Gas Billing company bust, my obligations

by slacker777 Thu Jul 21, 2022 4:08 pm

Hi to all, i think i am in need of some advice, about 4 years ago the gas billing co i was with ceased trading, i only realised this when i had not had a monthly bill for 3 months and found an email from said company with a sort of bill attached, My reply was please continue to send my bills by post to my address and i will pay them as previously, as i cant pay an email or anything else online. They replied that they had gone paperless please pay the bill.

They must have ceased trading shortly after this as i heard nothing for 4 years, and stopped useing that email account shortly after, now i have a solicitor claiming to represent another gas billing company and demanding £2000. (i have all monthly meter readings)

I am sure the people with real knowledge on here can point me as to which way to approach this.

Should i go after the solicitors, should i offer below claimed amount, should i use promisory note or should i just return to sender and play it out.

I read on this site a while ago that the energy company can only bill you for the last 12 months anyway as long they made the errors. 2K would be about 2.5 years going by readings

Thanks in advance

by **daveiron** Thu Jul 21, 2022 4:59 pm

I'm not sure about how far they can go back. The example i posted related
to my son,having bought a new house ,the meter was never registered by
any billing company.As a result he was there for about 5 years before someone
read the meter & a billing company assumed responsibility for it. However he
was told they could only reclaim for the previous 12 months. So i am unsure
if it would apply in your case.

Just found this
:https://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/guides/energy-back-billing/

not read it all .but at a glance it looks like 12 months.

by **daveiron** Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:02 pm

Btw what was the name of billing co ? i'll see if i can find when they stopped
trading

by slacker777 Thu Jul 21, 2022 10:40 pm

Original billing company was 'Green Star Energy', Just trying to find the last paper bill they sent me, will qualify asap

Thanks

by **daveiron** Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:51 am

Can you give me tha exact spelling for Green star energy,along with
their address
I am looking on companies house & there are several with slightly different
ways its spelt. Also their former address , (all appear to be disolved) just
need to find the right one.

by flyingfish Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:58 am

Green Star Energy were acquired by Shell in 2019 when Shell bought the parent company.

Dave is correct on back billing, they can't go back more than 12 months unless they can prove that you in some way obstructed or prevented them doing so at the time.

Are you on a conventional meter, one that has to actively be read either by the billing company, or by them asking you to give a reading?

by slacker777 Fri Jul 22, 2022 6:34 pm

daveiron wrote:Can you give me tha exact spelling for Green star energy,along with
their address
I am looking on companies house & there are several with slightly different
ways its spelt. Also their former address , (all appear to be disolved) just
need to find the right one.

Yeh daveiron, its Green Star Energy address Elder house 586 - 592 Elder gate Milton Keynes MK9 1LR

and FF that date would be right because my last through the post bill was paid feb 2019 with cash at the post office still got receipt

by slacker777 Fri Jul 22, 2022 6:37 pm

yes FF, i am on an old style meter which they used to read every 6 months even though i sent readings

by flyingfish Sat Jul 23, 2022 11:09 am

Reason for asking about the meter is it means that don't have readings except those you've given them, or from when they last sent a meter reader. In your shoes my position would be ..
(1) I can't even consider paying a bill unless it details start and end date, start and end meter reading, and tariff. And the value claimed should be itemised in terms of number units and number of days.
(2) Irrespective of the about I will not consider paying any usage or standing charges from more than 12 months ago, unless they can show convincing evidence that we had received a properly formed bill at the time.

I've been in the position twice where I've had third party chasing a bill, once for a property we'd moved out of, and once a screw up when supplier went broke. In both cases party chasing us had nothing but a claimed value - not even dates that the bill was supposed to have covered let alone meter readings of tariff. And in both cases they gave up pretty quickly.

by slacker777 Sat Jul 23, 2022 4:25 pm

Thanks very much FF thats most useful i will include in my letter. Will get back with any response

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