Warrant of entry granted and going ahead but bill paid.

tattydollie

Hi, my family member- julie has a business and has been late with her electric bills previously. She is not on a prepayment plan of any type.

The september bill arrived and she was told if she did not pay by the 21st Oct a warrant of entry served. She rang and paid in full on the 20th Oct and she asked if any warrant would be applied for and she was told no as everything was up to date.

A friend who works for this company has told Julie they will be visting her premises on monday to put in a prepayment meter as a warrant has been granted.

Of course she plans to ring the electric company but they are closed until the morning - the business department isn't open over the weekend but she hopes the 'normal' departments can help.

Can she do anything to stop this?

Thank you

lemontart

given she has been late previously and only paid last minute on threat of warrant perhaps a prepayment mtr is the best option whilst she works to sort out finances and avoid further debt, as a business woman she would no doubt not be best pleased if customers were often late paying her and would have to take steps to reduce her risk

tattydollie

Thank you for replying. I understand that, but can they put the meter in even if no debt is owed do you know? Surely the meter will make the electric bill even more expensive too??!

chanz4

they have a right to change a payment method, not normal once paid though.

tattydollie

Thank you for the replies

lemontart

yes they can change the meter as they own it.

C_Mababejive

Quarterly meters are a privilege in that the energy provider is effectively extending a line of credit.

They may well have decided that they no longer wish to extend credit to your friend and therefore wish to fit a prepayment meter so that they can be paid for energy they supply as she uses it.

They have incurred expenses administering the debt,attending court etc so its possible they may also wish to recover this amount and ensure that the experience is not repeated.

chris1973

If no debt is currently owed, then your friend might be wise to change suppliers, directly after the meter is fitted, this way the Electricity Companies' actions will have lost them a customer, before they have had chance to recoup the cost of changing the meter. Of course they *may* decide to chase her for the cost of installing the meter, but I would say it would be unlikely, as it would be bad PR, and if they did they perhaps persue it, they should be reminded that the decision to change it in the first place was entirely theirs and not a customer request, and that on the date it was actually fitted no debt was actually owing, so they still had a choice!.

Some companies may also be wlling to change the meter back to a credit one, so her time on a pre-payment meter would be relatively short, but this may involve her passing a credit check, so it depends whether her non payment of this bill was a one off cash flow issue, or whether she habitually doesn't pay her bills.

Of course, if she is a 'bad' payer her existing company may actually be glad to see her go, so there are two trains of thought to this plan.

However, I agree that some time spent on having a Pre-Payment meter fitted would probably be a very good learning curve for her, as she probably doesn't have a good idea of her daily energy requirements nor had the incentive to review and make changes to them, a Pre- Payment meter tends to hasten all of these!, when you are popping out in the rain to top up it all of the time!.

As a side point, if your friends business has reached the point where it isn't generating enough income to even pay for the basic utilities then perhaps she needs to have a good long think at just how viable her business model is. Its true that many businesses are struggling, and cutbacks are being made, but even the majority of these are at least making enough to keep their lights on!.

chanz4

chris1973 wrote: »

If no debt is currently owed, then your friend might be wise to change suppliers, directly after the meter is fitted, this way the Electricity Companies' actions will have lost them a customer, before they have had chance to recoup the cost of changing the meter. Of course they *may* decide to chase her for the cost of installing the meter, but I would say it would be unlikely, as it would be bad PR, and if they did they perhaps persue it, they should be reminded that the decision to change it in the first place was entirely theirs and not a customer request, and that on the date it was actually fitted no debt was actually owing, so they still had a choice!.

Some companies may also be wlling to change the meter back to a credit one, so her time on a pre-payment meter would be relatively short, but this may involve her passing a credit check, so it depends whether her non payment of this bill was a one off cash flow issue, or whether she habitually doesn't pay her bills.

Of course, if she is a 'bad' payer her existing company may actually be glad to see her go, so there are two trains of thought to this plan.

However, I agree that some time spent on having a Pre-Payment meter fitted would probably be a very good learning curve for her, as she probably doesn't have a good idea of her daily energy requirements nor had the incentive to review and make changes to them, a Pre- Payment meter tends to hasten all of these!, when you are popping out in the rain to top up it all of the time!.

As a side point, if your friends business has reached the point where it isn't generating enough income to even pay for the basic utilities then perhaps she needs to have a good long think at just how viable her business model is. Its true that many businesses are struggling, and cutbacks are being made, but even the majority of these are at least making enough to keep their lights on!.

I would check it, if its a business contract it may be for a contracted length of time.