A couple of questions about British Gas defaults from Debt Camel readers in the last few weeks:
I check my credit file monthly. I have just noticed an account that was never on there before from British Gas saying that I owe £179 from 2008. The only thing that is showing is a default issued Jan 2017. I have no recollection of this money. We didn’t move from that address until 2010. What can I do about it as I’ve just started getting my credit rating in a good shape?
and
I have just been alerted to a default being added to my credit file by British Gas for a property I sold in 2010. They have the default date as January 14th 2017. I don’t believe I owed anything to British Gas in the first place, and even if I did, surely they can’t just default my account almost 7 years later. This has just destroyed my otherwise clean credit file.
Here is another similar one on MoneySavingExpert’s forum: Default RE-ADDED after 6 years.
Defaults shouldn’t re-appear!
The Credit Reference Agencies (Experian, Equifax, Call Credit) delete debts when a default date is six years ago. These debts should not re-appear.
The Information Commissioner’s Office guidelines say that a default should be added when an account is between three and six months in arrears, see What should the default date for a debt be? for details. So a recent date for a British Gas default on an old bill is inaccurate. And recording inaccurate data is in breach of the Data Protection Act Schedule 1 Principle 4.
If you haven’t made any payments towards an electricity or gas bill, the creditor has to take action against you within six years from the date of the bill – after that, the debt is statute barred and you don’t need to pay it. The customers above are saying they know nothing about the alleged debts so it is likely that they are statute barred.
If this has happened to you…
You should email a complaint to British Gas at customercomplaints@britishgas.co.uk. Here are four possible points to make – you should include all the ones that are relevant to your situation:
- you dispute the debt because you have never heard about it before. Say when you left that property, if you were never sent a bill for this debt etc.
- you have previously informed British Gas that the bill was incorrect. Say what was wrong and when you notified them of this.
- the debt is statute barred because they haven’t taken action within six years. If you are not sure about this, read the link above on statute barred debt and discuss it with National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 before sending your complaint.
- the default on the alleged debt is wrong because it should be back in [2009] according to the ICO guidelines.
If you only found out about the default when you were turned down for credit, you could also ask for some compensation for this – especially if you have had a mortgage application messed up.
How many other people are affected?
Three people reporting similar problems within a few weeks is a lot. There could be many people affected who either don’t yet realise (most people will only find out months or years later when a credit application is refused) or who were upset to find the default but didn’t realise it was wrong and should be removed.
It looks as though British Gas has done something in January 2017 that has generated these problems. When people have asked, they have been told that old defaults are being re-registered or that there are new processes. Has British Gas has done this to try to get some people with old, unenforceable debts to pay them?
Whether it was deliberate or an error, I think they should be dealing with the situation proactively, not waiting until customers complain. They should delete the credit records or correct the default dates as soon as possible and apologise to the affected customers.
Should you get a loan to repay a default?
There is too much bad info on defaults!
95% mortgages – what you need to know
Nigel says
Hi
I had a similar problem with British Gas when I changed suppliers in 2008. They invoiced for gas in 2009.I sent them a copy of their letter stating I was no longer a customer of British Gas at that time. Couple of months later I received a letter stating that they had issued a default. After several exchange of letters and phone calls all to no result. I threatened legal action via Small Claims Court for £4,250 plus costs. I heard nothing filed court papers attended court and won by default as no one turned up and Judge in her verdict stated British Gas were wrong with default, incorrect records, etc.
Three weeks later British Gas contacted me to say default removed which was correct. But they stated no compensation now payable. 28 days expired after Court stated that had to pay. Went to Court Balliffs who rang British Gas 17:00 a courier arrived with my full payment same day.
cheque. CAB helped me with paperwork.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What a great story – well done you and also CAB for helping with the court forms.
ryan says
hi,
I have recently checked my credit file and found a british gas debt from 2011. I have never paid any of the debt since then as I did not know about it… they only recorded it as default in 2015. do you think this would be worth a try to get put back as It would be gone off my credit file end of the year??
thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should try to get the default corrected. But you are also going to have to pay the debt (unless you have good grounds for disputing it, in which case it should be deleted, not backdated.)
