ago BG tried charging me for gas suplied to my home and the homes of at least 2 other addresses in the road. I record my calls as a matter of routine. I managed to persuade one of their operatives to find the files and to let me have the account numbers. On a subsequent call, they denied that the other accounts existed. They were furious when I emailed them the sound files - even thoug they admitted their mistake.

I even had one of their lawyers trying to tell me that I had acted illegally by recording calls.

In the end they corrected all of the accounts and gave me £200 compensation.

Stck to your guns with these kinds of people. Record your calls all of the time. They are not to be trusted and are often incompetent. If you don't always protect yourself by gathering hard evidence such as call recordings, they will steam roller you.

 

Record all calls and you can steamroller them.