edf overestimated then served me with a warrant

boss123

hi all in june i recieved an estimated bill for electricity of £450.00 i regularly read my own meter and know the electric used was half that so i payed what i owed and informed edf ( i have all my meter readings gas and elect ,as an excell file on my laptop for over 12 months).
between then and now edf have applied for a warrant for non payment of the amount that i didnt pay. on thursday last week (sept) a collector came to the door and informed me that in twenty minutes some people would be coming to fit a prepayment meter unless i paid around £320+ immediately this is my actual bill for the last quarter (june to sept of £176) + court costs of around £150.00
please bear in mind that upto this point i did not know of any court warrant.
as i could not pay this amount at short notice i had to reluctantly allow access to these people and my meter was changed . i have been informed that the meter will be loaded with this debt so that it will be payed regardless. the guy at the door said they had made many phone calls and that he had called twice previously i asked him why he had not left a card and he said he was not required to. my wife and i both work 40 hours so no one is normally in mon to fri.
i can not believe that these people can get away with adding these costs to my bill. the reason i regularly read the meter is to monitor our own usage and to keep costs down so this is a real kick in the teeth
i would really apprecite any help/advice anyone has to give thanks in advance keith.

nb:are the court or edf supposed to inform me of court applications??

LeeSouthEast

When you paid them what you considered you owed, rather than what was billed, did enter into conversation with them?

advantix

When you paid what you thought you owed them and not what they had billed you did you give them a reading to correct the bill? If you had then this would not have happened. If you just deceided on your own back to only pay what you thought you owed then you only paid part of the demand, therefore not paying the amount due.

boss123

yes i payed them the amount that was actually due then called them and explained and gave a meter reading i then didnt hear anything until two weeks ago a meter reader came when my wife was off work.then three days later we recieved a bill which remained unopened untill this guy came to the door.
am i to assume that the onus is on the customer to regularly read and supply the energy company with figures ??
nb :
the bill we have been given for the last three months is less than the amount we were supposed to be in arrears in june? in other words we owe less than £180 for our last quarter + the added on charges for (alleged court warrant) whereas in jun we were supposed to have underpaid by £250

Cardew

Clearly you were in the wrong by just paying what you felt was the correct amount, you should have disputed the bill and got a new one issued based on the actual reading.

That said, you should of course been told about the court action and had a chance to defend yourself.

If the story is exactly as you state, then you clearly have a case against EDF, but it would be highly unusual for any company to not send out letters warning you of impending further action. Are you sure you haven't had any letters since the June bill.

boss123

maybe i am missing something but as this company put a meter into my house enabling me to tell how many kwh's are being consumed then i clearly have a means to check the cost of said units (variables aside) therefore i did not just "feel this was what i should pay" the amount i payed in june was the actual amount i owed upto that point where i read the meter about two weeks after their grossly inflated bill i payed said amount promptly and informed edf of the correct reading.
i have already spoken to three solicitors (free ) but am informed that whilst i have a valid case most do not take on cases of debt as they are unprofitable
i would happily pay twice as much to get this put right.
next course of action was cab but as this happened only on thursday it was not yet an option.
so i thought i would try "mse" does anyone have any helpfull advice pls ??

zzzLazyDaisy

So, until the the June bill your payments were up to date with no arrears?

Then after that, you had no more bill reminders, no letters, no contact from debt collectors, no letter before action, the court did not notify you of the claim or give you the opportunity to defend, the court did not notify you of the hearing date, or send you a copy of the judgement, and neither EDF nor the Court informed you that enforecement proceedings had been applied for owing to your failure to pay the judgement debt. And neither EDF not the debt collector gave you notice that they needed to gain access to your property to change the meter.

Sounds like a complete shambles.

If things really are as you have described them, you should apply to the court for judgement to be set aside as you did not receive the correspondence from the court, and have a legitimate defence to the claim.

EDIT you do not need a solicitor to do that, just go along and speak to the court clerks, they will tell you what you need to do.

boss123

that is exactly what has happened maybe they phoned but no one was in to answer untill after 5.00pm most days. maybe they called but the same applies and no calling cards were left (which the guy last week admitted).
no correspondence was recieved from edf between my june bill and my sept bill
and there was also no court correspondance whatsoever i only have the word edf that it was applied for

torbrex

You should have received a 'letter of intent' delivered by hand that tells you that the power company is going to apply to the courts to gain a warrant to allow them to force a pre-pay meter on you.
You would then receive whats called a 'human rights notice' by special or recorded delivery that tells you that application has been made at the court, the date of the court sitting, the address of the court and details of what you need to do to avoid the warrant being signed.

Having said that, some of the power companies do 'try it on' by just turning up at your door without warning and dazzle you with words so as to get you confused and allow them to fit the meter.

You should never have allowed anyone access without seeing the actual warrant duly signed and proof of the human rights letter being delivered, if they are genuine they will have these details with them and produce without hesitation.

torbrex

boss123 wrote: »

that is exactly what has happened maybe they phoned but no one was in to answer untill after 5.00pm most days. maybe they called but the same applies and no calling cards were left (which the guy last week admitted).
no correspondence was recieved from edf between my june bill and my sept bill
and there was also no court correspondance whatsoever i only have the word edf that it was applied for

The court would not write to you, it would have been edf, sent at least 2 weeks before the court date by recorded delivery requiring a signature.

boss123

thanks these things i thought of later but at the time my blood was boiling and i couldnt think straight. after calming down i would now like to find out wether i have something to fight for or am i flogging a dead horse and
something else that occured to me was that after edf read the meter two weeks ago, surely it must have occured to someone that i couldnt have owed that money in june, and that sending out a representative (at more cost to me?? ) to fit a different meter was not neccesary, as the amount i now owe is correct for three months supply.