Compensation due to power cut?

scatz

Hi,

Long story short; Monday 00:30 we lost power, got it back at 11:30 that morning but when I came home yesterday we had lost power again which had been the case from 09:30 that morning. We have now had power restored at 20:30 this evening which meant a whole 35 hours without electricity :mad:

Needless to say, we have lost all the food in our fridge and freezer which had been stocked for a fortnight on Friday.........probably neering the £100 mark, if not a bit more. We've had to eat out the past two nights which has cost us about £45 not to mention the fact we have been unable to heat our house last night, which was surprisingly cold, when we have a 14 month old who suffers from Vasomotor irritability and has to be kept warm. Also, we have an electric hob so have had to travel 5 miles to our nearest relatives just so she could have warm bottles and food! We would have asked the neighbours but they were obviously in the same situation :rolleyes:

Anyhow......I have been informed that the electricity companies will only pay a maximum of £50 compensation.

I have a couple of questions, therefore;

Who do I claim from, my suppliers or the contrators (the peeps that fix the problem)?

We have no contents insurance as we had to cancel it due to financial constraints in the current climate so should we be able to claim more from the electricity people?

Can we ask for compensation for 'undue stress' to our child who suffered last night due to her condition? (there are only so many layers you can put on a child, especially with the threat of cot death! We rely on a constant ambient temperature for her!

Has anyone been in a similar situation or knows the legalities? We could really do with some much appreciated advise to arm ourselves with, bearing in mind we have now got to complete a double expensive shop this week just to replace all the food we have lost!!!!

All advice would be greatly received and we thank you for reading

fwor

I don't know the answer to all the questions, but a few points:

You can't make any claim on the contractors, because you have no contract with them (their contract is with your electricity supplier).

If you are ever in that situation again, contact your supplier, as they will probably offer emergency (gas) heaters for your specific circumstances.

I would be very surprised if you could force them to provide you with any compensation other than what is already covered (i.e. the cost of spoiled food). I'm fairly sure that any other form of compensation could be interpreted as them accepting liability - which they will not do. If you check the terms of your contract with them, you will probably find the £50 limit written into it.

So the best that you can probably hope for is that if you write to them and explain the situation, they may make a higher offer "as a gesture of goodwill".

lindos90

A few years ago a similar thing happened to us, there was some kind of power surge at a local sub station and the power was off for well over 12 hours as the sub station had to be repaired before it could be turned on again.

It blew our TV and video, and the fridge and freezer were without power all that time. We were not able to claim for anything in the fridge as it was said that if we kept the door shut, the temperature would stay 'safe' for a long period of time.

We could claim for the freezer food though, and had to have someone come out and test the freezer as it would not 'freeze' after the electricity came back on, we were also able to claim for the Tv and video.

We had to claim off our insurance, then the insurance company aparently got the money off the elecrticity company.

I was so angry at the time, as its not like car insurance where it is classed as a non fault claim.

The bazarre thing was, two days later there was a chemical leak at a local factory, I was 5 months pregnant, packing for a house move the next day...really surreal.

We had to close all windows, and stay inside listening to the local radio and for the 'all clear' alarm...this was 7 years ago!

Sorry I cant be of more help, but thats what I was advised to do at the time..claim via house insurance.

geri1965_2

I deal with claims for power surges and the electricity supplier will pay compensation if this happens, but I don't think they will pay compensation for power cuts as there is no guarantee of a continuous supply.

Your best bet is to try and find out what caused the power cut - if for example someone cut through a cable, you could pursue a claim against them for negligence.

Edited to add - I've just done some searching and it seems you may be entitled to claim if a cut is over 18 hours, dependent on the cause of the power cut.

There's another thread here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=941915

scatz

lindos90 wrote: »

We were not able to claim for anything in the fridge as it was said that if we kept the door shut, the temperature would stay 'safe' for a long period of time.

Did you ask them how you were supposed to feed yourselves without opening the door :rolleyes::rotfl:

lindos90 wrote: »

Sorry I cant be of more help, but thats what I was advised to do at the time..claim via house insurance.

No need for apologies, however, we have no contents insurance to claim from.....only due to the current financial climate :rolleyes:

Thank you both, so far, for your comments. I will endevour to follow our electricity's suppliers complaints proceedure and will not rest until we are given, at the very least, what we have lost financially in food stuff, afterall, why should we pay an excess and higher premiums on insurance (if we had it) when it is the resposibility of the electricity board to keep a constant supply of electricity to us....surely!

The matter concerning our daughters suffering is foremost at my mind, we nver even thought the board could offer us alternative heating etc. if we asked. I have heard in the past, of localised generators which they perhaps could have considered after 24 hours........

Again I thank you for your input