British gas mistakes

[kevin]

My mother owns a property in Cornwall & she lives in Hampshire.
Allegedly the tenants in the Cornwall house are behind on their gas payments.

British gas wrote to my mother a single & only letter in July 09 (undated letter) telling my mum that she will be deemed liable for the debt.
They said to call British gas if there are problems. Well my mum had an angina attack because of the threats made by British gas to her, so I called the company & told them the property has tenants in it & they are the debtors not my mum. I gave all the tenants details that I had, however I did not have all the details so I asked BG to call the letting agent to get more details etc.
BG said ' it is not the policy of British gas to call agents & your mother is still liable for the debts!'

Eventually I managed to get BG to admit that the debt was not my mothers in the first place, but only after numerous phone calls emails & letters etc.

Then I found out that the account was listed as 'occupier' & that on 2nd Feb 09 BG wrote to the tenants saying they will come to get the debt in a few days, but never did ever visit to get the debt paid!

Then on 24 Feb 09 BG sent another letter to the tenants saying that BG will call around to disconnect the gas supply, BUT NEVER DID!

My point is that had British gas actually did what they said in the TWO Feb 09 letters, they would have got the identities of the tenants without harassing my mother.

It also transpires that the tenants & letting agent told BG the tenants details way back in Sept 2008!

British gas effectively had no luck with the tenants paying for the gas, so came after my mother illegally! Can anyone help me sue BG?

Also BG recorded some of my calls that they made to me on my private line without at the time of the call telling me they were recording the call, effectively they covertly recorded my call as I was not told at the time of the call that is was being recorded.

Again can anyone help?

Thanks

Kevin

[Mochamoo]

Re: British gas mistakes

This may not be a particularly popular post but but its MHO

Whilst I think what your mother has been through is terrible and that British Gas owe her an apology I don't think you have any reason to sue British Gas. I think the American "lets sue for any reason we can think of" is affecting Britain at an alarming rate and can only be detrimental to our way of life.

I think a strongly worded letter written to the boss of BG and to your local papers should get them to correct their database as far as your mother/tenants are concerned and get you and your mother an apology.

I do not think a couple of letters and a couple of calls could be seen as harassment just incompetent staff. I'm not really sure what grounds you plan on suing them for?

Also I agree with BG it is not their responsibility to get the new names of the bill payers it is your letting agents responsibilty to ensure this is done and from then on it is the tenants responsibility to ensure it stays in their names and gets paid...it is however BG's responsibilty to put it in the new name when its given to them

Are BG still chasing your mother for the debt?
Have you written to BG and made an official complaint? if so what was the outcome?