British Gas Priority Response Terms and Conditions

1. This agreement is only available to existing British Gas gas and/ or electricity customers with domestic properties.

2. Your agreement runs until you tell us that you would like to cancel, or if we cancel the agreement (see conditions 5 and 6). We will advise you of any future changes to these terms and conditions and /or price when they occur.

3. Your agreement begins 7 days after you give us your direct debit details. Following your first payment, payments for your agreement will fall due monthly.

4. Payment for this agreement can only be made by Direct Debit.

5. You may cancel your agreement in the following circumstances:

  • At any time by notifying us. If you choose to cancel your agreement in the first year we may charge you a small administration fee; or
  • If it is within 14 working days starting from the day after you receive written confirmation of your agreement with us and you will receive a full refund of any money paid unless we have carried out any work in this period.

We may cancel the agreement in the following circumstances:

  • If you cease to be a British Gas gas and/or electricity customer;
  • If you have given false information;
  • If you do not make an agreed payment; or
  • If for any reason we cannot carry out a repair, for example health and safety issues, or if we are not reasonably able to find parts to repair your system, or if your system is not included on our servicing list in which case we will not charge you for the Central Heating Repair work.

7. This service is for customers with a single wet (using water) or warm air gas central heating system (or an electric system if we installed it) in your home.

If you are without heat and or hot water you are entitled to a Central Heating Repair Service no later than the next day. You will be charged separately for the Central Heating Repair Service. If we are unable to provide an appointment by the end of the next day, or later at your convenience, you may request a refund,from the later of, your start date or the anniversary of your start date of up to 12 months’ membership payments.

You can use your Priority Response membership for the Central Heating Repair Service at domestic properties other than your home address, for example for family and friends who are also existing British Gas gas and/ or electricity customers. If you do use this service at another property, which is not your home address, we can not guarantee the next day service if the property is without heat and or hot water.

10. Central Heating Repair Service

10.1 One of our engineers will usually carry out the central heating repair work. In some cases, we may authorise a suitably qualified contractor to carry out the work.

10.2 We will not accept liability for damage unless we have been negligent.

10.3 We will normally ask for your payment details (credit/debit card) at the same time that we book your job.

10.4 You may cancel your central heating repair appointment at any time prior to the arrival of the engineer at the property to commence the central heating repair work and you will receive a refund of any respective repair pre-payments made.

10.5 Spare parts used for repairs are guaranteed for one year from the date of fitting them. This does not affect your legal rights.

10.6 The charge for the central heating repair service includes labour, parts and call-out for fixing the first fault we identify and faults directly related to that fault. We may charge you separately for repairs to further unrelated faults.

10.7 The central heating repair service does not include the cost of:

  • Repairs identified or needed due to design faults in your current system at the time of the agreed work being carried out;
  • Any improvements which are needed to your heating or plumbing system or electrical installation, including the cost of a Powerflush or any work needed to bring your system or installation up to current standards;
  • Getting to your system (materials and labour) – for example, pipes or wiring buried in walls or in ‘built-in’ appliances; or
  • Removing any dangerous waste material, including asbestos.

We will agree any extra costs with you beforehand.
Powerflush is a trade mark.

10.8 Following any central heating repair work, you may need to do some redecorating. You will be responsible for this (and we will not pay for it) unless we have been negligent. If we have to dig on your property, we will fill in any holes and leave the surface level but we will not necessarily replace the original surface or construction.

10.9 During the central heating repair work if the safety earthing arrangements in your property do not meet the standards set out in the current Institute of Electrical Engineers regulations, we will tell you what work is needed to correct any problem. The engineer on site will decide whether work can go ahead. Any work recommended to put things rights is an extra cost. We will agree with you how much this will cost beforehand.

10.10 Repairing or replacing appliance flues is not included. There will be an extra charge for clearing blocked flues, which we will agree with you beforehand.

10.11 Where we replace an existing cylinder, we will use our best endeavours to re-install your immersion heater where it is possible. If necessary, we will agree any extra costs with you beforehand.

10.12 We will not carry out the repair if:

  • parts are unavailable; or
  • your system is not included on our servicing list.

