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Hi everyone, hope you're all well.
Received a claim? Yes
Issue Date: 23rd February '22
Have you Acknowledged the Claim?: Yes
Total Amount Claimed : £850
Claimant’s Name: Lowell Portfolio
Solicitors Firm: Overdales
Original Creditor: Npower
Original Debt Gas/electric bills
Particulars of Claim: The claim is for the sum of £660 due by
the defendant under a npower account with an
account reference of ************* The defendant failed to
maintain contractual payments under the terms of the
account agreement. The debt was legally assigned to the
claimant on 04-06-21, notice of which has been given to
the defendant. The claim includes statutory interest under
S.69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% per annum
from the date of assignment to the date of issue of these
proceedings in the sum of £38. The claimant claims the sum of £700.
( Please type out in full excluding names/account numbers/exact amounts ):
Is the debt Statute Barred (have you had any contact with the creditor or claimant over the last 6 years?): The case is only from 2018
List any letters you have sent (eg: CCA/ CPR ): None yet, although some advice on this would be very welcome
Any Other Information or Background Details:
(sorry if it's a bit extensive!)
Timeline:
Sept ‘18: Moved into new property fitted with prepayment meters billed to Npower. Immediately requested these to be changed to credit meters in order to facilitate a switch back to our previous renewable energy provider.
Oct ’18: Contacted our previous provider to initiate the switch back. They detected that neither of the new credit meters were on the database and to enquire with Npower why this was the case.
: Npower were puzzled by the loss of meters and I was subsequently informed as these could not be located I could not yet be billed. I replied saying that as (at the time) I was a mature postgrad student and my girlfriend out of work due to mental health issues we were therefore on a tight budget and needed to be billed in order to manage our finances. As there was no way for us to provide any meter readings or be regularly billed this would impact our ability to continually assess our usage.
: An Npower advisor stated that as it was they that could not locate the meters (meaning we could neither pay what we owe to remain within our budget or commence with the switch back to our previous provider), our billing date would not start until the meters were located and we would be contacted as soon as the meters were found.
Late Dec ’18: Had heard nothing from Npower regarding the meters and then a bill for electricity arrives (actually, a series of confusing bills – some which appeared to be final bills for a previous meter but, confusingly, addressed to myself). Contacted Npower as they appeared to be charging us for the whole period, whereby we were stuck on their highest tariff, had no option to switch, and were unable to assess our usage. I stated we still had not had any bill for the gas, to which I was told that meter was still awol.
Feb ’19: A gas bill finally arrives, once again for the entire period. Spoke to an advisor and insisted they go through their records to find the phone conversation wherein I was informed we would not be billed for their error. Despite giving them the exact date of this call, they had ‘lost’ (their words) this call from their records.
: Complaint made against Npower and informed this would go to their decision makers. Offered an utterly pointless £10 ‘goodwill gesture’.
May ’19: Had no response from any decision makers while in the meantime received bills that seemed to be appearing more red over time and so took our case to the energy ombudsman.
Our main grievances were that by being trapped with an energy provider we by no means wanted to be with (in the case of our gas supply, for 6 months), on tariffs much higher than we could be paying, while being unable to contribute towards renewable energy sources, unable to manage our finances through regular billing, and Npower both going against their word and being completely inept throughout.
The ombudsman upheld our case, of which his main findings were:
- to maintain in resolution the offer made by Npower to remove the electricity charges for the period the meter could not be located, meaning £119 would be taken from the total bill (oddly, this figure of £119 relates to the date when we made the first complaint, and not when the meter was finally located).
- owing to poor level of customer service, poor standards and misinformation over billing a further £100 should be taken from the final
- Npower claimed to have provided us a ‘deadlock letter’ which we denied. The ombudsman requested this from them, but they were unable to provide a copy.
- full written apology blah blah blah (which we never received, unsurprisingly)
In the end we declined this offer (actually the offer expired as we hadn’t noticed the deadline date, but the outcome would have been the same in either case) on the basis that only the electricity bill was considered while any mention of the gas bill was omitted by Npower, presumably as this amounted to more. I feel our rights as consumers were non-existent and we were essentially held to ransom by Npower for 6 months through nothing but their own ineptitude. I think we may have contacted Npower after the ombudsman’s decision expired to revise their offer, but nothing came of this.
And so it has reached this stage. We are willing to make a settlement, if this is even still possible, as a part admission with a defence. As to how to come to a conclusive figure I really don’t know where to start – as mentioned we never received any ongoing bills and so have little to go on. I feel the fact the ombudsman upheld our case, at least in part, and was pretty scathing of Npower could make for a reasonable defence. At least that’s what I hope!
Should I be sending Overdales a CPR request? I’m unsure what I would be asking for. I have until 28th March to submit my defence.
If anyone could provide any insights it really would be greatly appreciated (and apologies for the longwinded background info!)
