Abuse of process with warrant of entry by power company?

Gerry1

Are you on their Priority Services Register?

wild666

IMO before a court grants a warrant to enter and change meters because of a claimed debt they should have an actual reading from the meters and has these meters were outside the person's property they could have sent a meter reader round, at any time, to get up to date readings from the meters. 

A lot of estimated readings are far in excess of the actual readings on the meters. When I left Bulb they produced my regular monthly bill a few days before I left them in Jan 2021 and as I hadn't given them any readings because my move was only three days after the billing date they excessively overestimated my monthly usage. It ended up that they had to repay me about £40 because their figures were massively over the closing readings I gave them on the final day just 90 minutes before I moved supplier. 
Sometimes they underestimate but every time I have had an estimated bill it's always being around £40 to £50 over my usage which means my next bill would be low.

QrizB

wild666 said:

IMO before a court grants a warrant to enter and change meters because of a claimed debt they should have an actual reading from the meters and has these meters were outside the person's property they could have sent a meter reader round, at any time, to get up to date readings from the meters.

The purpose of the warrant is to gain access to the meters. If you can't gain access to the meters, sending someone around to read them really is pointless.

QrizB

A question for the OP. You said:

Flying_Demon said:

Unknown to me in August last year they applied to Magistrates Court for a warrant to enter the property and install a prepayment meter

But you also said:

Flying_Demon said:

The meter is located in a communal area and is not locked.

Did the power company actually enter your flat? Or did they only enter the communal parts of the building?

Brie

Sounds like a lack of communication and understanding....

the energy company wouldn't know the account was in credit as there were no actual meter readings submitted.  And OP had confirmed to the company that due to mobility, distance etc they (OP) were unable to obtain meter readings to submit.  That the OP then told the company to send someone to read the meter should have resolved the issue but as the OP wouldn't be there the company has somehow decided that a warrant was required to access the property. 

Frankly I wouldn't assume that a property was accessible even if the meter was in a communal area.  Most blocks of flats I've seen have a locked entrance, even if in reality someone always leaves the front door propped open so their cat can go in and out.  I expect this is the reason a warrant was required and I assume getting a warrant requires writing to the actual address rather than emailing someone.  

Given that it appears that someone (and maybe more than one someone) didn't connect the dots I'd be happy to have this put back into the same situation as previous (proper meter reinstalled free of charge) and some compensation for inconvenience.

Flight3287462

Stopping the DD was probably the final straw.

jimjames

Flying_Demon said:

Ms_Chocaholic said:

Flying_Demon said:

Ms_Chocaholic said:

Flying_Demon said:

welshmoneylover said:

if they didn’t you arrange to have your bills redirected to you or set up an online account?
you are coming across a bit negligent; you should have arranged to submit meter readings.

I have to disagree there.  The account is managed on-line and all my early correspondence disputing the increase in direct debit and that no one was available to read the meter and they should send a meter reader was made via this portal throughout early 2021.  I was indeed expecting them to respond on-line but it seems they then decided to resort to postal correspondence which I was unaware of.  I think it would have been reasonable of them to have at least informed me on-line to expect future correspondence via post but they did not.  

What happens to any other mail that is delivered to the flat's address that could be important?

You seem to be missing the point here.  It’s not about by domestic mail arrangements but can a warrant of entry be legitimately obtained when based on estimated meter readings and an unproven debt?

I'm not missing the point, if your mail was redirected you would have heard about the warrant thus you wouldn't be in the position you are. Also many flats are leasehold, what if a letter was addressed to you at the flat re £££ of work that was required, just as an example.

I am sorry but you are missing the pertinent point here.  It’s not about my mail or response but if the warrant was legitimately obtained in the first place.  

Most billing allows a correspondence address as well as the supply address. You might think it's irrelevant but it's quite important when items need to be delivered by post which I understand legal proceedings are.

ispookie666

You do not need to redirect the mail. Your billing address can be different to the supply address. I have done this in the past. It is the owners responsibility to ensure that the billing address is correct. 

Something is a bit miss in the story. 

Maybe time to go down the Smart meter route? 

Ms_Chocaholic

When I said similar on page one I was told I was missing the point.

Verdigris

Looking at it from the supplier's point of view, this would appear to be classic meter tamperer behaviour. Fiddlers don't generally get caught by a meter reader spotting a by-pass, or whatever, it is persistently refusing access/ignoring correspondence that eventually escalates a case.

Simply providing a correspondence address would have obviated the forced entry in this instance.