Opus Energy dispute

Jopex

Hi,
I wonder if anyone here can offer any advice.  
We are a small business and in Feb 2021 took over an industrial unit.  We had no idea who our energy company was and awaited a bill.  We received nothing for months and when it came it was addressed to the wrong unit number and was extremely high.  They then started calling demanding money for the outstanding invoice.  We explained with wasn’t our unit and they asked to us to send a photo of our meter.  We went into a meter room and found the meter with the number written on it for the bill they were sending us and our unit number was written next to it but not on it.  We send them the photo and they said they couldn’t be certain who the meter belonged to.  We asked if they could send someone to check but they declined.  We didn’t know what to do and after months and months of going back and forth we asked them to stop supplying us we would rather be cut off.  We had never entered into a contract with them.  They then said someone had come down to the farm but didn’t want to interfere with the meter.  The meters are all in a locked meter room and they would have had to ask for a key which they never did so they had lied to us.  The dispute went on.  All we wanted to do was to pay a correct bill for our unit.  We then got in touch with EDF who are now our new energy supplier and they gave us lots of help and advice and told us to contact the National Grid to find out our meter serial number.  We did that and it became apparent that the number of our unit was changed 10 years previous and Opus Energy failed to address the bill to the new unit number even though they had been supplying the previous owner since 2014.  Surely with an obvious problem like this some simple checks could have been carried out.  They took 8 12 weeks to investigate and we were no further forward so we went to the Ombudsman who did not find in our favour.  We now owe a huge bill for a totally rip off tariff we never agreed to.  I am going to appeal but any advice from you guys would be so helpful right now.  Surely this can’t be right?

eskbanker

Jopex said:

We are a small business...

This rules out the consumer rights angle that this board focuses on, so you might be better posting over at:

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

Keep_pedalling

You would have had a deemed contract with whoever supplied the unit before you moved in and you should have taken meter readings as soon as you had access to the building.

As you are a business this is not a consumer rights issue so you would be better off posting on the energy board.

Jopex

Hi,
Just wondered if any of you guys are able to give advice on this.
We are a small business and moved into a new unit which we used for loading purposes.  We had no idea who our energy supplier was so waited for a letter.  We received nothing for months then received a phone call telling us we owed a large amount in electricity.  They had us down as 12A and we are in fact 32A.  Lots of calls followed demanding money.  However many times we told them we needed the bill to be addressed to the correct unit or we could be paying anyones bill.  We explained we never had a contract with them.  They then started addressing to us at 32A but the bill was for 12A. We were at a loss as to what to do.  They told us to employ an electrician.  We asked if they could send someone who could help find and read our meter.  There is a meter room with about 50 meters in it where we are. We sent them a photo of the meter with 12A on it. They then said they had sent someone but they hadn’t wanted to interfere with the meter.  This was definitely untrue as they would have had to ask for a key which they didn’t.  This went on from Feb 2021 to now.  In the end we asked them to stop supplying us.  Switch us off if necessary at least then we would know if it was the correct meter they were charging us for as the one in the meter room was saying 12A.  We then applied to EDF to be our new supplier but Opus were still supplying!!! EDF offered us lots of advice and suggested we contact the national grid.  This we did and we found out that our unit number had been changed from 12A to 32A more than 10 years previous.  By this time Opus had done nothing to help and we went to the Ombudsman who has since found against us.  We are going to appeal. Surely this can’t be right.  They put us on their highest tariff didn’t explain anything to us and are now demanding this ridiculous amount of money. Surely they should be responsible for knowing their own customers correct address?  A simple check from them would have saved us all this trouble.  In the end we solved it ourselves with no help from them at all.  I’ve read on their Google reviews they’re doing this stuff all the time.  Any advice would be greatly received.

[Deleted User]

So the bill was for your meter, and is for energy you have used?

And the address was actually an old address for the correct meter?

How would the supplier know that the unit number has been changed if nobody told them?

You didn't know who your supplier was, so you didn't try to find out, you just thought that you'd wait and see?  Being on an extremely expensive tariff is what happens when you do that.

MWT

Jopex said:

We are a small business and moved into a new unit which we used for loading purposes.  We had no idea who our energy supplier was so waited for a letter.

EDF offered us lots of advice and suggested we contact the national grid.  This we did and we found out that our unit number had been changed from 12A to 32A more than 10 years previous.

As a business, you are held to a higher standard of competency than a domestic customer, and you should have contacted the DNO for your premises the moment you found you didn't know who your supplier was...

Opus really don't owe you any particular duty of care in respect of giving you advice, and they are entitled to put you on their out of contract tariff rate until you agree to a contract with them, or move to a different supplier...

Sadly I'm not surprised that the Ombudsman did not find in your favour and you will have to pay Opus for your energy to date at the rates on their high priced out of contract tariff...

[Deleted User]

By this time Opus had done nothing to help and we went to the Ombudsman who has since found against us.

I feel for you.

I won’t opine on your overall situation as this is primarily a forum for domestic consumers; however, if you have gone to The Energy Ombudsman then you may have a problem.

The Energy Ombudsman issues a Final Decision and there is no right of Appeal as such. You either ACCEPT or DECLINE the Final Decision. 

If you DECLINE, then your complaint remains unresolved; however, should the supplier decide to take you to Court it can use The Energy Ombudsman’s Decision in support of its case.

If the Decision is only at the INTERIM stage, you can offer new evidence in support of your complaint but are supposed to explain why is being offered late.

Best of luck.

macman

You were in a contract with them, as the deemed supplier, from the moment you started using the energy. 
Since you didn't make any attempt to contact them and register for an account, or supply opening reads, it's impossible to verify the bill-which is presumably why the Ombudsman ruled against you.
Your account is confused, but I can't see that, now the address issue has been resolved, exactly what the basis of your complaint is? If the rates are correct for the default tariff, and the correct meter reads have now been supplied, then on what basis are you disputing the bill?

Jopex

Macman, the reason for disputing the bill is because had the original welcome letter been addressed to the correct premises then we would have declined their electricity services to us due to the extortionately high rates they were/are charging.  We could have moved on to another supplier after a few weeks without all the hassle.  This could have been sorted out had Opus given us a little help and advice and we could have moved on. 

macman

The supplier isn't psychic, they don't know when the tenancy changes unless they are told. The procedure is to take reads and register for an account on day one. You can then switch away if you don't like the rates.
You can't 'decline' the service after you've already used it at the deemed rate. 
You've opened a duplicate thread on this topic.

MWT

Jopex said:

Macman, the reason for disputing the bill is because had the original welcome letter been addressed to the correct premises then we would have declined their electricity services to us due to the extortionately high rates they were/are charging.  We could have moved on to another supplier after a few weeks without all the hassle.  This could have been sorted out had Opus given us a little help and advice and we could have moved on. 

Unfortunately you still have all of this the wrong way around...

You took control of the premises and began using energy without first establishing who the supplier was and either entering into a formal contract with them or deciding to move elsewhere and setting up a formal contract with a different supplier...

Everything that happened after that is the result of your lack of commercial due diligence...

You agreed to pay the out of contract rate from the existing supplier the moment you turned the lights on, it is too late to even think about disputing their bill for all that use, as it would seem, the Ombudsman as already told you...