A COUPLE who have been hit with an £11,000 bill for 18 years’ worth of gas they used say it’s not their fault.
Lee Haynes, 44, and Jo Woodley, 45, did “everything” to find out their gas supplier when they first moved into their home in Tamworth near Birmingham in 2005.
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The couple asked the National Grid and their housing association where their gas was coming from – but no-one knew.
They said they then contacted the energy ombudsman, who told them they should wait to hear from their supplier.
Months later Jo and Lee had still not heard from their supplier, and finally gave up asking.
But they have now been slapped with a gas bill for £10,824.87 covering the whole time they have lived in the house.
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Lee told BirminghamLive: “After a few months we had bills for everything but not gas.
“I was worried about suddenly getting a big bill – so I tried really hard to find out who was supplying our gas.
“The guy from the housing association tried all the suppliers they work with and said he didn’t know what to do.
“When the ombudsman said just to keep the paperwork and leave it that’s exactly what we did.”
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A letter from gas distributor Cadent said the couple owed the massive sum for gas usage between 2005 and 2023.
The official invoice stated that the couple had just 30 days to pay – without telling the couple who they owed the money to.
Cadent said: “Whilst Cadent are not a gas supplier, as part of our gas transportation license we have an obligation to investigate and use our reasonable endeavours to recover the cost of any gas used outside of a supplier contract.
“Whilst we cannot comment on individual cases, we must stress we have a specialist team who are on hand to offer help and support to customers who are required to make a repayment.”
What to do if you’re chased for bills you don’t owe
MARTIN Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert has explained what to do if you’re chased by British Gas and Eon for energy bills you don’t owe.
Plenty of households are being clobbered with rocketing costs, so they don’t need the headache of even MORE fees.
Martin and his band of experts explained that you shouldn’t dismiss the letters stacking up on the front doorstep – even if you don’t owe the cash.
“Don’t ignore letters”, the money mogul said.
If they are genuine, ignoring them could impact your credit score.
Having any kind of outstanding debt means your score will drop, which in turn may affect your ability to take out credit in future.
The best way to save from any financial fallout is to pay off what you owe and clear your name.
But if you don’t owe the money, there’s a separate route you need to take.
You should first contact the firm in question, explained the MoneySavingExpert team.
If you’ve got it, proof from your energy firm that you don’t owe any debt at all would be helpful too.
There’s no guarantee that means case closed though.
If you are still chased for payment, you can step up complaints a notch.
Raise the issue with the Energy Ombudsman.
It handles issues between customers and suppliers on billing, installations and delays, loss of service, customer service, and switching suppliers.
You can take complaints to the Ombudsman if you don’t get a response within eight weeks of complaining to the firm directly, or you don’t like the response they do give you in that time frame.
Failing that, you can take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman too – so long as the debt collection agency is regulated by a trade body.
It can order firms to make things right if it finds poor service and can award compensation of up to £50,000.
