Dispute with ERG Electrical

dingwall1 · 20 December 2019 at 10:23PM

HI.

I hope this is the right forum to ask for some advice. A couple of months ago we had a problem with our electrics. In a panic, we called the first emergency electrician number we could find online - ERG Electrical. They sent an engineer out the following day. He looked at the fusebox (it's a proper old school one) and said "I'm not touching that". He then listened to us explain what had been happening and made an assessment that the problem was a faulty socket and we need to get someone out to look at it. He didn't carry out any tests or touch anything.

The next day, we got a local electrician out. He ran some proper fault finding tests, and discovered there was a fault in the wiring, nothing to do with the sockets at all. He fixed the fault for us in a couple of hours and everything was great.

ERG then got in touch saying we owe them £150 for the engineer call out. The engineer claims he ran a load of tests and identified the problem. I've told them he's lying and that his assessment was incorrect.

At first they asked for a their party report. The electrician that did the work said he wouldn't be able to get one. I passed on his number to ERG and was told they'll speak to him and get back to me.

Since then I've had a few phone calls, always from different members of staff telling me there's a payment due. I explain about the dispute and the fact they're supposed to be speaking to the electrician and they say they didn't know that. The response is always "I'll look into it and get back to you", then no-one does.

Today I received a letter saying that payment is due within 7 days or they will take legal action. There still hasn't been any resolution to my dispute and it seems they still haven't spoken to the electrician to prove their engineer was lying.

Does anybody have any advice? I really don't feel I should have to pay £150 for someone to tell me I need to get someone out, but I really don't want to face legal action.

I hope someone can help!

tacpot12 · 20 December 2019 at 11:39PM

If they take legal action, the court will assume you owe this money until you prove that you do not, or provide some other reason why you should not pay.

You made a significant mistake in not establishing the cost of the call-out fee. Now ERG can charge you any reasonable figure, and if you are in London that could well be £150.

You called an electrician out and an electrician came out. He might not have been a very good one, but he came when you called. You owe them a reasonable call-out fee.

You might argue in court that he did not use reasonable skill in determining the cause of the fault, but without a written report from the electrician who fixed the fault, you will not win on that basis. You might need to pay the electrician for his time to write a report. He needs to explain to the court what mistake(s) the first electrician made and explain how these mistakes were so basic that the first electrician cannot have used (or had) reasonable skill. The court will still order you to pay something towards the cost of the callout, but may reduce the bill if you have evidence that the electrician did not use reasonable skill.

If I were in your position, I would call them and offer them £60-£100 in full and final settlement of the bill, depending on where you are in the country. Ask them what they will accept, and negotiate. If they open with "We won't accept anything less than £150", you might say "I'm prepared to offer £80 in full and final settlement" and remind them that accepting your offer will save them the cost of going to court, where they might lose.