how to take a power supplier to court

cct2013

Hello, I really do need some advice on taking npower to court as the energy ombudsman was unable to help.


npower illegally switched my power supply and then it took me ages to get them to move it back as the company is hopeless to deal with.


I want to take them to the small claim court to seek damages for fraud and theft but am struggling to understand the small claims court process.


The ombudsman was a total waste of time.


Does anyone have any experience of taking an energy company to court and have any advice on how to establish the process. I have looked online but I find advice to be contradictory.


Thank you for any help provided.

dogshome

You don't give the details of n'powers 'Illegal Switch' of your power supply, nor the date on which it occured.

The usual problem whereby a provider ends up with account of a customer who did not ask for it, and didn't want to Switch, is an error in the system known as an "Erroneous Transfer" - These happen when someone locally does initiate a Switch, but somehere along the line an error is made in the meter No. or address.

When it happens, the unfortunate customer on the recieving end finds themselves getting Bills from both their original supplier and the new one, who both intitially insist that they are 'The Provider' and demand payment.

The reason I query the date of your problem, is that only recently Ofgem the regulator finally recognised the problem and brought in rules to cover it - The Erroneous Transfers Charter which is breifly:
The new unasked for supplier should return any monies paid to to the customer.
The old supplier will bill the customer for the power/gas meter readings billed by the interloper, on the same tariff terms that the customer was on prior to the highjacking and treat the account as though customer had never left - Also the customer should not be financially dis-advantaged - NOTE This only covers actual £ & pence, there's nothing for aggrevation

The fact the Ombudsman didn't help doesn't surprise me - They are nothing more than a Trade Assn. with no more legal power than you or I - Search google for 'Erroneos Transfer', bone up on it and get back onto n'power in Writing

[Deleted User]

I cant see where any theft has occurred. Switching supplier, even for the short period of a few weeks doe snt mean you would be paying anymore for your gas/electric and you certainly did nt suffer a loss of supply in the meantime. Save your time and stress and just do what everyone else has done with these sorts of mess ups and put it down to experience

macman

Taking an energy company to the county court is the same process as taking out a civil claim against any other company: you complete the claim, pay your fee and file it.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/small-claims-court
There is no 'small claims court', it's simply a fast track process within the county court for dealing with claims under £10K in England and Wales.
Are you prepared to pay their expenses if you lose though?

chanz4

cct2013 wrote: »

Hello, I really do need some advice on taking npower to court as the energy ombudsman was unable to help.


npower illegally switched my power supply and then it took me ages to get them to move it back as the company is hopeless to deal with.
( not illegal, unless they fully intended to)

I want to take them to the small claim court to seek damages for fraud and theft but am struggling to understand the small claims court process.
(again not fraud)

The ombudsman was a total waste of time.


Does anyone have any experience of taking an energy company to court and have any advice on how to establish the process. I have looked online but I find advice to be contradictory.


Thank you for any help provided.

Becarefull, they will claim high legal costs from you if your wrong

sniggings

I would say drop it, as your claim if unable to back it up, could get you in more trouble than them, can you back up a theft has taken place or fraud? and not just a mistake? you also say you want your damages, what are these? what money have you lost? if you can prove your case of fraud and theft, that does not prove you have any damages, those are criminal charges and are very unlikely to get you any money.

I think you need to go back and think what you want to accuse them off and what you can prove, also come up with what this problem has cost you, if you win they will not give you more than what you have lost financially.

Yorkie1

macman wrote: »

Taking an energy company to the county court is the same process as taking out a civil claim against any other company: you complete the claim, pay your fee and file it.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/small-claims-court
There is no 'small claims court', it's simply a fast track process within the county court for dealing with claims under £10K in England and Wales.
Are you prepared to pay their expenses if you lose though?

chanz4 wrote: »

Becarefull, they will claim high legal costs from you if your wrong

Assuming the claim is for less than £10K, the case will be allocated to the small claims track as mentioned above. Legal fees are only very exceptionally awarded to the winner so it's highly unlikely that OP would stand to have to pay these.

sniggings wrote: »

I would say drop it, as your claim if unable to back it up, could get you in more trouble than them, can you back up a theft has taken place or fraud? and not just a mistake? you also say you want your damages, what are these? what money have you lost? if you can prove your case of fraud and theft, that does not prove you have any damages, those are criminal charges and are very unlikely to get you any money.

I think you need to go back and think what you want to accuse them off and what you can prove, also come up with what this problem has cost you, if you win they will not give you more than what you have lost financially.

Fraud and criminal damage are indeed criminal charges and therefore not pursued through the civil county court. They are prosecuted by the state (generally) in the criminal courts.

As you say, OP needs to itemise the particular losses s/he has incurred, and identify the particular reasons s/he says that the energy provider is liable for those losses - with admissible evidence to back this up.

macman

However the victor can most certainly claim their expenses other than legal ones: i.e. costs of witnesses, reports and company time spent on the defence. Which could easily amount to a few thousand.

sniggings

macman wrote: »

However the victor can most certainly claim their expenses other than legal ones: i.e. costs of witnesses, reports and company time spent on the defence. Which could easily amount to a few thousand.

if he should win damaged of a few thousand, which would mean his costs were of an equal amount, which would leave the Op with a grand total of £0, that's the point.

It makes little difference if he wins a tenner damages or £10,000, if they go to pay his expenses, the only difference it would make is if he were to loose the case, then most likely he would be paying his own £10.000 expenses.

macman

But if he wins then he should get his costs. The whole point of the small claims procedure is that the costs for the plaintiff should be very low-he'll basically be funding his time and travel. So he's not going to have costs of £10,000 or anywhere near.
Whereas the defendant's costs, even without legal fees, may be several thousand.

sniggings

macman wrote: »

But if he wins then he should get his costs. The whole point of the small claims procedure is that the costs for the plaintiff should be very low-he'll basically be funding his time and travel. So he's not going to have costs of £10,000 or anywhere near.
Whereas the defendant's costs, even without legal fees, may be several thousand.

not sure what point you are making now?

we are talking small claims here, the costs in these cases are rarely past on even if the other side loses, if by a small chance they are past on they are fixed at an acceptable amount given the limit of such courts, they will not award a few thousand pounds for expenses when the limit in such courts is £10,000. You would be daft to spend thousands when you would be lucky to even get awarded costs and then those costs are limited to a few hundred pounds at most.

If your claim is seen as without merit then costs may be awarded but even then it's rare.

other courts are different but as said we were talking small claims here.