Taking British Gas to Court

[noshy]

Hi All

 

I'n new to the site and am hoping someone can help. I am taking British Gas to court because for 4 years they have been billing be as a business whe I am a residential customer. I have wrote to them , called them and emailed them for over 4 years telling them that I am a residential customer. They have sent me ridculous bills (which I have not paid beciase I am not a business) and they have still not transferred my account to a residential one. An invoice for over £7k was the last straw so after them investigating the matter for 6 months and getting nowhere I decided I had enough and filed a claim against them to which they have responded with a defense and a counter claim for thousands of pounds through there solicitors Eversheds? Does anyone know anything about this firm or has anyone taken BG to court? The couter claim has worried me a bit so any advice would be helpful.

[BankFodder]

Could you put up the claim, defence and counterclaim please.

[noshy]

Hi

 

sorry Im new to these forums I have the defense scanned in my email and I have the claim partuculares (i think thats what theyre called) that I can copy and past how do I put the defense up?

[noshy]

Can I email it all to you?

[Conniff]

Have moved you to the appropriate section.

[BankFodder]

Can I email it all to you?

 

yes - to our admin address please

[noshy]

Thank You!

[noshy]

yes - to our admin address please

 

Hi

 

the email keeps getting reurned as failed?

[andydd]

We need to see the details (redeacted if required), you can post them up as pdf's. If the docs are in word format they can be converted using many free print to pdf applications or docs can be scanned to pdf.

 

Its not clear what exactly you are suing BG for ?

 

You may be interested to read Ferguson v BG, a well known legal case > http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2009/46.html

 

Andy

[citizenB]

nshy, we now have the documents and BF will be with you soon

[BankFodder]

So far as I can see you had an account wiht BG since 2007 and they treated it as a business account but in fact it should have been a residential account.

 

They have been billing you on that basis - which is a higher rate than you should have been paying.

 

You are claiming £3800 for wasted time and you want the account closed and written off.

 

Let me start out by saying that these are not achievable objectives - so you will need to have a serious rethink.

 

You may be able to claim for the time you have put in trying to solve the problem - if you are in the wrong, but it would have to be a reasonable amount of money and you would have to support your claim with evidence of how long you have spent, what it has cost you and how calculate the total claimed for this.

The court will be very suspicious and you are best off keeping your claim for this part very modest - and well supported by evidence.

 

You will not be able to get the court to write off the debt. What you may be able to do is to get the court to agree that you only owe £XXX - being the residential rate.

 

I see that BG are counterclaiming £6200 for unpaid bills.

 

I think that you need to be warned that there is a real risk that this claim may be allocated to the fast-track. If that happens, then if you lose, you will be facing an order for some costs on top of your loss.

 

I think that you need to amed your claim quickly to reflect a more reasonable claim.

 

I think that you need to work out what you would owe if the gas had correctly been billed at the residential rate. this money shoujld be paid quickly so that the amount of the counterclaim is reduced.

 

People often make the mistake of getting angry and witholding all the money - owed and not-owed. This is wrong. You should always try to reduce the value of the dispute by paying what you believe you do owe.

This reduces the value of any cliam and it also demonstrates to the court that you are sincere, that you have acted reasonably and that you are not trying to pull a fast-one.

 

Is there any reason why BG might have thought the address was a business? Who was the supplier before BG? Did you live there before 2007?

You need to start gathering evidence that it is residantial - and that it always has been. Phone bills, bank statements, driving licences - anything.

 

I would find out what you would ose if it was residential - and pay it

amend the POC to reflect a more realistic expectation of expenses - and get rid of the request to write off the debt.

Send BG an SAR to get all info they hold on you about this.

 

I would base my claim on their contractual breach to conduct your account correctly, to treat it as residential and to bil you correctly on it.

I owuld do a very calculated claim for wasted expenses and effort trying to sort it out - at a very reasonable rate per hour - maybe £10.

 

See what that all adds up to.

 

Do this quickly vefore the claim is allocated. You need to amend by means of an N244

[andydd]

I second BF's comments.

