British Gas "pretending" to hae been granted a warrant of entry to my property

[scarydays]

i have a long standing disagreement with BG regarding an unpaid bill. We pay an historic trust for the supply of Gas and Electricity to our property. We have no problem with Electricity, but for some reason BG keep sending us bills. THey claim they are reading the metre, although I have never encountered anyone reading the metre. All the properties under the trust have the same arrangement, and we are the only ones with a problem. The trust are definitely paying for the gas.

 

Each time I phone up, they claim to be sorting it out, but I continue to get ever more threatening letters.

 

The latest one, before Christmas was that they had applied to the court to get a warrant to enter the property.

 

i phoned BG again, and the girl on the phone was terribly nice, but said there was really nothing they could do at their end, and the best thing to do was to turn up at the court and explain my case.

 

I duly did that on Monday. A representative of BG met me outside the court. I showed him all the evidence I had of our payment, and the trust details, and he said he would cancel the process currently in motion. He requested another letter be sent from the trust to specificy some other details required. i agreed to get that process in motion.

 

Thought it was all sorted, but today I get a letter from BG saying they HAVE now obtained a warrant to enter the property. I telephoned BG, again, and explained the situation, that I had been to the court ...... etc. etc. She could see all the details, and after much discussion told me that no warrant had been granted. WHAT ......... so what's the letter that I have in front of me saying?

 

I am at my wits end. The BG person says she will get something out to me in writing to say that no warrant has been issued, as I am terrified that someone will turn up on the 26th and I won't be able to stop them. I am more terrified that someone will turn up when I am out doing the school run and change all the locks.

 

What would you do? Is there any way I can check if a warrant of entry has been granted?

 

At this stage I feel the only sure way of not getting disconnected is to pay the disputed amount and then fight to get it back. But I am loath to do that. I fought for 12 months to get £1,800 back from BG that I had overpaid in exhorbiant DD payments at a previous property.

[MARTIN3030]

So what happened at Court ?

Was there any hearing held ?

 

You could contact the Court using any reference to the case that you have and ask them.

You would need to ask to speak to a warrants officer.

This seems very bad and appears to be a good case for a harrasment claim.

[scarydays]

I spoke with the BG rep outside the court. Showed him the documentation I had, and gave him my story, he agreed that they would take it no further there and then. So I left.

 

Of course what I didn't do, and probably should have done, is hang around to see if it did go before a judge.

 

I've just phoned the court. They weren't entirely helpful. They said that BG were the people would know if they had obtained a warrant. She searched all warrants issued on that date, and couldn't find any issued. But said, that didn't there weren't any .... I'm none the wiser.

[scarydays]

Just got back on to BG and asked them to read out their notes on the subject.

 

The notes entered on the12th - the day after the alleged hearing, say that the matter was resolved in court.

 

Then an entry for today says, "do not action warrant" which is in response to my earlier telephone conversation, i assume.

 

That note would imply that a warrant has been obtained, but the operator was unable to confirm that for me.

 

What a shambles. Do you know where I can go from here to complain/get clarification?

[MARTIN3030]

Well there wouldnt have been any warrant issued if there was no hearing !

I think you need to be doing a Subject access request to BG and take them to the cleaners with this.

If there was no hearing,then you are unlikely to be sent any comms from the Court.

You could report this to your local trading standards but they will want to see original copies of everything.

As a starting point,you should put something in writing straight away and send it to their head office-I would address it FAO their legal department,and make it clear that they should sort this out pronto.

[MARTIN3030]

Centrica plc - registered office and corporate headquarters

Centrica plc

Millstream

Maidenhead Road

Windsor

Berkshire

SL4 5GD

[scarydays]

Thanks Martin, I will send a letter to the head office immediately. I spoke to the court again, they say the do not have any warrant officers at the court. All the lady could tell me was that as it stands, on their system, no warrants were issued on the 11th - but she says they may update the system at a later date, so keep trying. She also said the court do not give you notice that a warrant has been issued, that would be up to BG.

[MARTIN3030]

Ah ok thanks for clearing that.

Keep us posted.

[dcdkpug]

Blimey chap fair play stand your ground sure these companies like doing this to people daily are you in west midlands if so i may like to take opportunity to help you for free in some way where i can

[scarydays]

Hi dcdkpug, I'm based in Kent. i have sent a letter to Centrica asking them to clarify the situation. I will update the thread when I get a response.

 

one of two thiings has happened, I believe, either the BG rep met me outside the court, heard my story, took my evidence, told me he would not be taking it any further, and then went and applied to the magistrate for the warrant when I had left the court or, they send the letter claiming to have received the warrant without actually having received one.

 

Either way, their behaviour is out of order.

[nottslad]

after a warrant has been granted, they only have 28 days to action it so that won'tbe an issue anylonger, it's likely the warrant letter has come out automatically (great organisation in these firms)

 

Have you any further update? As your complaint has been on going for more than 56 days you have the right to contact the Energy Supply Ombudsman to arbitrate

[scarydays]

Hi Nottslad,

 

Currently all activity on my account has been suspended whilst they investigate the complaint. I got no reply to the first letter I sent to Centrica - so I sent another by fax and post on the 25th ( just in advance of when they said they would be entering the property). I referenced the first letter, and reminded them of the outcome in Ferguson v British Gas Trading Limited. That seemed to do the trick. All activity on my account as put on hold on the 25th and I received a holding letter from Centrica to say they are investigating my complaint and will get back to me within 14 to appraise me of progress.

So we will see .....

