British Gas thinks I live in a pub and wants me to pay £800 for a business account

I have been a residential British Gas customer since February 2021 when I moved into a converted pub.

I went through many hoops to get them to move me from a business to a residential tariff. I paid my bill by direct debit and all was well until February 2023 when I received an email saying that they were sorry I was leaving!

I contacted them by phone immediately to say I wasn’t leaving and hadn’t requested to move. But I was assured it was a mistake and that I was simply being moved from one part of British Gas to another and to ignore any letters.

However it got worse. 

Cheers British Gas…: The company moved our reader from a residential to a business account because they had the wrong details for the meter

I emailed, phoned and used their chat facility online where everyone I spoke to told me it was an error and that I had actually been moved to British Gas business as I was a public house – despite the fact that I had been a residential customer for over two years without any problems.

Again I was told to ignore any requests for payment until this was settled.

But now I have received correspondence from a law firm acting on behalf of British Gas chasing me for payment and suggesting I enter into a payment plan to settle a debt of over £800 that I do not owe.

Even members of staff at British Gas don’t know what to do. Please help me if you can. J.D via email

Helen Kirrane of This is Money replies: What a mess. I am sorry that you have had to bear the brunt of this confusing situation.

You told me the meter British Gas have registered against your name is located in the house next door, yet the meter registered with the National Grid is your own meter in your property.

Even after logging a complaint they were not able to deal with your situation, in fact it seemed to make it more muddled and you were given conflicting information as to what went wrong and how to fix it. 

You said you were informed that an erroneous transfer on the British Gas business account would return the account to a residential account but that did not work. 

You were then given complicated instructions as to what you needed to do to remain a customer of British Gas. But these were riddled with industry jargon and you said they were beyond your capabilities. 

It sounds like a catalogue of errors and British Gas not having the story straight is to blame here, so why should you have to jump through hoops to fix it?

You told me it has been a great source of frustration that British Gas closed your account out of the blue and that it was causing you anxiety and stress that you don’t need. 

I asked British Gas if they would get their act together and sort this out for you once and for all.

I am pleased to say the company has agreed to refund your past gas payments.

They will also set up a new account for you. This is Money understands that British Gas will be cancelling the incorrect bill of £816.47.

While this is good news, I think British Gas should have should have investigated this better when you informed them of the issue in February of this year.

Instead you were given the runaround by various members of customer service who didn’t seem to understand the situation.

A British Gas spokesman said: ‘The wrong gas meter details were registered with us before Mrs D moved into the property.

‘We’re sorry for any frustration caused and accept that we should have fixed this earlier.

‘We’re reaching out to Mrs D to reassure her that we will refund her past gas payments and will set up a new account for her starting from February this year.’