Alex says
I have had a similar issue, British Gas have added a default to my credit score this week, but says it defaulted in 2015! Even though in another area of the credit report it shows as settled. Although I am certain this is an error… the time and effort it will now take to get in contact with them and find the evidence for 6 years ago (when i was a student, so didnt look after paperwork!) will be such a pain!
I am trying to buy my first home and I am hoping this doesn’t take to long and causes me to lose the house I want!
Flip says
Have the same issue only for TWO BG entries on my file. A British Gas alledged Debt from a property i vacated in 2010 entered default and another from 2011 entered default October 2016!!!! As far as i am concerned these were paid anyway but i cannot prove that however does that really matter now given one is over 6 years olf and the other over 7!!!
I have tried calling the useless so have emailed their complaints department.
I have told them that i consider them to be statute barred as both over 6 years ago and neither had any defaults entered within a reasonable time (ie within 6 months of not getting paid)
I deny liability for these accounts.
In addition, I have not made a payment to this debt or acknowledged it for over six years. This debt is, therefore, statute barred and I will not be making any payments to it.
Under the Limitation Act 1980 you cannot take court action unless you can provide evidence of payment or written contact from me within the past six years. The Financial Conduct Authority rules state:
CONC 7.15.4 Notwithstanding that a debt may be recoverable, a firm must not attempt to recover a statute barred debt in England, Wales or Northern Ireland if the lender or owner has not been in contact with the customer during the limitation period.
CONC 7.15.8 A firm must not continue to demand payment from a customer after the customer has stated that he will not be paying the debt because it is statute barred.
To this end, I consider that you have entered inaccurate data on to my file and in fact added these defaults maliciously.
As stated: Recording inaccurate data is in breach of the Data Protection Act Schedule 1 Principle 4.
EXPECTATIONS:
I expect you to REMOVE this default entry IMMEDIATELY notifying all Credit Agencies.
Your actions have damaged my credibility and creditworthiness.
Your actions have caused distress, embarrassment and significant loss. As a result we have lost our dream home.
Should you not remove and desist from reporting it, I will be taking the matter to the communications ombudsman for compensation and taking legal action for breaches of the data protection act and defamation.
An IMMEDIATE response is anticipated.
i will await their response and report back
failing to do so i will go to small claims as above
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Trying to deal with this sort of thing by phone is usually frustrating. You are doing the right thing by getting it into writing.
Gas debts become statute barred 6 years from the date on the bill. Unless you know what this is, you cannot be sure these debts are statute barrred.
Your email does not make the point clearly that you believe you have paid these debts. You need to ask for a copy of your account showing all payments.
The FCA rules only apply to consumer credit debt such as credit cards and loans – they are irrelevant for gas bills. I suggest you stop mentioning them.
I also suggest that it is pointless accusing a corporation of having behaved maliciously unless you have any evidence to that effect – which you haven’t mentioned.
It is also not possible to sue in the small claims court for defamation. I suggest you drop this suggestion.
You have an excellent case to have these defaults either removed or backdated. But wild accusations don’t really help.
Flip says
Thank you for taking the time to respond and your points are noted.
My email has allegedly been escalated and i have been told to expect a reply by 12th so will update then.
If I owe money, which i dispute, then the amounts are not substantial and can clear. But as far as i am concerned i do not. I have also made the point to them that i moved from one house to another keeping them as supply, but at the time they closed one account and opened a new one. This is also how i know the 1st must have been paid. The second i have no clue –
It is though a travesty that for a couple of hundred quid they can pt your life on hold. We have now lost the house we wanted. These are the only negative entries
frustrating.
Flip says
UPDATE:
From British Gas today:
As per your telephone conversation on 11 July 2017 with my colleague XXXXX who contacted you on behalf of your case handler XXXX who’s on annual leave.
