Over Charged by EDF £9000

Greenwich2019

We have a small property company that has been overcharged by EDF over a two year period. We bought a HMO that we only had to pay bills for the communal areas. We called EDF to set up a contract but were told we we couldn't do that as there was money owing on the account and to wait for a bill. We didn't receive a bill until around 7 months later.
The bill was based on an estimate and was for £6,000. I called with the real meter reading only to be told the actual bill was £7,600. I immediately raised a complaint and EDF fitted a check meter in the property. They admitted their meter was incorrectly recording the electricity. By this stage the bill was at  £12,500 and we were really worried.
EDF then came to our property telling us they were removing the check meter. They actually removed the check meter, the faulty meter and fitted a new meter all without telling us. They claim the faulty meter has since been 'recycled'.
They admit the meter was incorrect. Over a two month period the new meter they have fitted generated bills based on an actual meter reading of £60 over the two months.
EDF have agreed to adjust their bill to 4 units a day as opposed to the 48 units a day their faulty meter was recording bit will not back date this to the date we took over the property but only the day we raised a concern.
This means we now have a bill of £9300 even though they have admitted their meter was faulty.
We have made a small claim against them for the full amount but their QC is saying we do not have a case in law. Can this be true? I am not a lawyer, we just have this small business.
Could anyone advise what my case in law would be here? They admit they have overcharged us, they admit their meter is faulty, they have taken it away without us being able to have it independently verified and they refuse to rebill us for the entire period due to them saying we do not have a case in law.
Any help gratefully received.

MWT

Get your own legal advice, never believe what the opposing council tells you.

daveyjp

EDF Counsel is working for them, so no surprise they are saying you have no case!

You need your own legal advice as it could quickly end up in Court as its a business to business transaction.

Greenwich2019

daveyjp said:

EDF Counsel is working for them, so no surprise they are saying you have no case!

You need your own legal advice as it could quickly end up in Court as its a business to business transaction.

We've already started Court proceedings through Small Claims. Just wondering if that is the best route for us.

MWT

If you qualify as a 'micro-business' I might have suggested the Ombudsman route first, and you may find that the court pushes you in that direction as well since you are supposed to consider non-court routes first...

.. you really should take some legal advice on this though, even if you only pay for a couple of hours to get a little direction on this...

Greenwich2019

MWT said:

If you qualify as a 'micro-business' I might have suggested the Ombudsman route first, and you may find that the court pushes you in that direction as well since you are supposed to consider non-court routes first...

.. you really should take some legal advice on this though, even if you only pay for a couple of hours to get a little direction on this...

 Beginning to think you're right......it's gone past the mediation stage but getting a couple of hours, as you say, would be useful.
It's finding the right person as always with this type of thing.
Thanks again.

niktheguru

I sympathise with your situation. Seeking legal advice is the right thing to do, but lawyers tend to be sharks and will often charge ridiculous rates for giving very generic and not always useful advice. (From personal experience I have wasted 2 hours of my time paying a lawyer £300 for advice regarding a flat leak liability problem and felt it was a complete waste of time!) (It staggers me how much lawyers charge for their services, half of which is often done by para-legals)

It may be worthwhile checking if you have legal cover with your business/landlord insurance. As this would be the perfect scenario to use such insurance.

Please let us know how you get on and i wish you all the best. Sounds like you've been absolutely scammed by edf.

spiro

The issue you have is nether you or EDF don't know when the issue with the meter started they can only guess. As a business you should ideally have been taking meter readings monthly including one the day you took over the property. Do you have that reading and did you submit it to EDF when you first took over? Any consumption pre the purchase date would be the responsibility of the old owner.

Greenwich2019

spiro said:

The issue you have is nether you or EDF don't know when the issue with the meter started they can only guess. As a business you should ideally have been taking meter readings monthly including one the day you took over the property. Do you have that reading and did you submit it to EDF when you first took over? Any consumption pre the purchase date would be the responsibility of the old owner.

Hi Spiro

Neither we nor EDF dispute the initial meter reading which they have.