How much compensation is reasonable here?

diystarter7

Aylesbury_Duck said:

diystarter7 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

diystarter7 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

diystarter7 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Surely your home insurance is the best course of action here, especially if you have legal cover. 

Definitely a no, no!
Why should the insurance pay/etc and IOP risk a rise in premiums
OP did the right thing A-sap it was the supplier's fault.

OP, get you out-of-pocket costs and the extra stress/insult offer of 50 quid is increased to 200 at least.

I'm no fan of compo and if they had admitted fault or said they'd check and then come back to you asap and so it out and then 50 quid, thats fine but they did not.

Mistakes happen and this was one of those but how they are dealing with it is wrong.


Good luck

I didn't mean OP should claim on their insurance, but their insurer should be able to advise on possible resolutions, particularly if legal expenses are included.  Accessing legal cover advice doesn't risk premium increases.

I've never understood this fear of contacting insurers.  People pay hundreds - sometimes thousands - each year for buildings/cover/car insurance.  Not making use of the facilities in the policy seems daft.  I get the reluctance to claim, of course.

You clearly stated that "insurance is the first line of contact." Why, what for, the wrongdoers should sort it out no reason for OP to water their time with the insurance at this stage as the company that made the mistake is no fly by night.

Now you are talking about the reasons for contacting insurance. Yeah, but not in OP's case not at this stage as I'm confident it will be sorted.

Ok, so your advice is for the OP to spend their time sorting out what seems to be a fairly complicated, multi-faceted problem, 

Like the millions of posts on this site mate, its NOT "advice" but always a recommendation or an opinion

Best news of all, the OP is on the same thinking terms as me and others here IE not worth going to the insurance ATM :.

The rest is in my previous posts.

Take care, and enjoy your evening.

I'm sure the OP will be delighted that among all the hassle and cost they're experiencing, they "best news of all" is that you agree with them. 

"delighted" indeed the next time
The fact remains, it is best to chase the culprit initially and best of all, you know
Take care, mate

LegalNim

sheramber said:

is it better to ask advice from a load os strangers on a forum than consult a qualified advisor on what her options are?

I'm not asking for what my options are. I'm asking "What is reasonable compensation to expect here?", as I said in my update "I'm really looking for a figure on how much I could expect for compensation for illegally entering my home and causing damage". 

LegalNim

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

OP sorry if I missed it, have you followed the energy company's official complaints procedure? 

Yes. They offered a £50 "gesture of goodwill" and are refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing.

Aylesbury_Duck

LegalNim said:

sheramber said:

is it better to ask advice from a load os strangers on a forum than consult a qualified advisor on what her options are?

I'm not asking for what my options are. I'm asking "What is reasonable compensation to expect here?", as I said in my update "I'm really looking for a figure on how much I could expect for compensation for illegally entering my home and causing damage". 

It sounds like what you can expect is for your costs to be covered plus £50 goodwill.  As I said in my first response, £50 might be reasonable, but you clearly don't consider it so.  I don't think anyone's going to be able to provide a clear answer on what you can expect, unless they've been in the same circumstances with the same supplier.

How much are you after?  You must have a rough figure in mind?

eskbanker

LegalNim said:

I'm not asking for what my options are. I'm asking "What is reasonable compensation to expect here?", as I said in my update "I'm really looking for a figure on how much I could expect for compensation for illegally entering my home and causing damage". 

To me the starting point should be reimbursement of all out of pocket costs incurred thus far, including rectifying all damage and refunding any payments that exceed what should have been paid for usage since moving in.

Over and above those, I think there's a strong case for a claim for distress and inconvenience too, and would be reluctant to entertain a token £50 gesture - I'd focus on their failure to process the dispute correctly and the disruptive consequences of their actions on family life (heating, hot water, pram, etc).

As posted earlier, I'd defer quantifying any of this until it's all properly sorted out (for example, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility for further damage when moving meters again) but suspect that you'll need to get the ombudsman involved, given the energy company's dismissive response thus far.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

LegalNim said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

OP sorry if I missed it, have you followed the energy company's official complaints procedure? 

Yes. They offered a £50 "gesture of goodwill" and are refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing.

OP if the complaint can't be resolved then they should issue a deadlock letter which means you can then raise the issue to the ombudsman.

If they don't issue a deadlock letter you can do this anyway after 8 weeks of making the complaint. 

I think you'd need to follow these steps before taking any further action to seek compensation.

I would also recommend either asking the mods for this to be moved to the energy board or reposting over there

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/energy

There isn't a consumer rights issue with your topic and the posters on the energy board will be better placed to offer info on how you can get this resolved   

sheramber

The ombudsman was no help to my sister in her dispute.

eskbanker

sheramber said:

The ombudsman was no help to my sister in her dispute.

Not sure exactly where you're going with that - surely the nature of ombudsmen is that they'll uphold some complaints and not others, so them not siding with your sister in her different dispute shouldn't influence OP escalating her complaint to them if unresolved, or are you recommending a different course of action?