I can confirm our Data Disputes Team have now updated your credit file requesting the deletion of the defaults that were registered against you. They’ve updated the record on 6 July 2017 which can take up to 48 hours to be updated. I’m sorry for the delay in getting this updated.
I will now be watching my files. Was told that they need to send to the CRA an INSTANT REFERENCE NUMBER which will ensure that it does just take 48 hours… Have gone back to BG to ask them to confirm and to provide me with this.
During the above call they apologised. I asked how it had happened as it was clearly miss-reporting but they did not have an answer just that they would correct.
So i now have confirmations in writing – will see how long it takes to disappear. I have told them that I may well be looking to be compensated.
You HAVE to persevere in the strongest sense and if you have the law on your side you will prevail.
Dave Roberts says
This gives me hope!
I have had exactly the same scenario, where I vacated an address in 2010, and British Gas believed I owed £60 and £90 for gas and elec. I disputed at the time, but surprise, there is no record and I have nothing to demonstrate it. They ignored me and to carried on reporting on my credit file. I knew nothing about this, and even when I registered with Experian in 2016, I only needed to provide the last 6 years addresses, which didn’t include the address from 2010. So I couldn’t see the bad reporting. It only came to light when I tried to get a mortgage last month. They had issued the default in nov 17! I have tried the same as you but they aren’t budging. I have even tried the exec team and I am waiting on their decision. Do they really think I would let £150 ruin my life if I’d known it was there?
Do you think I could use this as an example to them and show that they have set a precedent? Would you mind giving me more details?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have replied to a pretty old comment, you may well not get an answer from Flip.
A default in November 2017 is a nonsense and I hope you get this speedily resolved as the above article discusses. If it isn’t, then you should put in a complaint to the ICO, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/debt-default-date/
chell says
I was refused a mortgage because of a default account with British Gas from almost 11 years ago. One that we never owed in the first place. We got a bill for 2 months after we left the property, disputed it with them and they passed me off to a debt collection agency. I ended giving proof that we didn’t live there at the time and never heard anything more about it until last week. We were looking into buying our first home and needed a copy of our credit files. It was then I saw 10 consecutive months with a big fat default on it! They had put it back on my partners file September last year! After many calls with British gas and taking note of the name of everyone I spoke with, they admitted it shouldn’t be there and agreed to remove!
Jason says
I’ve been reading the cases regarding British Gas and have a, rather, similar problem.
I left my previous home in 2010 and stayed with British Gas at my current property. The arrears for Gas and Electricity amounted to £1’500 and I received the odd reminder to tell me that the account was closed and that the above balance was outstanding.
Fast forward to September 2016 and I found myself in a financial position to buy the home I have rented for, nearly six years. To my surprise, on applying for a mortgage, I noticed two defaults on my credit file. Dated May 2016. One for Gas and one for electric. I’m pretty sure that the debt should be ( statute barred). This is not the real issue. My issue is that British Gas have put two defaults on my credit file, five and half years, after they should have been put there. If there is any more advice out there I would be very greatful for the input.
Thanks Jason
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well as the post above says, I suggest you contact national Debtline and talk about whether these debts are statute barred. If you are sure they are, you can ask BG to backdate the defaults.
Jason says
Thanks Sarah. I am pretty sure they are statute barred. That isn’t my issue really. I have even emailed them and offered to pay the full amount if they remove the defaults. To which they said they were not willing to do. Are they wrong to place a default five and half years after it should have been put on and , if they are, are they obliged to remove them or backdate them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, they have to backdate them. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/debt-default-date/ and write to BG’s data controller as that suggests.
Minniemoo31 says
Hi
I lived in a resendtial property from Jan 2011-sept 2013 British Gas was my supplier. The property previous to me livening in was some sort of shared accommodation l, however I was just private renting the full house to myself and my 2 daughters. I never made any payments to British Gas as they kept trying to charge me for business has & electric and are now chasing me with letters from a DCA named LCS – this debt (given the dates I lived there) is border line statute barred too but I also don’t owe the £5000 sum that they are asking for as this is a business tariff and is extortionate at that! Does anyone know what I can do to make this disappear I am worried they will try to apply for a ccj as I am buying my own home at the moment so I don’t want anything to affect it. There has never been a registered default on my credit file for this either so I didn’t really know it was still outstanding and not sorted
Thanks in advance for any advice & help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds quite complicated. I suggest you go to your local Citizens Advice and ask them to write on your behalf and ask why you were being charged a business tariff. I would be surprised if they try to apply for a CCJ if you (or Citizens Advice on your behalf) are in communication with them and disputing the debt.