 

It is all too easy for an individual to feel hard done by, start (sometimes misguided) court action and ignore the £5000 small claims limit and before they know it, the claim is on fast track, they are in court facing barristers and they lose and are given a bill of many tens or sometimes hundreds of thousands, people have been ruined or lost their homes over such matters.

 

I agree with BF that all you can realistically claim is the differencve between the residential and commercial cost, any extras or essentially damages are only to restore you in the position you were in before, this would probably only be a small amount, I'd suggest perhaps using a rate of £18 as they is the litigant in person rate although technuically you are not actually claiming 'costs' at this stage.

 

Andy

[citizenB]

Hi noshy, I see BG have instructed Eversheds as their legal advisors.

 

This firm is ruthless, so it might well be in your interest to have a rethink of where you are going with this and follow BF's advice.

[noshy]

Hi noshy, I see BG have instructed Eversheds as their legal advisors.

 

This firm is ruthless, so it might well be in your interest to have a rethink of where you are going with this and follow BF's advice.

 

Thanks Guys my claim is for under £4000, I'm worried now I dont want to end up in an even worse situation owing more than what the counter claim is, If I contact their solicitor and ask them to mediate and to come to an agreement that they change the account over to residential straight away, and the balance that they are counter claiming for already has a standing order going out each month do you think that would be reasonable, the just dont correct the account i have asked them so many times, also if I ask them for a break down of how the got to their counter claim?

[andydd]

But surely their counterclaim is incorrect as its based on commercial rates ?..however it would appear there is some merit in it as clearly you do owe something.

 

You can suggest mediation, but they dont have to agree to it, but it may help your case later if you can show you were willing to mediate, some Judges push the mediation option strongly, others do not.

 

A slightly worrying thought is that because their counterclaim is over £5000 it still may go onto fast track, perhaps others can advise more on this.

 

It does appear that you are one of a large number who perhaps rushes into court action a bit too fast without weighing up the pros and cons first, (especially if there is a risk of fast/multi track and subsequent costs).

 

Andy

[BankFodder]

If your address was always a residential address and you can prove it then you will succeed.

Get your evidence together carefully as I have suggested earlier.

 

Contact the court and tell them that you would like to use the mediation service. Yuo may find that easier

[noshy]

If your address was always a residential address and you can prove it then you will succeed.

Get your evidence together carefully as I have suggested earlier.

 

Contact the court and tell them that you would like to use the mediation service. Yuo may find that easier

 

Thank you

[andydd]

I have a mediation form here..Its Form SE (03.12), if you cant find it online you can mail [email protected] to ask for one.

 

BOTH sides must agree to it though.

[noshy]

Hi guys

just wondring if you can help again, had a case management meeting and the judge said that theres no real legal basis for my claim unless I change it to a claim for stress and anxiety and to get a solicitor, he was really nice about it and extended a stay for 6 weeks to negotiate a settlement but he said as it stands my case may get struck out, he cant go down the small claims route because the defendant has made their claim over 5k and wont aggree, hopefully we can settle before but BG dont negotiate well. Just so I know what happends if my claim is struck out? what will happend to the counter claim?

[Surfer01]

Firstly the long number for your MPAN, does it start with "01" or "02". If any other number, then it is business rated MPAN. If you supplied proof that it is residential, BGAS should have downgraded. Did you request to be downgraded at any time? Does the meter serial number on the bill match the meter serial number on the meter which is on the property? Surely when you first registered with BGAS as a supplier, you would have approached them as a residential customer?

One way to lower the amount into the small claims court is to pay off some of the amount owing as either way you are liable and it will be payable. Over 4 years on domestic rates, I would estimate that you would owe BGAS at least £3200 if it is only for electric, i.e. no gas heating. If not, then it should be about £2000. I cannot see if you mention whether it is gas or electric. Generally business rates can be cheaper than domestic rates depending on supplier.

At the moment the judge is correct. If you can supply answers to the above perhaps I can help further.