10.13 If we decide we can't repair the problem, we will let you know immediately and you will not have to pay a charge for the central heating repair service or if pre-paid, the payment will be refunded.

11. Using personal information

Information you provide or we hold about you (whether or not under our contract or contracts with you) may be used by us or our agents to:

  • identify you when you contact us;
  • help identify accounts, services and products which you could have from us from time to time (we may do this using an automatic scoring system, which uses the information you have provided, any information we hold about you and information from other agencies, including credit-reference agencies);
  • help run, and contact you about the improved running of, any accounts, services and products we have provided before, or provide now or in the future (we may contact you by email or text message if you have given us these contact details);
  • create statistical and testing information and carry out marketing analysis and customer profiling (including using information about what you buy from us and how you pay for it, for example usage rates and any discounts we have offered you – these are examples only and not a complete list);
  • help to prevent and detect fraud or loss; and
  • contact you in any way (including mail, e-mail, phone, visit, text or multimedia messages) about products and services offered by us and selected partners.

We may allow other people and organisations to use information we hold about you:

to provide services you have asked for:

  • as part of the process of selling one or more of our businesses;
  • if you have failed to pay us, in which case we may transfer your debt to another organisation and provide them with details about you and that debt;
  • if we have been asked to provide information for legal or regulatory purposes; or
  • as part of current or future legal proceedings.

From time to time, these other people and organisations may be outside the European Economic Area in countries that do not have the same standards of protection for personal data as the UK.

We may also allow your information to be used by other Centrica Group companies (including those using the British Gas, British Gas, and Dyno Group brands) for them to carry out any of the above purposes.

We may pass your address, property and postcode, and details of your gas appliances, flue, hot water cylinder, system controls and electrical installations (including details of any repairs or removals), to organisations that supervise these activities including CORGI (Council of Registered Gas Installers) and the ECA (Electrical Contractors Association). These organisations may pass this information to local authorities to meet building regulations. They may also use this information to contact you to inspect appliances or systems, recall faulty products and carry out audits, and for health and safety purposes. Where appropriate, we will give you or the property owner (or both) a certificate to show that your appliances and so on meet building regulations.

We may monitor and record communications with you (including phone conversations and e-mails) for quality assurance and to make sure that we are meeting our legal and regulatory requirements.

We will check your details with one or more credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies to help us make decisions about your ability to make payments and the goods and services we can offer you. We have given a brief guide to how we, the credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies will use your information below. If you would like more information about this, you can find the full version at www.CIFAS.org.uk or phone us on 020 8734 8220 and we will send you a leaflet.

We will search at credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies for information about you and all the people you are applying with – if you are providing information about others on a joint application, you must make sure they agree that we can use their information to do this. If you provide false or inaccurate information and we suspect fraud, we will pass your details to credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies. Law enforcement agencies (for example, the Police and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) may use this information.

We will use the information provided to us by credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies to:

  • help make decisions about credit or credit-related services for you and anyone applying with you;
  • check your identity;
  • prevent and detect fraud and money laundering; and
  • manage your account.

When credit-reference agencies receive a search from us they will record this on your credit file whether your application is successful or not.

We and other organisations may also use this information to prevent fraud and money laundering, for example when:

  • checking details on applications for credit and credit-related services;
  • managing credit and credit-related accounts and services;
  • recovering debt;
  • checking details on applications and claims for insurance; and
  • checking details of employees and people applying for jobs.

Organisations from other countries may use the information recorded by fraud-prevention agencies.

If you want to see what information credit-reference agencies hold about you, you can contact the following three credit-reference agencies currently operating in the UK. The information they hold may not be the same, so it is worth contacting them all. They will charge you a small fee.

Call Credit
Consumer Services Team
PO Box 491,
Leeds LS3 1WZ
Phone: 0870 0601414

Equifax PLC
Credit File Advice Centre,
PO Box 3001,
Bradford BD1 5US
Phone: 0870 010 0583
Website: www.myequifax.co.uk

Experian
Consumer Help Service
PO Box 8000,
Nottingham NG80 7WF
Phone: 0870 241 6212
Website: www.experian.co.uk

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