My parents get their gas from Scottish Power and recently they received a monthly bill for £800. When my dad phoned to query this they said that our gas bill has always been an estimate and for the past few years we have been paying less than we should and that this recent bill was to balance it. Fair enough, BUT... I was under the impression that the suppliers should periodically check the gas meter every year or 18 months - but they said ours hadn't been checked for at least 3 years. I would think that this failure to check on our useage would invalidate any claim they have to this £800 but I'm not totally sure. Anyone have similar experience? Anything we can do?

I very much doubt that the failure to read the meter would invalidate the bill;

1) Your parents used the gas.
2) They should have been aware that the meter hadn't been read. Most meters require access to read them, but even if theirs didn't then all the bills would have been labelled as based upon an estimate, and listed what that estimate was. Your parents could have audited that figure at any time.
3) Scottish Power give instructions on meter reading on their website. I'd guess that they provide similar information periodically with the paper bills too.

That being said, Scottish Power would have been aware that it had been 3 years between readings and it is harsh to expect a customer to suddenly cough up that amount of cash. I'd hope that they'd be receptive to spreading the deficit over a few bills.

Here in California I worked at a bussiness where the gas company somehow forgot to send a gas/electric bill for six months. Upon receiving the bill, I got to call and talk to them and they said their policy was to spread the bill out over the time that had elapsed between bills. I seems odd that they'd need a policy for not sending bills, but they had one.

Are you sure the meeter reading is accurate? When I was a child our electric meeter exploded, and we called up and they matter of factly told us that their meeters don't explode. At least we got a free month of electricy out of ordeal. So their meeters may not been as foolproof as they claim.

Matthew

Ok, two experiences here.

The first was ours, where we ended up not getting any gas bills at all for the first 18 months after we moved in (because the gas company screwed up and my wife and I both thought the other one was paying for the gas). The gas company were happy to accept that they were at fault and spread the outstanding amount over a couple of years (I think they just put us on their budget scheme at 20% or so above the normal payment level).

The second was my ex-bosses. He moved into a new house and despite his wife being at home most of the time the gas company failed to read their meter for over two years, giving them estimated bills the whole time. When they finally read it and gave them a non estimated bill there was a £1,000 gap.

He spent several months arguing with the gas company, asking them to prove to him that they had used that much gas. In the end the company folded, the lack of meter readings meant that they always backed down when he asked for proof. He didn't pay any of the £1,000.

I'm pretty sure that the gas company has a legal responsibility to read your meter after a certain period, I'm sure that is what I have seen on the cards they stick through the door after failing to read a couple of times.

In our current house, the only way we manage to get a non-estimated reading of either gas or electrity is to read it ourselves. I doesn't matter how many times they come to read the meters, it never makes it onto our bills.

This doesn't suprise me though, as I know someone who used to develop software for the UK domestic gas supply market. According to them the whole meter number scheme is a mess, the main problems being that the supposedly unique meter number isn't unique and that developers of new houses rarely manage to supply the correct meter number with the correct address when they connect to the gas supply.

Edit:

According to this site:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/n6w/index/.../gas_supply.htm

they should be inspecting and testing your meter every 2 years

P.S. gas prices (and calorific values) of course change over time, so they have no way of knowing when the missing gas was used. I wonder which part of the period they assume it was used in ?

My eletric company uses meters that it can read via a radio signal. So all the have to do is drive past every house once a month. Does anyone else have a meter like this?

My water meter is like that.

They are just converting my area to that now. I have to call for an appointment so they can install / swap the meters.