I have been reading through the Npower section and see that there is interest in anyone who has been in litigation with them.

I would like to share my 3 year battle with you.

In Feb 2007 Npower were my provider and continued to be until Jan 2013.

Silly I know but all my readings had been estimated until March 2012 when I submitted a reading.

I then received a letter in December stating that the bill was £3502.22 and that my monthly DD would go from £110 per month to £318.00.

I called them to query the bill that there must be a mistake with the bill or a fault with the meter,

they said there was no problem with the bill but said I should carry out a loadtest.

They told me to take a reading, boil the kettle, take another reading then phone them back with the readings

and they would be processed for analysis.

I have done this 3 times and am still waiting for the results of the analysis!

The house is a small 2 bedroom, end terrace, with 3 storage heaters, well insulated, 2 adults at work all day,

no change in usage and no hot tub or any other energy sapping device.

I had been paying between £50 and £110 per month,

over the years I had paid total £4664,

which gives an annual payment of £799 even based on todays rates

(and I checked on U-Switch) this is adequate to cover the supply.

We moved out of the house with a view to letting it (I own the property) but didn’t feel able due to the situation with Npower

and if I am honest let things slip with chasing Npower, head and sand, ostrich syndrome.

They were still billing me, until July 2013, £318 per month based on estimated readings even though I told them the house was empty.

In March 2013 I received a threat from a well known DCA, knowing that I would be told to ‘just pay’,

I went back to Npower to ask why they had sent the account to a DCA when they know it is in dispute.

They said it isn’t in dispute and you will need to talk to the DCA!

But they continued to bill me until July 2013!!

The bill was £3462.14

In Dec 2013 I received a letter from Npower’s solicitor telling me that unless I paid £3768.57 within 14 days

they would take me to court, which they did. The letter had several typos and one of the dates was incorrect

In May 2014 the solicitor sent me a letter requesting £3392.22 but would accept £1,188.06 as payment,

There were additional errors within the letter relating to dates and also stated there had been no dispute with the bill.

We were scheduled to have a mediation session and to be honest I had had enough and wanted it to go away

so would use the £1,188.06 as a figure to work with at the mediation.

I would concur that over 7 years supply I could have underpaid by £100 per year and so offered £700 as a settlement fee.

The mediator then confirmed that the solicitor conceded that there had been an error,

no settlement figure should have been offered and they would be seeking the full amount of £4128.51.

Further to the mediation I received a letter to confirm ‘due to an error the amount stated on the second page of the said letter is incorrect

and for the avoidance of doubt the total balance outstanding is £4128.51.’ Yet another error!!

The directions date was set for October at which the Judge ordered that a joint single expert be appointed

to test the meter to determine if there was a fault.

The letter of instruction to be sent by 3rd November 2014,

inspection by 24thNovember and a report filed with the court 28th December 2014.

The solicitor called me around 20th October to say they had an expert who could perform the test,

but I wasn’t convinced that this expert would be totally unbiased!

I asked them to call back in a week, when I had chance to look into this and they did not get back to me.

They submitted an ‘extremely urgent’ request to the court on 27th October to state that as Npower no longer supplied the property

they would not be able to inspect the meter and ask that this direction be amended.

I then received a statement of issues from the solicitor, and wrongly assumed that this was the bundle,

it contained bills dating back to2007, a witness statement and an account statement , stating that this had also been filed with the court.

On closer inspection of this pack there were even more mistakes; electric meter ending in 8567, mine ends in 7927;

shows a meter for gas, there is no supply or meter for gas at the property;

the statement dated 2012 shows an opening reading of 24239 for day units and 33979 for night units,

the bill dated 2007 showed 6722 and 4878 respectively;

stated the last payment received was Jan 2012 but in fact it was Jan 2013;

shows a manual adjustment of £5,100 but nothing to substantiate this figure.

Using all of these mistakes I started to build my case around the fact that there were a catalogue of errors

and how could we consider that any of these figures / values were correct.

As the court date loomed I was terrified, didn’t really know if I had a case just an awful time.

Then I received another bundle from Npower's solicitor, also filed with the court,

the witness was now a senior advisor to litigation and along with additional mistakes,

there were 9 contradictions to the first litigation advisors statement;

an account statement so badly printed that it missed the credit and balance column.

I was absolutely staggered that there could be so many errors (not surpised though!).

Feeling more confident as I now had more mistakes to use I practiced my questions for the witness and prepared as much as I could for court.

The day before the court I received a letter from the solicitor outlining a statement of costs

and very fortunately for me they sent it to my old address (another mistake!),

had I received it as intended I probably would have crumbled.

It was for an astonishing £2,028.00, namely

42 letters @£8 or £10,

15 phone calls @£8, £10 and 1 at £80,

rates of pay for the litigation advisors as £80 and £100 / hour.

4th February 2015,

I arrive at court, they have a solicitor, the senior litigation advisor as a witness and someone who was an expert – I was terrified.

Later when the expert did speak he was told to be quiet or be in contempt of court, this did help to relax me a bit.

The Judge started the questioning by asking the witness what qualification she had as alitigation advisor

and she said it was just the experience she had during her employment with Npower.

