Can anyone advise me on taking an energy company to court

Jeangenie99

I am having problems with ScottishPower, they have now got debt collectors involved that are threatening to send bailiffs to my home. I am 62 unwell and live alone so I am terrified. They are saying that I owe nearly £5000 for a ten-month bill at my previous address, I have obviously disputed this from the start in 2019, I moved in 2019 and gave them my forwarding address so as to sort out the correct bill for ten months and I would settle it with them. Initially, the bill was nearly £7000, I had to get in touch with an ombudsman but she took two days getting back to me stating that Scottish Power says that I owe it so therefore I must? they are saying it is a two-year bill from 2017 to 2019 which isn't correct as I had a prepayment meter in 2017/2018 and I asked Scottish Power to change this for me to a monthly meter as I could not get out due to my health and had to keep asking my family to go to the shop and top up for me after they finished work which I didn't like to keep asking them to do. I have proof of all of this and have been in touch with the debt collectors weekly to ask for proof in the form of bills for which I owe this ridiculous amount of money. I was sent a 2018/2019 bill which was estimated because Scottish Power never sent anyone to my property to check my meter, Ever! although I requested them to do this numerous times, even when the prepayment meter was there the amount that I had to put in daily was sky-high, the only time anyone came was to fit the new meter in October 2018, he couldn't help he said he only fits the meter and has nothing to do with the billing. I had asked Scottish Power to visit my property to see why the amount that I was putting into the meter had gone up more than double much more actually, they just said that was my usage? as I have stated that I live alone and this as for electricity only, at my new address I have Gas and Electricity and I pay much less for both than what Scottish Power is asking for or was charging me on the prepayment meter. My daughter rang on my behalf a couple of times as I was distraught and so worried about it all and she explained to them that there had been 3 new flats built next to me and they were numbered 20A 20B and 20C I was 20, the person she spoke to checked the database and said that 2 of the 3 flats were registered but one did not come up and did not have a unique reference number as all properties do apparently? when my daughter and I checked after, 20A was not registered anywhere even with the Post Office? and it seems too much of a coincidence that my bills went sky-high as soon as the property was occupied, but even then Scottish Power said that could not happen and did not send anyone to check. I have obviously disputed this from the start as I could never use this amount of electricity in a ten-month period, I don't think I could use it in a year period. I have the contract for the monthly meter from when the monthly contract started in October 2018, I moved in October 2019 and paid two months of Direct Debit, which left ten months that I owed. I also have proof of the Direct Debit that I had to set up to have the monthly meter which was for £38.00 per month the first two months came out with no problems on the third month my bank rang me to say that Scottish Power had tried to take £172.00 out of my account but I did not have this amount in there and if it was or is taken they, the bank would charge me an unauthorised overdraught fee, I immediately rang Scottish Power to let them know the mistake that they had made and was informed that this would now be the monthly amount that they would take, I told them that I could not afford this as I was on benefits due to my health but they insisted this would be the amount that they would take so I cancelled the direct debit. I asked the debt collectors to request the 2017/2018 bill as they only sent an estimated 2018/2019 knowing full well that this doesn't exist, the debt collectors CCS put my account on hold whilst they and I were waiting for the 2017/2018 bill. I then received a letter from CCS saying that it was a before action letter and I must pay the bill immediately to stop further action. I rang them and said the account is on hold, she replied Scottish Power have been in touch and said that they have sent all of the bills and so they CCS would be pursuing the claim on Scottish Powers behalf.I have been trying desperately to get help and advice but going around in circles CAB send me to Consumers Rights and they send me back to CAB. I even emailed the general advice team on here they emailed back and said that they can't help, they don't deal with individual cases.I put a review on Trust Pilot and someone from Scottish Power emailed me the next day and apologised for their downfall and also for the ombudsman downfall in helping me, he offered £100off of the £5000 bill and to fit a prepayment meter although I had already moved and was in dispute about this bill and no longer was a customer of Scottish Power and never will be again!
I would be so grateful if anyone can help, CCS have put the account on hold again until April 2nd because I told them that I am seeking legal advice so I don't have long to sort this before the bailiffs turn up. I am looking to take Scottish Power to a small claims court but don't know where to start I know I have to send Scottish Power a letter before the court, but the actual forms I am not sure as they are asking how much refund I am looking to claim, I am not looking for a refund just an actual ten-month bill, not a made-up one and for them to call off the debt collectors as I am terrified of bailiffs knocking, this is really affecting my health. I don't go out as I am on the governments vulnerable list so every knock scares me so much. Please help and advice me if you can.
Thank you.

