Small Claims? can i?

kellyfinley

Hi i just found out that my main electric storage heater in my upstairs hall has never been connected to the economy 7 system. The whole point of a storage heater is that it stores the heat at night then releases it during the day, isn't is? well thats what the rest in my property do. Anyway the point is the electric company e-on brought to my attention in 2009 that one of my heaters was using way to much energy. So with that information i called my housing association who own the property i live in and asked them if they would come and do an energy efficiantcy test on all the heaters. They did do this for me and concluded that there was no reason why any of my heaters would be using more electricity than they should, i was advised that each heater on average used £1 in 24hours, so i was confused to why in the summer time when i did not use the heater i was using £10 per week on my electric meter but during the winter we were using £8-£10 per day, yes thats right per day (note: we only have ever used 2 of the storage heaters as we could not afford to have any more on) anyway i trusted the housing association and just assumed that there judgment of £1 per 24 hours per heater was a total under estimate. Then about 3 months ago the hall heater stopped working and i called the housing association to come and fix it, they sent their electrician who said that the hall heater wasn't connected to the economy 7. They have now connected the heater but what i want to know is can i legally claim back the money i have waisted on electricty on the faulty heater since i have lived in the property? i have recently spoken to e-on who have helped me to calculate that when connected to the economy 7 the heater would use £0.87p per 24 hours and when not connected to economy 7 it was using £5.54p per 24 hours, the difference is a rediculous amount of money. I have of course asked my housing association to look into my compensation claim. That was almost 2 months ago and they are dragging their feet. Should i just go through the Small Claims? I also want to Claim for the suffering they have caused me and my family, every winter in that house has been a nightmare i have 2 kids under 5 who have no heating in their bedroom so have relied on the hall way heater to keep them warm at night. The Long short of it is that if the heater was connected to the economy 7 in the first place we could have afforded to put the other heaters on in the house and keep warm. Any advice please would be much appreciated :j

battleborn

That is quite hard to read.

bod1467

battleborn wrote: »

That is quite hard to read.

I agree - it's a wall of text.

OP - can you reformat your post please?

pinkshoes

kellyfinley wrote: »

So with that information i called my housing association who own the property i live in and asked them if they would come and do an energy efficiantcy test on all the heaters. They did do this for me and concluded that there was no reason why any of my heaters would be using more electricity than they should,

All three of your heaters would be using the same amount of energy (kilowatthours, kWh) when turned on, so the housing association are absolutely correct.

They would all be of the same efficiency.

One of them just happened to be taking this energy during the day when it was more expensive.

You asked for the wrong type of test. You should have got an electrician in to check that all the heaters were wired up correctly.

Personally I would have turned only 1 heater on for a few days, and tried to work out if one was COSTING more i.e. running on a more expensive day tariff.

You can't really expect the HA to pay for 4 years work of extra electricity costs when you could have done more to bring it to their attention!

wealdroam

Well I read it ok, and it seems to me OP that you are claiming a refund from the HA for the difference in cost of running the heater on economy7 and otherwise.

But then you say you couldn't afford to run the heater because it was too expensive.
If you haven't spent the money, you cannot claim it back.

But then, perhaps I have misread it.

kellyfinley

pinkshoes wrote: »

All three of your heaters would be using the same amount of energy (kilowatthours, kWh) when turned on, so the housing association are absolutely correct.

They would all be of the same efficiency.

One of them just happened to be taking this energy during the day when it was more expensive.

You asked for the wrong type of test. You should have got an electrician in to check that all the heaters were wired up correctly.

Personally I would have turned only 1 heater on for a few days, and tried to work out if one was COSTING more i.e. running on a more expensive day tariff.

You can't really expect the HA to pay for 4 years work of extra electricity costs when you could have done more to bring it to their attention!

I explained to the housing association that something was wrong with one of my heaters, they came to check and yes did also check they were wired up properly, but the electrician they sent oviously didn't do there job properly. And i'm sorry but i'm no expert. I was told they were all economy 7 heaters so didn't even think it would be anything to do with using more during the day, i was thinking that the heater was actually faulty. They told me yes they were old but nothing was wrong. So in my eyes it's there fault.

kellyfinley

battleborn wrote: »

That is quite hard to read.

Really don't you read a news paper?:rotfl:

kellyfinley

wealdroam wrote: »

Well I read it ok, and it seems to me OP that you are claiming a refund from the HA for the difference in cost of running the heater on economy7 and otherwise.

But then you say you couldn't afford to run the heater because it was too expensive.
If you haven't spent the money, you cannot claim it back.

But then, perhaps I have misread it.

I actually said i couldn't afford to run the other heaters in my house, which would have kept us warm. Also said that that was the only heater i have in the upstairs of my house, so have no option but to use it 24 7 in the cold weather

kellyfinley

pinkshoes wrote: »

All three of your heaters would be using the same amount of energy (kilowatthours, kWh) when turned on, so the housing association are absolutely correct.

They would all be of the same efficiency.

One of them just happened to be taking this energy during the day when it was more expensive.

You asked for the wrong type of test. You should have got an electrician in to check that all the heaters were wired up correctly.

Personally I would have turned only 1 heater on for a few days, and tried to work out if one was COSTING more i.e. running on a more expensive day tariff.

You can't really expect the HA to pay for 4 years work of extra electricity costs when you could have done more to bring it to their attention!

Ok so what about the fact that they should have completed the nessasary checks before they move a tenant into their property? Also the heater has broken 3 times in the last 5 years, so why was this only picked up the 3rd time it broke this year?

Each time it was a problem with the thermostat, in my eyes is dangerous as kept over heating, due to it not being going off on economy 7 hours

somethingcorporate

You could have done a very simple test to see which was draining more electricity by turning one on at a time, but hindsight is wonderful.

Write to them again (write, not email or call) giving them a deadline and what resolution you would expect before proceeding with court action. TBH I am not sure you would win, you haven't actually lost anything since you'd have spent that money on heating anyway (you'd just have got more heat for your money), but the cost of raising a claim is not really significant.

OP, I've never seen a newspaper as a single wall of text, they usually insert paragraphs every few lines which make them readable.