What are my 'Rights' whilst I await a decision from the Ombudsman?

Richyread

Hello,

As a continuation from my previous post at Christmas - I though it easier to create a new request than to rehash old information.

Summary:

I have an open complaint with my energy supplier British Gas for their reported shortfall in payments for the period Sept 11- Sept 12 of circa £1,800 or £2500 including my existing payments.

I have been through the entire complaints system with BG including personally requesting assistance from the MD Philip Bentley to resolve the issue and sending photographic evidence supporting my belief that their engineers have remedied a fault with the meter.

Sadly we have not been able to reach agreement and the issue is still outstanding.

Having contacted the Energy Ombudsman in April of this year, I confirmed in written correspondence from the MD's office @ BG that the status of my account is "block on your account and this will remain there until the Ombudsman has made their decision".

Accepting of this state and having maintained a monthly payment of £60 to credit the account so as to easily cover our current usage, I am patiently awaiting the response which I know is currently 8-10 weeks.

Issue:

To my surprise and shock this morning we received a formal letter from 'Resolvecall Limited' whom have taken on the debt collection activity for our account with BG.

The letter demands payment within 7 days or they will look to disconnect our supply.

Question:

So long story short - what rights does an individual have whilst they await the decision of an Ombudsman?

Common sense would dictate that it is in both parties interest to await the decision or am I being a little naive :embarasse

I will be writing back to the company (and including a copy of the correspondence from BG) but just wanted to get an idea of what other avenues I could follow if this isn't effective.

Appreciate your time.

Richy.

DirectDebacle

As B.G. have put a 'block' on the account this should mean that no recovery action will be taken until after the E.O. have reached their decision.

Never, never ever telephone a DCA. Simply write to them and inform them that the matter is with the E.O. and that they should ask for further instructions from B.G. Do not enclose any correspondence or documents from B.G. Request that they refrain from making any further demands from you as the matter is still in dispute and awaiting independent adjudication. Tell them you will not communicate with them any further on the matter until the E.O. process has been completed.

Copy this letter and forward it to B.G. enclosed with a letter clearly marked Complaint. Complain to B.G. re breaking their agreement to 'block' the account and instructing a DCA prior to receiving the E.O. decision. Pont out that their action could be construed as harassment.

Wait for the E.O. decision.

Wywth

Richyread wrote: »

Hello,

As a continuation from my previous post at Christmas - I though it easier to create a new request than to rehash old information.

Summary:

I have an open complaint with my energy supplier British Gas for their reported shortfall in payments for the period Sept 11- Sept 12 of circa £1,800 or £2500 including my existing payments.

I have been through the entire complaints system with BG including personally requesting assistance from the MD Philip Bentley to resolve the issue and sending photographic evidence supporting my belief that their engineers have remedied a fault with the meter.

Sadly we have not been able to reach agreement and the issue is still outstanding.

Having contacted the Energy Ombudsman in April of this year, I confirmed in written correspondence from the MD's office @ BG that the status of my account is "block on your account and this will remain there until the Ombudsman has made their decision".

Accepting of this state and having maintained a monthly payment of £60 to credit the account so as to easily cover our current usage, I am patiently awaiting the response which I know is currently 8-10 weeks.

Issue:

To my surprise and shock this morning we received a formal letter from 'Resolvecall Limited' whom have taken on the debt collection activity for our account with BG.

The letter demands payment within 7 days or they will look to disconnect our supply.

Question:

So long story short - what rights does an individual have whilst they await the decision of an Ombudsman?

Common sense would dictate that it is in both parties interest to await the decision or am I being a little naive :embarasse

I will be writing back to the company (and including a copy of the correspondence from BG) but just wanted to get an idea of what other avenues I could follow if this isn't effective.

Appreciate your time.

Richy.

Christmas? It was the end of February you posted disputing the accuracy of your electricity meter.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4461639

The supplier confirmed it as accurate by the temporay addition of a check meter.

Advice was given to you at the time and you failed to answer some other questions posed - no wonder you didn't want to refesh that thread :cool:

Your thread in December was about Northern Rock. You said you took them to court ... and lost!
So you then declared yourself bankrupt to avoid paying your dues ...:cool:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4340821
I suppose you could try that again...:rotfl:

chanz4

Op, how can a photo prove your meter wrong......think you have been having the green stuff a bit too much

janopher

Richyread wrote: »

Hello,

As a continuation from my previous post at Christmas - I though it easier to create a new request than to rehash old information.

