Solar energy - Feed-in Tariff payment delays - your experiences?

John_Pierpoint

Oscargrouch wrote: »

Some years ago I was taken to court for a 'breach of contract'. I won the case on the basis that I claimed that I had cancelled the contract in a letter, and posted that letter to the claimant. The claimant stated they had not received it. The ruling was 'when a letter is posted, you expect it to be delivered'. I would say if you have a postal receipt, you have made reasonable steps to ensure its delivery within the 5 day deadline.

I remember reading a thread on here advising a landlord with a troublesome tenant on the procedure for giving notice.
It is a bit technical and the exact date of the notice relative to the tenancy agreement is important.
The poster was advised to send the notice to quit at least twice from different post offices so the tenant's "defence" that he never received the notice would look particularly mendacious.

Savvygreen

The company I am with tell you they will take 6 weeks from reading to payment and have acheived that.
However they have advised today they want to charge £75 per year to process the payments as Ofgem has reduced their admin allowance.Is this happening elsewhere? If so is possible to compare fees charged

KevinG

Savvygreen wrote: »

However they have advised today they want to charge £75 per year to process the payments

What???? That's outrageous! Which company is that?

Edit: sorry, just noticed from the header - Tradelink Solutions - as in http://www.tradelinksolutions.com/?

battelaxe

I have had an email conversation with a very nice lady at Ofgem. She repeats the 5 working day rule is only for meter readings. As I have only got back from work, I can't speak to my installer, but, I was re-reading the application document from Ofgem and it states about the 5 day rule for meter readings. Now, I might be wrong, and I have been wrong this decade once. But is the meter reading done when the installation is 'commissioned? If so, mine would have been done on the 1st so even if my application arrived on 3rd of March it would be less than 5 working days after the meter was read.

Am I missing something? Probably. I hope someone will set me straight....

Some years ago I was taken to court for a 'breach of contract'. I won the case on the basis that I claimed that I had cancelled the contract in a letter, and posted that letter to the claimant. The claimant stated they had not recieved it. The ruling was 'when a letter is posted, you expect it to be delivered'. I would say if you have a postal receipt, you have made reasonable steps to ensure its delivery within the 5 day deadline.

The only way I could do that would mean taking them to court. which I am willing to do if necessary. The trouble is, the cumulative advantage of winning my case would be in the tens of thousands, so I couldn't use small claims court, I am a bit of a fool so I suppose I could represent myself. Your post is very encouraging though, thanks for that. I will try to exhaust all other avenues before I resort to the law.

battelaxe

Savvygreen wrote: »

The company I am with tell you they will take 6 weeks from reading to payment and have acheived that.
However they have advised today they want to charge £75 per year to process the payments as Ofgem has reduced their admin allowance.Is this happening elsewhere? If so is possible to compare fees charged

Absolbl00dylutely disgraceful. Get on to the Energy Ombudsman (after exhausting their complaints policy).

KevinG

battelaxe wrote: »

Now, I might be wrong, and I have been wrong this decade once. But is the meter reading done when the installation is 'commissioned? If so, mine would have been done on the 1st so even if my application arrived on 3rd of March it would be less than 5 working days after the meter was read.

Am I missing something? Probably. I hope someone will set me straight....

I'm afraid I don't see the connection between a 5-day rule for meter readings and a dispute over the date on which your FiT application was received.

battelaxe

Hi Kevin

I'm afraid I don't see the connection between a 5-day rule for meter readings and a dispute over the date on which your FiT application was received.

That was why I was asking if anyone know about when the original insatallation meter reading is taken. OFGEM says that:

Ofgem understands there are practical obstacles when a generator makes a written application for FIT; by the time a FIT Licensee receives the application form via post, natural postal delays will mean that the Eligibility Date will be after a generator has taken the start meter reading and completed, signed and dated an application form. Ofgem has advised Licensees that a reasonable postal delay (5 working days) should be allowed. If the application is received up to 5 working days from the date on which the meter readings was taken, Ofgem considers that the meter reading recorded on the application form is acceptable as the start meter reading for FIT payments. For applications received more that 5 working days after the start meter reading was taken, the FIT Licensee should take another start reading from the generator.

So if my FIT application arrived at EDF within 5 working days from the start meter reading, and the start reading is acceptable 5 working days after it was actually read, ergo my application has been backdated to the date of the meter reading, as the meter reading is not eligible before the application has been received.

It looks weird when I write it out completely. It is a circular argument in that one is ineligible without the other.

As far as i know,

1 EDF received my meter reading on the first of March.

2. EDF received my application on the 3rd March

3. Therefore EDF must accept the meter reading from the 1st March as the start reading

4. If EDF accept the 1st March reading as the reading from which I begin to Feed energy, it therefore means that EDF and Ofgem accept that the 1st March is the eligible date.

Or is that some kind of twisted logic?

The_Green_Hornet

rockbird wrote: »

Eon's terrible payment system.
I haven’t been paid for my reading on 10th April. That is 5+ months. I have had acceptance replies to my submission emails. The one in April said that it could take up to 45 days because they were installing an automated system!
When I phoned them on the at the end of June chasing it they said that it would be a”few more weeks”. I mentioned that that I would shortly be submitting my next quarter’s reading (on the 2nd July) to which they said that it would go in to the new system and would be paid very quickly. 42 days have now passed and that payment as not been received either.
I sent an email stating that if they did not pay within the next 7 days I would take the matter to the Energy Ombudsman. I got an automatic reply stating that it could take longer than 10 days to reply. They have taken longer than 20 days and nothing heard. I have therefore taken the matter to the Ombudsman.
If that doesn’t bring any result I shall simply apply for a summons in the small claims court.
It is my opinion that they are playing the cash-flow game with our money. If we hadn’t paid our electricity bill for that period of time they would have already cut off supply and taken us to court.

I would suggest that instead of wasting your time speaking to the Ombudsman, or threatening to take E.on to court. you use their own complaints procedure to get your issue resolved.

E.on Complaints Form

Many other posters have reported that as soon as they have gone down this route not only have their problems been resolved quickly they have also received some compensation.

John_Pierpoint

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/55283217#Comment_55283217

rockbird

Thanks
I have tried your suggested complaints form now. I don't hold a lot of hope because the automatic reply message looks very similar to the automatic one to my last email to which I have had no response after 3 weeks.
Their is no dispute about any procedure except payment, they have accepted my readings and written that they will pay within 45 days. They are simply not doing so and not replying to my written communications. The ombudsman accepts that I have satisfied their requirement to have done all that I could to work with E.ON to settle the "dispute" before taking it to them.
I can't help but feel that a letter before action followed by a small claims summons for the amounts plus interest is all that is going to make them pay. I am becoming more and more convinced that they are playing the "cash mountain" game. I have worked alongside so-called accountants who think that they are being clever by sitting on other people's cash where in reality they are destroying goodwill and giving their company a bad name.

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

I would suggest that instead of wasting your time speaking to the Ombudsman, or threatening to take E.on to court. you use their own complaints procedure to get your issue resolved.

Link

Many other posters have reported that as soon as they have gone down this route not only have their problems been resolved quickly they have also received some compensation.