First Choice EPC

Johnandabby

jhalinson wrote: »

Please stay away from these scammers.
I booked an EPC through their website. The payment page to pay the booking fee wasn't working so I contacted support, nothing. The EPC assessor called me to arrange an appointment the same day which I did and since then I get a £14.95 fine, then a £50 fine and now a £200 fine for not paying the booking fee.
I paid the assessor directly but no way to get the EPC without paying their 'fines'.

If the assessor has finished their work and lodged the EPC, then you can retrieve it for free (and without paying their 'fines') by going to https://www.epcregister.com/ and clicking on 'Retrieve Report Using Property Address on the left hand side. Worth checking there as First Choice EPC don't actually do anything themselves, the independent EPC assessor does - if you've paid the EPC assessor directly, then no reason why they wouldn't have completed and lodged it.

kev100_2

jhalinson,
Was this a booking fee on top of the fee that you already paid.

jhalinson

Many thanks Johnandabby, found the EPC on the central register by the address as suggested. Have sent an email to FirstEPC offering to pay their £9.95 booking fee but no more.


kev100, I haven't paid FirstEPC anything at the moment as their site wouldn't let me pay the £9.95 booking fee. I paid the assessor directly

PengyOne

I am now receiving charges for non-payment of a cancellation fee, having told them I wish to cancel, as I never received an appointment with a DEA. If EPCs are available on the EPCRegister, then what's to stop FirstChoice EPC waiting for people to get an EPC from another source, then retrieving that EPC from the register as evidence that they have provided the service?

They have also made a few 'interesting' claims in email correspondence:
'We offer our pay on the day service in good faith and for the convenience of our customers. The absence of an up front payment makes it necessary for us to levy a service charge in the event of cancellations.'
•!So the absence of an upfront payment makes it necessary to charge an upfront payment?
'This service charge is incorporated into the terms and conditions for all orders placed with us.'
• Would that be the terms and conditions I have never agreed to?
'you were deemed to have expressly consented to the terms and conditions of the agreement. This is very different to implied consent.'
• Express consent is defined in the dictionary as: 'A clear and voluntary indication of preference or choice, usually oral or written, and freely given in circumstances where the available options and their consequences have been made clear'. As I never saw the terms until after paying for the service, that is hardly express consent.
Bank is confident money can be returned. Action Fraud and Trading Standards informed.

kev100_2

Pengyone,

You have a good point, the only time they contacted me, and this was after several messages from me to cancel, and a message by me threatening them with court action, and more than a week later was to tell me an appointment had been made for an assessor, this was several days after I got in touch with a local EPC assessor who completed and emailed me the EPC within 2 days of first contacting him, and that EPC already being uploaded to the EPC register.

Has scam written all over it, this company know that 99% of people need an EPC quickly because they want to sell their house and get it up for sale as fast as possible. So when they dont come up with the goods of course we are going to get in touch with another company to get the EPC done.

These are all pre written responses, I have had exactly the same word for word,

Today I spoke to trading standards again and they told me to ignore any emails or threats of action as they are already investigating this company. My response came through from the action police today which says

"I’m writing to let you know about the current position of your report.
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) collects information from reports and puts
information it receives to the most effective possible use, either through investigating crime
or using the information to disrupt and prevent future criminal activity.
Your report has been assessed by the NFIB and the information you have provided has
helped the police to begin taking steps to disrupt the activities of suspected criminals. This
activity could result in the closure of:
• Fraudulent websites,
• Telephone numbers,
• Bank accounts.
Unfortunately we cannot provide further information about this. One of the reasons is due to
the sensitive nature of police work which cannot always be made public.
It can take time for disruption requests to be fully processed, so please be assured this is
happening and no further action is required on your part."

They are aware of this scam artist and taking appropriate action, the more people that report him to the fraud police, the better.

Johnandabby

PengyOne wrote: »

If EPCs are available on the EPCRegister, then what's to stop FirstChoice EPC waiting for people to get an EPC from another source, then retrieving that EPC from the register as evidence that they have provided the service?

The EPC has the accreditation details of the EPC Assessor on it, so very easy to check with them if it was provided through FirstChoice EPC (or A.N.Other) or direct.

kev100_2

Johnandabby wrote: »

The EPC has the accreditation details of the EPC Assessor on it, so very easy to check with them if it was provided through FirstChoice EPC (or A.N.Other) or direct.

I am pretty sure that there is not one EPC certificate with First choice EPC as the accreditor on it, they just dish out the work to epc accreditors, and I would imagine that its their name that would appear, please correct me if I am wrong though.

I would also assume that the majority of people may not even know or think to look who the accreditor was, .. I didnt even know there was a register untill I got the local EPC assessor to do the job because first choice were scamming me. My accredotor told me its free to download the EPC certificate .. whereas with first choice they try to scam an extra 10 quid from you by saying you can access it from their dashboard, when I questioned them they told me that there were other benefits of paying for the dashboard access .. when questioned about the other benefits I am yet to get an answer.

jhalinson

Latest email from them


Please be advised that Court proceedings have now commenced in relation to the outstanding booking fee charge and late payment administration charges that were subsequently added regarding the order you placed with us on 11/11/2014.


As per our previous emails to you, an additional administration charge of £250.00 has now been added.


The amount we are claiming through the County Court by virtue of a County Court Judgement (CCJ) is £449.90. You can avoid court action by making the payment within the next 24 hours. If you wish to make this payment then you can do so by clicking here


Please be advised that if you are progressing with a mortgage application, you have an obligation to notify your lender of any change in your financial circumstances.


Regards

ConsumerGuy0016

jhalinson wrote: »

Latest email from them


Please be advised that Court proceedings have now commenced in relation to the outstanding booking fee charge and late payment administration charges that were subsequently added regarding the order you placed with us on 11/11/2014.


As per our previous emails to you, an additional administration charge of £250.00 has now been added.


The amount we are claiming through the County Court by virtue of a County Court Judgement (CCJ) is £449.90. You can avoid court action by making the payment within the next 24 hours. If you wish to make this payment then you can do so by clicking here


Please be advised that if you are progressing with a mortgage application, you have an obligation to notify your lender of any change in your financial circumstances.


Regards

It's disheartening to think that a fair few people would be intimidated by this letter into paying the money.

The 24 hour thing doesn't make any sense. If they've already issued court proceedings against you, you have 2 weeks to respond from the date of service.

kev100_2

This is exactly the same tactics that debt collectors use, demanding then saying that action can be avoided if paid beforehand, in this case 24 hours, this is clearly because no court action has begun ...

If he has started court proceedings (which is extremely doubtful) then you will get a nice brown envelope from the court in which you can admit the claim, or counter the claim .. I was under the impression that it was 28 days to reply to the summons ..

I dont even bother reading his emails now ..