Minniemoo31 says
Thanks Sara
Ruta Balandyte-Smart says
My situation is a bit different app s I am a landlord so the property is mine, however I never lived there and it is the tenant’s responsibility to pay the bills there.I have applied for a mortgage and it got picked up on my credit file by the lender. I tried talking to British gas and Lowell’s financial group (debt collectors) asking them to remove it but they are not having any of it. In fact they are not discussing it with me as I am providing incorrect address according to them. I lived at my current address since 2005. This is the email I sent to Lowell’s on the first of September, chased them on the 4th of September for a response as they say it takes up to 48 hours for them to respond, however still nothing. My mortgage offer runs out on the 1/10/18. The lender are refusing to proceed until this has been removed. What can I do? The old bill refers to the dates of 24/03/2013 and 06/01/2014. I haven’t had any contact from them before and if not this credit check I would be still unaware about this. I have the old tenancy agreement but nobody wants to see it not BG and not Lowell’s. Where do I stand with this? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was the same tenant in place over the relevant period?
Ruta says
Hi,
Yes there was. She signed tenancy agreement for a year but asked to leave early as she was struggling to pay rent. She left in 10 months or so. Didn’t stay for full year. I have to check a check out notice
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ANd you then got another tenant I assume? You need to get a complete record of who the tenants were between which dates. If you are in the middle of trying to buy a house, you may want to ask your solicitor to write to British gas setting out the situation and asking for your credit record to be corrected urgently.
Ruta says
Hi,
After she has left I have converted the property to shared accommodation and from then on all the bills were paid by me by direct debit. I have also changed a supplier to utility warehouse so it is strange they allowed that if there was a debt against the account. One amount outstanding is just over £316 and another £436
Sara (Debt Camel) says
All good points to make!
Carl ashcroft says
Hi I was with british gas in 2012 got a bill for £1300 sorted the problem back then only to try get a mortgage did my credit check only to find out bg put the marker back on for the amount again they have know removed it can I get compensation from them as am not to sure what I can do
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you can ask – did you lose a mortgage application because of this? how fast did they resolve the problem?
Saz L says
Hi folks,
I’m having mortgage application troubles because of a default with BG. I changed energy providers and had an outstanding bill of £86 in Jan 2017. It was passed to a debt collection agency in June 2017. I called in July 2017 to repay and was advised the debt has been passed back to BG and written off.
I hear nothing about it, and then see a default on my credit file the following year. I contacted someone at BG in June 2018 via live chat to enquire about it and she assured me that nothing was outstanding and I was a ‘Perfect client’. So I dispute it through my credit file. I had zero correspondence from a debt collector or BG in those 9/10 months either.
In September 2018 I start receiving debt collection letters again and settled the debt in October 2018.
I have raised a complaint with BG again to ask they speak to their credit disputes team because after being told on two separate occasions there was nothing outstanding; this debt has gone on for far longer than just a late payment. Its been a default for over a year!
Do you think there is anything else I can do? Or do you think they will consider updating my credit file on the basis of incorrect information?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I changed energy providers and had an outstanding bill of £86 in Jan 2017. It was passed to a debt collection agency in June 2017. I called in July 2017 to repay ” does this mean that you knew there was a balance of £87 owing in January 2017? Do you have anything in writing from the debt collector in July 17? or a record of the webchat in Jun18?
You could send BG an email (to privacy@centrica.com) asking for a copy of all your personal data, including but not limited to all bills, account details, phone recordings and webchats after November 2016. (I picked that date as I am not sure you want tons of earlier stuff if it isn’t relevant? you could make this earlier if you want.) Give your name, address, account number.
