Suing British Gas - Harassment, Psychological Damage, Loss of Incomes

[echat11]

O.K. you've got health issues, did you ask for any help?

I.E. CAB, they have an extra help unit ('vulnerable energy customers) who would have helped you 100% on this, a lot of this wouldn't have progressed to this stage.

[vaughanash]

Is this meter only for your flat if so ask for a smart meter you will then have access via some media to it to check it is working correctly. we have a remote reader tells everthing.

It's already a smart meter according to British Gas, but British Gas turned off the smart meter function in October 2021 and turned it back on in October 2022 so that they could illegally charge me for electricity usage at October 2022 prices for the whole year, that's the start of this entire issue.
They refused to look at correcting the illegal billing for 13 months of me contacting them then threatened me with debt collectors

[vaughanash]

O.K. you've got health issues, did you ask for any help?

I.E. CAB, they have an extra help unit ('vulnerable energy customers) who would have helped you 100% on this, a lot of this wouldn't have progressed to this stage.

Been to CAB and on that vulnerable energy customers list, neither helped

[efpom]

Please remember to answer queries in my post #14

Are you certain that British Gas 'disconnected' the smart meter or could it have been someone else? e.g. the occupier of the apartment where the meter is, or your landlord?

[vaughanash]

Please remember to answer queries in my post #14

Are you certain that British Gas 'disconnected' the smart meter or could it have been someone else? e.g. the occupier of the apartment where the meter is, or your landlord?

Well the first time I queried the charges/usage was January 2023's bill when the bills went from always in credit (due to the government payments to help with energy prices) to £576.15 (they billed me for 1960kWh for 15/10/2022 to 31/12/2022, which is impossible for single person in a one bedroom flat to generate without having a sweat shop in the attic).
I called them, they said they must have read the wrong meter and then the removed the charges.

They then billed me in June 2023 for £1,045.47 (2835kWh for 14/04/2023-25/05/2023), they told me that there was a problem with the smart meter, but it's incredibly coincidental that this so call problem was fixed AFTER the energy cap rose so that they could charge me for ESTIMATED usage from around October 2021 to September 2022 at October 2022 rates, which considering prior to October 2022 the energy cap was far lower and this this charging act was ILLEGAL.

I've been querying this via emails ever since, they refused to even look at it. I have email trails of all this.
I did it from emails at this point for two reasons:
1. I could no longer get through the automations to speak to a person,
2. For evidence that I have been querying the charges and evidence that they have done nothing about it.


28/02/2024 they sent threatening debt collectors text and email, triggering my Complex PTSD and getting me arrested.
It was at this point they finally looked into the matter. The corrections are more credible than they were before my ESTIMATED energy usage per day is still higher than that which you would expect of a single person in a one bedroom flat.

28/02/2024 should have been treated as day 0 of the debt because billing was INCORRECT, IN QUERY and ILLEGAL prior to that.

British Gas refused to pause the debt collection process and refused to give me ANY TIME to analyse the amended billing and even told me that I didn't have to analyse it and that it could be trusted. A simple google search of the history of British Gas harassing people and ripping people off proves that is not correct.

05/04/2024 British Gas got BW Legal to send out a letter demanding debt is settled by 15/04/2024, considering that it takes up to 7 days for letters to arrive and that 13/04/2024 and 14/04/2024 are non Office Hours days, they effectively gave me a couple of days as an intimidation tactic to make me distress and just pay them what ever they want.

I had agreed with someone at British Gas, a Customer Manager, to pay £103.50 a month for 24 months first day of the month, which they agreed to payment plan.
They have reneged on this payment plan agreement because I am doing it by manual payments the 1st of each month via the portal instead of signing a direct debit, the issue with direct debit is they will ignore the agreed amount and take whatever they want.
So despite having an agreed payment plan the debt collectors are still coming.

I've escalated this to the Energy Ombudsman countless times, who also don't seem to care about the matter.

