Gas bill back dated

matt17

friend of mine is in rented accomodation with his name on gas bill. All bills for last 2 years were in his name and direct debited from his account - all bills were also estimates as metre reader couldnt get in to read metre as everyone at work during the day - anyways, metre reader got in couple a weeks of go and turns out the estimates were very low and they owed a 1000 euro which of course was taken out of my friends account ijn one swoop. Where does he stand on this? different people have come and gone to the house over the two years and he doesn't know wat to do? has he any rights or are they perfectly entitled to do this.
Thanks in advance

Ian Beale

Very silly thing to do having a direct debt for a whole renting household,seeing as he would have had to put his name down for the bill and the direct debt of course there allowed to take the money its what their owed.Your friend should have read the meter and submitted it if no one was at home at the time the meter man came around,

Heres the info about reading your meter,
http://www.bordgais.ie/networks/index.jsp?1nID=102&2nID=115&3nID=348&pID=348&nID=410

Heres the info about submitting it,
http://www.bordgais.ie/networks/index.jsp?1nID=102&2nID=115&3nID=348&pID=348&nID=197

jor el

There's pretty much nothing he can do. It was up to him (as he was named and paying the bill) to make sure the readings were accurate. Information on how to update the reading is printed on every bill, so no excuse for not knowing.

I presume a bill arrived with the 1000 euro back dated on it? This would have been enough warning for him to cancel the direct debit before the money was taken, and contact Bord Gais about staggering the payments.

craichoe

jor el wrote: »

There's pretty much nothing he can do. It was up to him (as he was named and paying the bill) to make sure the readings were accurate. Information on how to update the reading is printed on every bill, so no excuse for not knowing.

I presume a bill arrived with the 1000 euro back dated on it? This would have been enough warning for him to cancel the direct debit before the money was taken, and contact Bord Gais about staggering the payments.

You can submit a meter reading via phone or online, theres no excuse, he should have submitted it as every bill he recieved he received has ESTIMATE written on it. Unfortunatly as per contract, he'll have to pay for the units used. An expensive lesson but thats just the way it is.

foggy_lad

your friend can contact bord gais and see if they can make some arrangement to take tha €1000 in instalments but this is hardly likely as they have already taken it from the bank.

matt17

tanks for the advice folks - looks like theres nothing he can do!