Utility Warehouse £350 bill for replacement Gas Meter!

Blacko1974

Good evening Ladies and Gentleman, this is my first post so please humour me..

Earlier this year my mother in law had a problem with her gas supply ( During a storm the cover blew off her outdoor prepayment meter ), this left her with a smell of gas and the prepayment meter not accepting her gas card, being a council tenant the only thing she know what to do was contact the number supplied by the council in case of any gas repairs, within a few hours the company subcontracted by the local authorities had fixed the problem, all good. Several weeks later the mother in law received a message from her bank informing her that her account had a direct debit declined from Utility Warehouse, It seems that the contractors for the local authority had replaced the meter and had possibly charged Utility Warehouse for the pleasure, at no point was the householder made aware that both 1. The meter had to be replaced and 2. It would incur a £350 charge, the first time she was aware of anything is when Utility Warehouse made an attempt at taking money from her bank account ( No permission was given to take funds from the account ) when my daughter called UW they informed her that my Mother in law would either have to claim it back on her house insurance or pay in installments, this lack of communication has horrified me, she is an elderly woman so I feel she is being played upon, UW decided to then send a letter after the bank declined the payment, up until then there had been no correspondence whatsoever, please help me folks this is causing undue stress.

Ectophile

No doubt their argument regarding the bill will be that the meter box belongs to the household, not the utility company (it's normally fitted by the builder as part of the house build), and because the door blew off, that's what damaged their meter. So they are billing for a new one.

But if the MIL is a tenant, isn't it the landlord's responsibility to pay for storm repairs?

They definitely should not take money without giving prior notice. That's against the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee.

Blacko1974

Thank you, The building is owned by the local council the MIL being the tenant, my grievance is the lack of communication between both the authorities contractors and Utility Warehouse, it seems there has been correspondence between both parties leaving the MIL unawares with a hefty bill and indeed her bank account has been targeted by UW, I don't see any legal sense in this.. Surely the householder has to be informed of any costs involved before carrying out the work, she is also visiting the bank to stop any more attempts at plundering her small current account.

dogshome

The Cost and Value of useing Utility Warehouse as a supplier is an item of continuous debate on this site - It has it's own thread

Whilst it'sGas & Electricity prices are certainly not the cheapest, there are families who reckon that by useing all of UW's services, Gas & Elec - Phone -C/card - Store Discounts, they can save money.

However, it's unlikely your MiL has sufficient annual spending power to benefit from the UW system, and even though it might have been sold to her by a 'friend', you really need to put her Gas & Elec figures thro' a couple of comparison sites to find her a better deal

Blacko1974

The cost of the gas supply isn't the issue it's the £350 charge they have made for replacing the outside meter, The lady in question only knew that if there was a problem with the gas supply then she would have to ring the helpline which the local authorities supply to contact their contractors, there was no way of knowing that the local authorities would bill UW who in turn billed her, this cost was never mentioned, UW in turn illegally accessed her account to obtain money, it really doesn't add up. The contractors are called Saltire who provide council tenants with gas support throughout the North Lanarkshire area.

Blacko1974

The cost of the gas supply isn't the issue it's the £350 charge they have made for replacing the outside meter, The lady in question only knew that if there was a problem with the gas supply then she would have to ring the helpline which the local authorities supply to contact their contractors, there was no way of knowing that the local authorities would bill UW who in turn billed her, this cost was never mentioned, UW in turn illegally accessed her account to obtain money, it really doesn't add up. The contractors are called Saltire who provide council tenants with gas support throughout the North Lanarkshire area.

macman

If the damage resulted from a failure of the meter box, which was not caused by the tenant, then the bill should be paid by the LA as landlord, since the meter box is a fixed (or in this case not very well fixed) part of the property. Whether the LA's own insurance covers what is essentially an 'act of God' is not the tenant's problem.

Blacko1974

Thanks Macman,

I think what I'm going to do now is contact my local Councillor and have him take up our problem with the local authority, The wind blew the cover off the meters box during the storms the UK had earlier this year, I will contact UW and tell them to put the case on hold until we have an answer on this.

Blacko1974

Got in touch with UW yesterday, completely useless, they informed me that the charge is actually just over £300, £250 to change a damaged meter and £50 VAT, I explained that there was no mention of charge till 5 weeks after they fitted the meter (Invoice arrived yesterday), I explained that if the MIL knew of the £300 charge then there was no way she would have accepted as she has nothing but a state pension as income ( He kept saying the same repeated answer that they could add the cost on to the prepayment meter ), I eventually realised that a robotic response was all I was going to receive, this lot are cowboys, I told him I would be taking it up with the ombudsman, could any of the forums users please advise me of the following.

Is it legal for energy companies to reinstall a damaged meter without the householder agreeing to the costs involved (as mentioned an invoice was received weeks after installation)?

I am spitting feathers folks, please advise me... thanks

Cardew

IMO it is unacceptable to carry out a repair without a quotation.


Tell UW you will not agree to pay anything. File a formal complaint and ask for a deadlock letter and when received, or after 8 weeks, submit the complaint to the Ombudsman. Make sure that UW don't pass the account to a Debt Collection Agency while the matter is being investigated.