30 July 2023 , 09:21
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A dad says he was being “threatened” by British Gas after failing to pay over £2,000 after he was billed for all of his neighbour's flats.
Jamie Walker, 47, moved into a 12-flat apartment block in West Dunbartonshire in February last year. After thinking his bills under British Gas were too high, the dad switched to Octopus Energy in January. But after closing his British Gas account, Jamie started receiving multiple final payment demand notices for bills costing £2121.31. He believes these payment demand letters belong to his neighbours.
“I’ve had a year of hell over this debt that isn’t even mine,” Jamie said. “I was with British Gas for a matter of weeks before switching to Octopus Energy. They kept sending me bills for gas and electricity usage despite not being with them for over six months.”
Some of his neighbours received no gas bills - while Jamie was hit with over £2,000. (Dave Johnston)“All the letters have different account numbers on them, which leads me to believe they are sending me bills for all the neighbours in my block, some of whom have never received a bill for their energy use.” Jamie contacted British Gas to alert the firm to the error but said it continues to chase him for unpaid bills.
Since closing his account with the firm, he has received a bill for £792.85, another for £968.46 and a third for £360, which he says are all linked to gas boxes belonging to the block of flats. Jamie told the Daily Record: “I’ve reported this to the company dozens of times but they won’t listen. They can’t tell me which serial numbers correspond to which flat so just keep landing me with everyone’s bills.
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“I’ve already paid around £400 for bills which I don’t even think are mine. They’ve referred me to a debt collection agency and keep threatening me with legal action, it’s causing a lot of stress.” British Gas told the Sunday Mail - the sister paper of the Daily Record - that they would send an engineer to the flats to establish which gas meter belongs to which flat in order to send bills to the right address.
A British Gas spokeswoman told the Sunday Mail: "We have spoken to Mr Walker to say sorry for not resolving matters sooner. This hasn’t been managed to the standards we expect. We have agreed next steps with him which will include a visit from one of our engineers.”
The Mirror have contacted British Gas for further comment.