[Deleted User]

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-to-use-the-small-claims-court

Having posted the link, I am not sure what your claim against the supplier would be: they tend to deal with simple claims involving money owed between parties. Bear in mind that if you have got an Energy Ombudsman Decision then effectively you have agreed to arbitration by a third party. The Energy Ombudsman will have reviewed all the evidence - provided by yourself and the energy supplier - before coming to a Final Decision. You, of course, are free to reject The Energy Ombudsman’s Decision; however, if you make a claim against the supplier it has the right to use the Final Decision in defence of your claim. As The Energy Ombudsman has offered you a way forward, it is unlikely that a Small Claims Court will find in your favour.

If I have misunderstood your long ramble - sorry, but it is not an easy read. If you really want to go to Court with this, I fear that you will need a solicitor to set out your defence in a logical and structured way.

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Unfortunately it's a bit TL;DR.

It would be so much easier to read and understand if it had some paragraphs and was limited to the basics, perhaps presented as bullet points in chronological order.

matelodave

I suggest you see a solicitor if the CAB cant help.

 You'll get a lot of well meaning advice and opinion on here but a lot of it wont help you all that much and could even make it worse. making stuff public before going to court doesn't always help your case a great deal.

silverwhistle

I read the first bit but then gave up as it's just an indigestible wall of text. Could you do us all a favour and edit it to show paragraphs and lines between them. Thanks.

Edit: there's a little cog shape to the right of the header: click on that to get the edit function.

UnclaimedEnergy

£5k owed for a 10 month bill at a previous address
SP saying 2 year £7k bill for 2017-19, but was on a PPM in 17/18
New meter fitted in Oct 2018... Apparently no meter reads have been round and no reads submitted... (Be kind...)
2018/2019 bill is fully estimated due to no meter readings

Elec only (inc heating) which will help to partially explain the high bills. Was likely on a variable tariff pre-price cap so rates likely ridiculously high.

A bit about being flats and that the bills started to increase once another flat was occupied... so could be that the meter is incorrectly linked to multiple flats???

Rest is about interactions with Scottish Power etc. which don't have a lot of impact.

To sum up... They want to take them to the small claims court partially to get a 10 month bill for back in like 2018 based on actual readings... The problem is, those actual readings wont' exist because they weren't provided at the time. 

The thing to focus on though might be the new-build flats being built and your energy usage shooting up after this. However unless Scottish Power set up all of the electricity connections themselves, they aren't at fault for this.

Jeangenie99

Thank you Unclaimed Energy, you are the only person that has tried to help me with this, some people are very rude to someone that is only asking for help, what a horrible world we live in when people would rather find fault than to help someone. I will now leave this site, I must say that I feel much worse now than I did when asking for advice. I really hope that none of the judgemental ones needs any sort of help in the future because there isn't much help out there.
Thanks again for being kind and considerate.

Gerry1

No one has been rude or horrible, IMHO.

Unfortunately your original post is very hard to understand for the reasons people have explained.

Forumites probably have more time and patience than most people to keep re-reading and digesting such a very long script, but if we can't easily understand it then those with time pressures (such as those in the small claims court) will find it equally difficult, if not more so.

We're not setting out to find fault, only suggesting ways to make your case more easily understood by busy people.

UnclaimedEnergy

Compared to other replies you can see to first time posters these were actually quite nice 

The problem is that most people who comment want to help, but don't have time to read through 1,146 words with no paragraphing or summary.

I took it on myself to try and condense it down and understand it because I know that the likelyhood of someone else doing it was low. But again that's not because they're rude or looking to find fault, they just don't have the time.

I hope you are able to sort out the issue though.

welshmoneylover

Very difficult to digest the story thoroughly! I will be the first to ask: why didn’t you take it submit any meter readings to make sure the bills were accurate?
this is the customer responsibility, sounds as if you haven’t got much of a case without the information.

Hasbeen

Never even bothered to read the OPs novel. Sorry OP but far too long/incomprehensible. 

But Unclaimed Energy has thankfully taken the time.

You relied on estimates.

You never checked the estimates against your actual meter readings.

You appear not to have ever submitted any actual readings.

Sorry if I have missed anything. But at the end of the day if you have used the energy they will want the money for your usage.

You can take anyone to the small claims court. But in this instance, reading what has so far been posted so far you are wasting your time and money. Sorry. 

You have stated that you are now leaving MSE forum. But please come back with any updates that may help any others that are unfortunate to find themselves in a similar situation in future.

Best of luck.