civil matter, energy suppyer

[Setto]

hi, to all, new to the group, advise needed, just had a case set aside on the 28 ov this month, judge has given me 12 days to projuice a defence, as they have lost my arigernal one, my first defence was based on back billing from offgen,from a old eletric supplyer, they are claiming £6000 for used electric from 2012 to 2014, My first defence was on grounds that the supplyer did not read my meter in this time,all the bills were estimated in the full 2 years, (as far as i can tell, bills have to be read, under the codes of pratice) when i first moved in to the property (ps. single person in a 2 bed house) i asked for the meter to be changed to a payment meter, a engenier came round to change it, he refused due to its posision, it was due to its hight, said it was a health and safty isue,so did not change it and just left. ( ps, i do not have a solicitor,) have been doing this myself for about the past 8 months, the advise i need is do i do the first defence agian or do i do a defence to explain y i ask for this case to be set aside, i am not sure what to do next, and what happens next, the case was suppose to go to mediation before it was set aside, both parties agreed, many thanks for any advise and the next steps i should take due to the time i have left.

[Amethyst]

Did you live in a Stately home ( with 2 bedrooms and a hundred drawing rooms maybe ) ? £3k a year on electric is an insane amount.


So, do you have a copy of your original defence you could post on here and hopefully we'll be able to help you strengthen it before resubmitting.

I assume they obtained default judgment due to your defence not being received/logged by the court, well done on getting it set aside

When you moved and requested the meter change did you take meter readings at all ?
Do you still live in the property ?
Who is the supplier and who is the claimant ?
Are you still with the same supplier ?
Did you receive any bills throughout those 2 years? make any payments etc ?
Have you read the meter since they decided to bill you £6k ?
Have you requested a full breakdown of the billing from the electric co ?
Do you have gas as well ? electric heating ?

slainte caragh will know the actual rules on meter reading.

Just for ref

Medium house – three bedrooms


With an annual gas output of 12,500Kwh and an electricity output of 3,100kWh

For a small family (3-4 people) living in a medium-sized house, the average monthly utility bill is £89, with an annual bill of £1,066, based the energy usage figures above.

so £3k a year is extremely high

[slainte caragh]

Thanks Amethyst , something to get my teeth in to!!!

Ok so let me get this straight, you got bills adding up to 6k for 2 years?

I will go out on a limb and say, not possible!

You say they did this based on estimates, why were they not able to get reads? If you refused them access, backbilling will NOT apply. Did you receive bills?

With regards to actual meter readings, they are obliged to gain access to the meter once every 2 years for maintainance and readings. I believe they can get warrant of access to do this too, so for them to not go down that route if they coudln't get in is unusual. I believe that the law is changing to make it every 1 year, but in your case, 2 will be the right answer.

If you have actual meter readings I can work out what I think the bill would be. Contact the supplier and ask for the Tariff Information Label for your tariff, this will help me to work the biill out and will be proof of costs to the court, so it's useful both ways.

As for a defence, I shall leave the experts to advise on that one

Callie

[Setto]

Setto
Today, 23:51:PM
civil matter, energy suppyer
hi, thanks for all your replys, i hope this information helps.

1- i do not have a copy ov the first defence, but what i sent to the court was a copy ov all the bills from 2012 to 2014, which were all estimated. which was sent to me by Utilitas solicitor, and also copys ov the back billing rules from ofgem.
2-meter readings were taking by the landlord and myself when i moved in and passed onto the supplyer.
3-no i do not live there anymore, moved out in 2014
4-only bills i receaved were estimates.
5-i had a gas prepayment meter for my heating.
6- my first defence was receaved by the court, i receaved a letter from them comfirming they had receaved it.-, which i still have.
7judgement was made by default, reason being, i did not return a form back in a set time. which i did and sent email copys to the court and utilitas solicitor,
8- thats the reason i asked it to be set aside, so the case was transferd to my home town, which i attended and got it set aside,
9-, i had no utilita rep come to read the meter so did no refuse entry for meter reading, and my gas meter was out side.
I hope this answers the questions posted, thank you.

[Setto]

Could anyone please suregest how i should prepare a defence statement as i only have till the 12 December to submite it, thank you

[slainte caragh]

Amethy5t any ideas?

Backbilling would only apply if the OP has requested billing and queried the estimates. It can be argued that the amount of time between reads is unacceptable and a breach of the Operators Licences (i believe this is the right term).