Summary:

I have an open complaint with my energy supplier British Gas for their reported shortfall in payments for the period Sept 11- Sept 12 of circa £1,800 or £2500 including my existing payments.

I have been through the entire complaints system with BG including personally requesting assistance from the MD Philip Bentley to resolve the issue and sending photographic evidence supporting my belief that their engineers have remedied a fault with the meter.

Sadly we have not been able to reach agreement and the issue is still outstanding.

Having contacted the Energy Ombudsman in April of this year, I confirmed in written correspondence from the MD's office @ BG that the status of my account is "block on your account and this will remain there until the Ombudsman has made their decision".

Accepting of this state and having maintained a monthly payment of £60 to credit the account so as to easily cover our current usage, I am patiently awaiting the response which I know is currently 8-10 weeks.

Issue:

To my surprise and shock this morning we received a formal letter from 'Resolvecall Limited' whom have taken on the debt collection activity for our account with BG.

The letter demands payment within 7 days or they will look to disconnect our supply.

Question:

So long story short - what rights does an individual have whilst they await the decision of an Ombudsman?

Common sense would dictate that it is in both parties interest to await the decision or am I being a little naive :embarasse

I will be writing back to the company (and including a copy of the correspondence from BG) but just wanted to get an idea of what other avenues I could follow if this isn't effective.

Appreciate your time.

Richy.

We waited six months for a decision from the energy ombudsman. They found in favour of the utility company despite our bills being more than twice the amount we had been quoted, so we had to pay up £2300 for a year's service rather than the £996 we'd been quoted. It would have been better had we switched company six months earlier. Our new company's charges are under half and I wish we'd changed earlier and never gone to the energy ombudsman. The old utility company are still demanding even more money from us!

Janopher

Richyread

DirectDebacle - thank you for your response I think this supports my original thoughts and I see other members have also thanked you too.

Luckily I didn't fancy calling their premium rate contact number, so emailed them my complaint instead.

I have since forwarded that mail onto the contact at BG as you suggested and hopefully I'll receive a response next week.

Thanks,

Richy.

Richyread

Just come back out of hospital after another round of tests & treatment and thought I'd respond to the remaining points on this post to close it off.

[Janopher]

Sorry to hear that you weren't successful with the Ombudsman route; having read a few more posts on this forum it seems that a growing majority of referrals are judged in favor of the supplier - this has further dented my initial confidence from speaking with the Ombudsman case handler and his "Yes that doesn't sound right - you've definitely got a case there".

I shall keep my fingers crossed and I hope you're able to get something sorted soon.

Richy.

Richyread

chanz4 wrote: »

Op, how can a photo prove your meter wrong......think you have been having the green stuff a bit too much

I'll mention that next time i'm in - perhaps I can get some of the herbal stuff on prescription...!

Seriously though - it's kind of simple.

As a tenant I paid my agent a number of fees for the rental of the new property (credit search, insurance, tenancy agreement etc.)

As part of this initial setup the agent performs an "incoming inspection report" which lists things such as any damage, left over furniture from last tenant etc, etc.

Crucially they also document the meter reading and take liberal photos of each room in the property.

So as at August 2012 I have an image of the meter reading & it's installation.

BG took pictures of the installation in January 2013 when they installed the check meter.

I have been taking weekly snaps of the meter and it's reading since March 2013.

When you compare the image from August 2012 -> My images from March 2013 you can see that the installation has been rewired/changed (new junction block and wires).

As this has only been amended by BG engineers and since their last visit my usage figures have reduced by over 75% I believe this is proof that the original installation was faulty (perhaps a dodgy earth etc??)
Therefore my claim to the Ombudsman is that I should be absolved from paying the additional £1800 on top of my standard usage for the 12mth period due to circumstances obviously out of my control.

Richy.

chanz4

are you on about the cutout and tails on their side, or an isolator been fitted to your side

Richyread

Wywth wrote: »

Christmas? It was the end of February you posted disputing the accuracy of your electricity meter.

The supplier confirmed it as accurate by the temporay addition of a check meter.

Advice was given to you at the time and you failed to answer some other questions posed - no wonder you didn't want to refesh that thread :cool:

Your thread in December was about Northern Rock. You said you took them to court ... and lost!
So you then declared yourself bankrupt to avoid paying your dues ...:cool:

I suppose you could try that again...:rotfl:

I had posted for some genuine advice but somewhere it seems I've hit a nerve or offended you:embarasse?

Question 1. I barely know what day of the week it is let alone the month having spent the majority of 2013 thus far in and out of clinics, pharmacies and test centers.
Yes you were correct looking at your link it was Feb. Is the date I posted relevant?