So I started to question the witness about the meter numbers, she said it was a mistake;

I asked about the conflict in meter readings between the statement and the bill and she said that they adjust the reading to help lower the bill;

I asked about the manual entry of £5,100 and she said if she had a calculator she could work it out,

the Judge gave her a calculator and she couldn’t!

My head was spinning so much that I cant remember a lot more detail

the solicitor asked me if I thought Npower had just plucked a figure from thin air……………..!

two hours later, the Judge tore into the Npower witness saying she had presented her case badly,

she didn’t know what she was talking about,

she couldn’t give a straight answer or give accurate figures,

her statement was just her opinion

and as she was not an expert could not be considered

and that he was appalled by the way she had carried out her work.

He then dismissed the case and awarded me the full £90 costs to be paid in 14 days!

These people are utter jokers,

they have no procedures in place,

they are sloppy,

their billing methods are seriously flawed

– looking at the countless errors in my one case

I am sure that if anyone looks into their own dealings with Npower they will find just as many.

Good luck

Very well done.

Nice to see that someone has finally shown officially that Npower are hopelessly incompetent.

Interesting to see that their solicitors appear to provide broadly a similar level of service.

Who was the DCA and who were the solicitors please? Don't be backwards coming forwards.

Thank you Bank Fodder.

DCA was Buchanan Ckark and Wells and solicitor was Wilkin Chapman

Thank you Bank Fodder.

 

DCA was Buchanan Ckark and Wells

Oh dear

solicitor was Wilkin Chapman

oh dear oh dear.

Maybe you could scan up the judgment when you get it

... pour encourager les autres.

So dca for hire And rent a solicitor.

I have the judgement but not sure how to upload it? Can you help?

You would really think, wouldn't you, that any firm of solicitors which cared about its reputation would avoid taking on a client like Npower.

They are clearly a flawed business with flawed systems. I suppose that they are like the banks, too big to care and they find decent customer service an inconvenience

I suspect that the litigation advisors who sit behind the Wilkin chapman name are just ex or current Npower debt collection department and the solicitor who represented them was unprepared, I know it's not a difficult case but don't think he'd read my statement otherwise they would have been prepared with an answer regarding the disparities. Also, they said that they are not able to access archived records ie those over, I think it was 3 years.

Please re-scan and post n PDF.

Also, think that we would like to get a transcript of the judgment.

We will pay but would you be able to arrange it for us. You would need to contact the court and then contact a transcription agency.

Also, I think that you should now lodge a complaint to the regulator but with a copy of the judgment. I expect that the regulator will say something lame, such as - as it has been litigated, he can not look at it. Whatever response the regulator gives, we will publish it here

I also think that the judgment can be included with the litigation bundles of other people to add weight to their cases. The case currently being brought by Eversir is an example. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?436401-nPower-Mismanaged-account-Failure-to-provide-info-Harassment-et-al

[ATTACH=CONFIG]56044[/ATTACH]OK - here is the judgement

I will contact the court tomorrow for a copy of the transcript and also the regulator. Incidentally my £90 is due by Wednesday.

If there is anything else I can do, the more than happy to help just let me know.

It's a shame that you didn't counterclaim for your own losses.

Has it affected your credit file? Caused you any other problems? By recording your data inaccurately they may have breached the DPA.

You could consider suing them now. In view of the judgment against them, they might easily settle for a reasonable sum to avoid court action.

Actually that is a mistake on the Judgement - the Judge asked me of I had incurred expenses, I said they were minimal but I had lost a days pay, he then said he would award me the highest value he could which was £90.

Whoops - I misread it.

You must write to the court and ask them to correct the judgment.

Also write to the solicitors and point out the error - but wait until the deadline.

If they miss the deadline then instruct bailiffs. You'll get the money back and it will be fun.

I think that shows that the judge was clearly angry about them. If you had made a counterclaim, the judge would have been pleased to make you a better award

Actually, you will probably need to wait until the judgment is corrected before putting in the bailiffs

Well done for not caving-in to these bully-boys!

How come you have to pay £90.00 though? Shouldn't it be in your favour instead?

"The Defendant do pay the Claimant the sum of £90.00 in respect of loss of earnings within 14 days..."

Edit: Disregard. Just seen previous post.

The Judge was livid with them, I think it irked him that someone had called themself a Senior Advisor to Litigation with no legal qualifiaction.

So tomorrow, I will write to the court for a correction of the Judgement and also the solicitor, call the court for a transcript and hope they miss the deadline!

Not sure how I would go about sueing them - but happy to go down this route if I could get some starter information and will contact the regulator once I have the judgement amended.

Good luck with your case Eversir, their paperwork will be shambolic and riddled with errors.

You have to start assessing what losses you have suffered

And then file a small claims or write to them first?

No, you write to them first. You need to be slow and steady.

Assess your losses first, then we can discuss the strength of your case. It will be useful to see the judgment first - it may or may not help you. It depends what the judge has said

Thanks Bankfodder, I'll get all the info this week and then put a case together - looking forward to it

Set out your losses. Check your credit file. You might like to contact user Eversir for some tips.

We'll help you all the way