Legal costs in Energy Bills

Quillsnpens

Hello

We moved out of a rented property around December 2017 after staying in the property for about 12 months. During this time we were never billed for our heating (district heating) despite us having asked the managing agents repeatedly due to a billing problem with the energy company. On the day we moved we again asked to settle our energy bill but they could not confirm what the correct amount of our bill should be for the entire year and said that they would ask for the deduction to be made from our deposit. Again this never happened and we received our deposit back.

8 months late we received the correct bill for £1,000s and due to the delay in the time for us to receive the invoice we made a formal complaint to the energy company to which no one has responded. Our managing agents agreed (on email) to wait until we had resolved the complain with the energy company.

They suddenly sent us a letter before action and have added on legal fees of a few £100s.

We have accepted that we are going to have to pay for the actual energy bill but are wondering companies allowed to tag on legal expenses to our bill (specially given they would wait until we head back from the energy company before progressing the matter)

Thanks
Q

lisyloo

I would agree to pay the bill if They waive the fees otherwise see you in court,

Have you kept details of dates, letters etc. In case you need to account for it in court?

I would send my response recorded delivery (technically proof of posting is adequate in court) or email with read/delivery receipts on.

Quillsnpens

We did exchange emails back and forth with the lawyers on the managing agents side. They are refusing to waive the legal costs.

We do have the emails to back up our claim, however we are just trying to decide if the extra legal fees of c£100pp (total £200 shared between 2 people) is worth the hassle of going to court etc given this is quite small compared to the overall amount.

The other thing we were considering was just paying the original bill in full and telling them we dispute the legal charges and are not paying for them. Then if they want they can try to pursue for us for that.

G_M

Quillsnpens wrote: »

8 months late we received the correct bill for £1,000s and due to the delay in the time for us to receive the invoice we made a formal complaint to the energy company to which no one has responded.
Q

Creditors have 6 years to claim an outstanding debt, so the bill for "£1,000s" will need to be paid.


Where a bill is left unpaid, the creditor can (and has) move tolegal sancions which incur further costs.


Your complaint to the energy company (which I assume is based on their delay in providing the bill?) is a separate matter - you would have been wise to pay the bill and pursue the complaint separately.


Is your account due to the energy company directly, or to the managing agents (who pay the EC)?


I would enter into discussion with the managing agents (to whom it sems the debt is owed?) and offer to pay the outstanding bill asap and see if they will waive the legal costs.

Quillsnpens

Thanks GM. I agree with your analysis and yes the debt is owed to the managing agents.

In retrospect we should have settled promptly but at that time we were peeved because of the lack of communication for 8 months.

We will probably just pay the entire thing off now before legal costs ramp up even more.

sheramber

What action have you taken about your complaint with energy company since you received the bill last August?

Nebulous2

sheramber wrote: »

What action have you taken about your complaint with energy company since you received the bill last August?

I doubt if they have any right to complain to the energy company if they weren’t party to the contract to supply energy. It sounds like the contract was between the energy company and the managing agents.