It is only after all the following British Gas decided to issue a deadlock letter:
billing me incorrectly for 22 months
ignoring my queries about it for a total of 13 months
making me so ill that I couldn't sleep and had to take a lot of sick leave from work
threatening me debt collection even though the bills were INCORRECT, ILLEGAL and IN QUERY
triggering my Complex PTSD which they had prior knowledge of (again I have evidence that they knew)
getting me arrested
getting all devices siezed
lost me my job
took the matter to debt collection
reneged on an agreed payment plan

This is a clear harassment tactic of "Pay us £800+ more than you should otherwise we will destroy your entire life little man, we are a big company we have all the power"

[echat11]

Have you sent British Gas a Subject Access Request?

[vaughanash]

Have you sent British Gas a Subject Access Request?

I have not considered this.

Would information would they have to supply from one of these?
What would I be looking for to benefit me? Not sure how that question comes across tonally, but it's just meant as an inquisitive question. I cannot always think straight when ill

[echat11]

I have not considered this.

Would information would they have to supply from one of these?
What would I be looking for to benefit me? Not sure how that question comes across tonally, but it's just meant as an inquisitive question. I cannot always think straight when ill

They would provide all the data held on you / account.

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...ccess-request/

Look under - British Gas and GDPR.

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/privacy-policy.html

[vaughanash]

How to get a warranty to enter my neighbour's flat to view my electricity meter for a reading and make sure my neighbour hasn't been stealing my electricity?

How to get an injunction preventing debt collectors from taking any action based on disputed debt?

How to get a court order to remove any bad credit records that should not have been credited due to disputed bills?

How to get a court order to force British Gas to cancel debt collection due to payments not made because British Gas have been billing incorrectly and illegally (ignoring energy caps set by the government)?

How to get a court order forcing one of Housing Association, British Gas or National Grid to relocate my electricity meter into my flat and which would be the responsible party to pursue?

How to find out who the solicitor represented Lisa Ferguson in the Ferguson vs British Gas Trading Ltd on 11/02/2009?

[PallasAthena]

The Ferguson case decided that in principle it was possible in law for a corporate body such as British Gas to commit the offence of harassment but the court made no ruling on whether BG had in fact harassed Ms Ferguson. That was something that would have to be considered by a different court.

As far as I can see BG and Ms Ferguson then settled out of court so there was no court ruling on whether BG's action were, legally, harassment.

[Mulberry4000]

Is it the 1st April?

British Gas cannot harass people with mental health issues simple as that. British Gas routinely harass people for more money.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b2274962.html

[PallasAthena]

In post #1 you told us you already had a solicitor and were looking into whether you could change to another solicitor via legal aid. What has happened about that? Is the solicitor only acting for you only on the criminal charge? Or acting for you on your compensation claim against BG?

In post #9 you said you were on pre-charge bail after threatening to kill BG staff. Has anything happened about that since you posted in April? Are you still on police bail?

In posts #21 - #23 you were advised to send BG a Subject Access Request. Have you done so? Have you received their response yet?

The article in the link is about BG forcibly installing Pre-payment Meters. Are Pre-payment Meters involved in your case at all? They've not been mentioned.

[vaughanash]

In post #1 you told us you already had a solicitor and were looking into whether you could change to another solicitor via legal aid. What has happened about that? Is the solicitor only acting for you only on the criminal charge? Or acting for you on your compensation claim against BG?

>>>> I don't have the money to pay a solicitor £1,000 to just look at the case. Legal Aid solicitors won't do anything for you unless you are in court.

In post #9 you said you were on pre-charge bail after threatening to kill BG staff. Has anything happened about that since you posted in April? Are you still on police bail?

>>>> I am no longer on bail, but the police station has kept the case "under investigation" despite not doing anything for the past 6 months. They will keep the status of "under investigation" FOREVER so that they never have to give me back my laptop, work's laptop, phone, back up phone or tablet PC, effectively stealing my electricals.

In posts #21 - #23 you were advised to send BG a Subject Access Request. Have you done so? Have you received their response yet?

>>>> I went through the Energy Ombudsman, who did nothing.

The article in the link is about BG forcibly installing Pre-payment Meters. Are Pre-payment Meters involved in your case at all? They've not been mentioned.

>>>> If they force a pre-payment meter I would have to break into my neighbours flat every week to top it up, I have zero access to my meter.
British Gas are refusing to move my meter into a place I can access it and my Landlord is refusing to move the meter to a place that I can access.