British Gas overcharging me on gas meter when I’ve never even held an account with them
I recently bought a house which was a repossession property. The previous owners were in lots of debt with their energy provider (British Gas) and we struggled to open any new accounts after purchase because the debts remained on the account and flagged to any new service provider we contacted.
For context, the house is extremely run down and we are in the process of doing it up. It needs all new plumbing and as a result, the gas has not even been used since we bought the house. We are still in the process of ripping everything out and getting it rewired. We do not live in the house and only visit on weekends to get work done.
I contacted British Gas who told me I needed to open an account with them so that they could then close the old account and remove the debt attached. They did this then closed the account on the same phone call.
Since then, they have been sending me emails saying I owe them thousands of pounds. They are claiming that this is because they contacted our new service provider (Octopus) and they gave them our readings, which is supposedly different to the reading I gave them on the phone when I opened /closed the account. I find this extremely hard to believe because the number has remained the same for months; I’ve got it written down and it’s the same number as Octopus have. They have told me they will rectify this but it’s been 6 weeks now and I am still receiving emails from them telling me I owe them thousands of pounds. I’m starting to panic here that this is going to start affecting my credit score, when I haven’t even held an account with them for more than 2 seconds. When I contact their customer service they don’t answer and they are highly unhelpful on the phone. How can I get this resolved? It’s horrible being accused of owing so much money when you don’t !