Question 2. Check meter - see previous response to Chanz4. If the installation up to the meter(s) is/are faulty then yes it will simply show as accurate.
Maybe I'm naive but in my 13yrs as an IT Consultant I'm hoping that folks in this day & age have learnt to not take what a computer says at first glance and apply some general human common sense/interpretation.
If from a legal standpoint "what a meter records is always accurate" then support systems such as the Ombudsman Service would seem to be just a paper chasing exercise no?

Question 3. Not exactly on topic and seems like you've an axe to grind in general - but I'll give you some feedback form my experience.

Yes I am (discharged) bankrupt.
Yes I took my mortgage company to court in 2010
Yes the judge ruled in favor of the supplier Northern Rock.
Did I "loose" - nope.
Did I "avoid paying my dues" - you decide:

I'm a fairly straight forward chap, whilst not religious the sentiment "treat others as you wish to be treated yourself" is a good morale standpoint.
Having been a customer of NR for 10yrs I had a perfect credit record, had never defaulted on any payments and was regularly offered loans and other products from their sales team.
2007 and there are national reports of the bank struggling.
telegraph.co.uk/finance/2815806/Northern-Rock-customers-withdraw-1bn.html

Mid-2008 and I receive a letter demanding re-payment on my loan section of 'Together' mortgage product within 31 days after which the interest switched to something in the region of 31%APR.
Having been a happy, paying customer I resented the change in terms of my product due to what I perceived as their incompetence and as a single income family I would financially struggle to make the extra repayments.

Up to that point had I followed and maintained payments as per the mortgage agreement - yes.
Was I to know that NR (and other providers) had secured their loans against dubious investments - nope.
Was it fair to expect that the only remaining customers of NR fund the recovery for their mistakes? - History shows it was not and worse still they are still making mistakes: guardian.co.uk/money/2012/dec/14/nothern-rock-payout-after-interest-error-taxpayers.

Going to court was a simple request for decency & common sense which I received in my first hearing and understood we had a way forward.
Appointment of a new legal team from NR a few months later resulted in them filing for repossession. (again I was still making payments at the contracted rate at the time)
Back to court for my second hearing and the look of horror on the faces of the 3 bow tie & suited chaps from London when I presented my arguments from the Penguin book of Legal Advice
.
Judge dismissed the previous ruling and despite my arguments to the contrary (and calling the process a farce - not a good move:() as expected the judgement was passed.

So I then had two choices:

1. Submit to NR's bulling tactics, attempt to meet their demands for payments + the court fees + the costs of the solicitors within the 90 day court period.
2. Throw in the towel and walk away.

I pleaded with the NR team, I again went to see CAB and attempted mediation. None of it worked.

As a last result, faced with huge costs on a single income, I took the incredibly difficult decision to declare myself bankrupt.
To add further insult to injury my bankruptcy hearing was set on my sons 10th birthday.

So in declaring myself bankrupt I lost:
- My home of 10 years
- My car and most of my physical belongings
- My self respect & a number of 'friends'
- A 'sideways move' at my work
- Subjected to humiliation of having a 3rd party (receiver) 'own' your life for 12mths.
- Impact to my health & relationship with my wife and children (which almost 3yrs on is sadly still an emotional undercurrent)
- Forced move into emergency temporary housing

Have I paid my dues?

Depends on your perspective.

Could I have continued to pay off my original mortgage...absolutely. Should I have found a way to meet NR's demands..well that's a matter of personal opinion.

That decision still haunts me to this day - I still see the emotional impact it had on my wife - and it's something we will both have to live with for the rest of our lives.

Would I "try it again".... I find the mere suggestion insulting giving the huge permanent impact it has on peoples lives and would urge anyone even contemplating going down the 'easy road' of Bankruptcy to seriously get some advice and think long & hard about the long term effects.

Richy.

Richyread

chanz4 wrote: »

are you on about the cutout and tails on their side, or an isolator been fitted to your side

Hi Chanz4,

I'm not electrically minded in any way but I've uploaded a document with images of my installation (after the BG engineers have finished)

mediafire: /?1qb9c98te2s5pdf

*Edit:I can't seem to post hyperlinks as a new user*

On the incoming report the wiring to the meter from the 'master fuse' has a green wire from the junction box, which is a faded almost dusty grey.

So as you'll hopefully see in the picture, this green wiring has been removed/replaced (I wasn't there during the return visit) and a new junction box/connection box has been added.

This is all work carried out on the incoming supply before it hits the meter and then my internal fuse box.

Does this make sense?

Richy,