Received a claim? Yes
Issue Date: 23rd February '22
Have you Acknowledged the Claim?: Yes
Total Amount Claimed : £850
Claimant’s Name: Lowell Portfolio
Solicitors Firm: Overdales
Original Creditor: Npower
Original Debt Gas/electric bills
Particulars of Claim: The claim is for the sum of £660 due by
the defendant under a npower account with an
account reference of ************* The defendant failed to
maintain contractual payments under the terms of the
account agreement. The debt was legally assigned to the
claimant on 04-06-21, notice of which has been given to
the defendant. The claim includes statutory interest under
S.69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% per annum
from the date of assignment to the date of issue of these
proceedings in the sum of £38. The claimant claims the sum of £700.
( Please type out in full excluding names/account numbers/exact amounts ):
Is the debt Statute Barred (have you had any contact with the creditor or claimant over the last 6 years?): The case is only from 2018
List any letters you have sent (eg: CCA/ CPR ): None yet, although some advice on this would be very welcome
Any Other Information or Background Details:
(sorry if it's a bit extensive!)
Timeline:
Sept ‘18: Moved into new property fitted with prepayment meters billed to Npower. Immediately requested these to be changed to credit meters in order to facilitate a switch back to our previous renewable energy provider.
Oct ’18: Contacted our previous provider to initiate the switch back. They detected that neither of the new credit meters were on the database and to enquire with Npower why this was the case.
: Npower were puzzled by the loss of meters and I was subsequently informed as these could not be located I could not yet be billed. I replied saying that as (at the time) I was a mature postgrad student and my girlfriend out of work due to mental health issues we were therefore on a tight budget and needed to be billed in order to manage our finances. As there was no way for us to provide any meter readings or be regularly billed this would impact our ability to continually assess our usage.
: An Npower advisor stated that as it was they that could not locate the meters (meaning we could neither pay what we owe to remain within our budget or commence with the switch back to our previous provider), our billing date would not start until the meters were located and we would be contacted as soon as the meters were found.
Late Dec ’18: Had heard nothing from Npower regarding the meters and then a bill for electricity arrives (actually, a series of confusing bills – some which appeared to be final bills for a previous meter but, confusingly, addressed to myself). Contacted Npower as they appeared to be charging us for the whole period, whereby we were stuck on their highest tariff, had no option to switch, and were unable to assess our usage. I stated we still had not had any bill for the gas, to which I was told that meter was still awol.
Feb ’19: A gas bill finally arrives, once again for the entire period. Spoke to an advisor and insisted they go through their records to find the phone conversation wherein I was informed we would not be billed for their error. Despite giving them the exact date of this call, they had ‘lost’ (their words) this call from their records.
: Complaint made against Npower and informed this would go to their decision makers. Offered an utterly pointless £10 ‘goodwill gesture’.
May ’19: Had no response from any decision makers while in the meantime received bills that seemed to be appearing more red over time and so took our case to the energy ombudsman.
Our main grievances were that by being trapped with an energy provider we by no means wanted to be with (in the case of our gas supply, for 6 months), on tariffs much higher than we could be paying, while being unable to contribute towards renewable energy sources, unable to manage our finances through regular billing, and Npower both going against their word and being completely inept throughout.
The ombudsman upheld our case, of which his main findings were:
- to maintain in resolution the offer made by Npower to remove the electricity charges for the period the meter could not be located, meaning £119 would be taken from the total bill (oddly, this figure of £119 relates to the date when we made the first complaint, and not when the meter was finally located).
- owing to poor level of customer service, poor standards and misinformation over billing a further £100 should be taken from the final
- Npower claimed to have provided us a ‘deadlock letter’ which we denied. The ombudsman requested this from them, but they were unable to provide a copy.
- full written apology blah blah blah (which we never received, unsurprisingly)
In the end we declined this offer (actually the offer expired as we hadn’t noticed the deadline date, but the outcome would have been the same in either case) on the basis that only the electricity bill was considered while any mention of the gas bill was omitted by Npower, presumably as this amounted to more. I feel our rights as consumers were non-existent and we were essentially held to ransom by Npower for 6 months through nothing but their own ineptitude. I think we may have contacted Npower after the ombudsman’s decision expired to revise their offer, but nothing came of this.
And so it has reached this stage. We are willing to make a settlement, if this is even still possible, as a part admission with a defence. As to how to come to a conclusive figure I really don’t know where to start – as mentioned we never received any ongoing bills and so have little to go on. I feel the fact the ombudsman upheld our case, at least in part, and was pretty scathing of Npower could make for a reasonable defence. At least that’s what I hope!
Should I be sending Overdales a CPR request? I’m unsure what I would be asking for. I have until 28th March to submit my defence.
If anyone could provide any insights it really would be greatly appreciated (and apologies for the longwinded background info!)
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