Who knows what will be there but there may be infomration to support your complaint.
Lcoops says
Hi I’m having a problems with bg getting a default removed. The bill dates from 2/07/2012 to 19/7/2014 but I moved out on the the property on the 16/6/2013 the bill is for £3962 which is a daft amount just for electric. Lowell are pushing and pushing me to the point I can’t cope anymore what I want to no How can they charge me for the nearly 2 years electric when I was only there 11 month or should they have to recalculate? This has cost me a mortgage also. Iv tried British Gas but they just keep saying it’s nothing to do with them now. Iv got council tax letters and tenancy agreement to prove but Lowell keep threatening ccj over phone and letters. Please help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you not pay for any electric during the 11 months you were there? Did you tell BG you had moved out?
Lcoops says
No I queried the debt of £846 for 9 month electric on a 2 bedroom terraced house told them to come check the meter was working properly and they just told me everything was right and the balance was owed. I did not notify them I moved out either.
CARL says
Hi. I have a recent issue with British Gas.
We left as they kept increasing our DD even though there was no justification. After £60 compensation we moved to Scottish Power. The final bill came and we queried it. They never got back to us and subsequently they sent us to debt collection. I refuted this as the account should have been in dispute but they said they don’t have a record of my calls.
Debt now shows as settled but they have added 2 defaults (1 for gas and 1 for elec) with a total of 10 missed payment markers between Jan-July2020. Any help in how to over turn? They have refused to overturn them via official complaint process.
Thanks
Carl
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Debt now shows as settled
have you paid it? if so at the amount they were claiming or a reduced amount?
Jane says
Hi – British Gas have registered defaults on my credit file for an initial amount of £20,000. After corresponding with the ombudsman this was reduced to £6,00O to cut a long story short. My question is, at the time of sending us bills for the incorrect amounts which were overwhelming, and despite trying to query these with BG regarding these preposterous sums of money which were incorrect they went ahead an registered defaults. Had the amounts been correct, we may have been able to resolve the debt and the defaults would not have been registered. My question is, can we have the defaults removed and start again with the correct amounts? As the sums were extraordinarily large due to their error, surely we should have had the opportunity to put this right with the correct amount being billed. Although they have registered the debt as £6,000 now, initially it was extortionately and incorrectly high for a 4 bed semi.
Mrs O says
Hi all.
Can you help. Over Christmas I had a look at my Credit file (we are trying to buy a property so i was checking things are in order) and could see that British Gas has put red markers on my credit file for £3000 for Electricty usage dating back to 2017 to date which keep increasing. The thing is
1) I have Never been a BG customer.
2) I do not live at the address that they have on my credit file
so in other works there is property A and property B (which is my property)- However this amount equates to property C. But property C does not exist. It may have at one time but not in the 8 years I have been there.
When I finally got through to the complaints department they confirmed that my landlord (L&Q housing) gave them my name. BG have now asked that I give them my meter reading to rectify this issue.
I have an issue with that.
Why should I give them the metre readings? Without any correspondence to me at all in the yrs I have been living in the property, or acknowledgement that there is an issue, BG have have just placed something on my credit file that is in no way related to me.
The address BG has on my credit file is incorrect as is the Gender and the Surname but it is still on my file which I believe is totally wrong.
Can anyone help me with this please?
Many thanks
Mrs O
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What does L&Q say about this?
Mrs O says
They say that they dont have anything on file in relation to correspondence with Utility companies
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so are they prepared to write to BG and say your live at X, that you have lived there for x years and you do not live at Y, which is a seperate address.
Mrs O says
If I ask them for such a letter and send it BG do you think it would be helpful?
What if they (L&Q) refuse to write this letter. Where do I stand with this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t see why L&Q would not write a letter saying where you live.
Don’t you think this would show BG what is wrong?
If you aren’t sure, I suggest you talk to your local Citizens Advice who can look at this in detail with you and help you to get this sorted.
Mrs O says
Thank you so much for your help