[hants]

I have an ongoing dispute with British Gas. It started in 2006 and related to incorrect opening meter regardings and account registration. I tried to resolve it by telephone but in January 2007 after many calls and much wasted time, I decided only to deal with it in writing by letter so that we had evidence of everything. My first letter received a reply saying they were sorry and were dealing with it. Since then I have written 20 recorded delivery letters and received no replies. The last letter was sent a couple of days ago. We have paid the charges for gas used but none of their spurious charges for letters and visits etc etc. However they haven't credited the monies we have sent them to our account, or rather it appears they may be running two accounts for us, one to receive the money and one for all the gas charges. This means one account is wildly in credit and the other one shows a balance owing to them of around £2500. They have a policy of not replying to letters. The eighteenth letter was sent to their registered office in Windsor. That resulted in a man from their dispute resolution office (Mr. M) contacting me by telephone. The interesting thing was the telephone message Mr. M left gave no number to return his call. I therefore wrote the nineteenth letter explaining what had happened and giving an email address as well. We received another telephone call message this time giving a number to return Mr. M's call. I returned his call but he wasn't available and I was able to leave a message with a lady in his office. I received no call back, whether he got the message and failed to return my call or whether he didn't get the message, none of us know. However I then got an email from Mr. M to which I replied stating he should get all the copy invoices together for our property, together with all the receipts from us and he should send us the same so we both had all the paperwork and we could work through this together and establish where things had gone wrong. The only reply I received was an "I am out of the office but will get back to you" reply by email. The next thing that happened was that we received a letter stating they were applying for a Warrant for Entry. One of my previous letters - maybe the 13th or 14th - clearly stated that in the event of their application for a warrant, I would like to attend court to refute their allegations. On receipt of their letter stating they had obtained a warrant, I telephoned them to establish in which court and on which date they had done so. It transpired it was on 12th April at Aldershot Magistrates Court. I then telephoned the Magistrates Court asking for a copy of the papers they had submitted when they made their application. These papers had been sent to the Portsmouth filing centre and the lady at Aldershot Magistrates Court has applied for them to be returned to her so she can provide me with a copy. She also gave my fax to their legal team because one of my questions was "How can I apply to have the warrant set aside in the case that British Gas had obained the Warrant of Entry on the basis of false information." Her answer which I got today was I have to apply for Judicial Review, which I don't think is right but I have to investigate it. My point here is that British Gas are outrightly negligent and anyone who claims that large organisations would never knowingly behave badly are just wrong. British Gas just doesn't know what it's doing. For example when I telephone, the person answering the call believes she or he can look at a screen and see everything which has gone on, on an account. But yet it's not all logged on there. Mr. M's contribution to those notes were that he had called twice and received no reply. So.... incompetence, poor systems and negligence. My experience of these large organisations in general is that they tend to shove people around to suit themselves. Only if you have some knowledge of the law and some determination, can you make them behave properly. In my case I shall have to take them ultimately to the Basingstoke County Court to get recompense for my time and trouble in dealing with their failure both to provide the level of service they claim to provide and to behave within the law. Some of you may say there is the Ombudsman and we should use him. The trouble is my experience of that is that it's just another third party brought into a dispute and what effect do they actually have on the behaviour of the companies they are meant to police? Surely by now someone at the Ombudsman would have cottoned on to the fact that British Gas's keeping of records of what's happened on an account is flawed? Anyone else have a good experience of British Gas replying to letters?

[AllAboutYou]

Remember, big companies are stupid, and the bigger they are, the stupider they get.

 

BG are generally quite reasonable, however, the size of the company rule above leads to a simple conclusion - and it isn't malice!

 

Prior to a court action for utility debt, you should have at least one hand delivered letter and "door step" from a rep, and you should also get a Human Rights letter, telling you the date and location of the court hearing. Copies of both of these are lodged with the court when they apply for a warrant.

 

The person above you did the right thing - attend court and talk to the agent. I'd recommend you then let the Clerk of the Court know you are there beforehand, and that you want to contest. Hang around until the agent goes in, just to be sure, and if s/he still applies, the clerk will call for you, and you can argue your case.

 

Then it is down to you!

 

If a warrant is granted, you will be getting a visit, where a team of either 2 or 3 people will attend the property, gain entry (by force if need be, with the police if need be, or dog handlers, etc.) to the meter, then change it for a PPM (Pre-Pay Meter) or, if it is a big bill that's been going on for years, you could be cut off (though that is very unlikely these days)

 

My advice? Let the team in to change the meter. It's not worth a record, and you'll still come back from the police station to find the meter has been changed "while you were out".

 

I can't say much for the standards of Dynolocks, who BG own, and therefore use for the entry. Yes, they will get in, eventually, but you'll generally be getting new keys!

[MARTIN3030]

Moved from media forums.

[scarydays]

Hi - I am resurrecting this very old thread of mine, as today I had a default placed on my now otherwise squeaky clean credit file, from British Gas. It is likely to relate to the issue in this thread so I have placed it here for reference.

 

In summary, rather than read back over the thread.....

 

I had a dispute going on with BG from 2009/2010. I doubt it was ever properly resolved. They were sending bills for gas that I was not responsible for. The bills were being paid for by a historic dockyard trust responsible for the property. However, I left that house in March 2010, and had redirection on the mail for probably 12-18 months after that. Never heard anything further from the last correspondence with them in early 2010. That is, until this morning. I received an alert that something had changed on my credit file.

 

So, BG have placed a default on my credit file dated Jan 14th 2017. Bang - back to square 1. 6 years of hell again on my credit file for a debt I don't owe. Can they do this - well clearly that can, cause they have, after 7 years. What recourse do I have?

[BazzaS]

They aren't allowed to default you years on.

You write to them saying

a) even if they had an entitlement to place a default, it must be done in a reasonable timescale, and any default that MIGHT have arisen arose in 2010, however

b) you deny their entitlement to place any default as you don't owe them any money, and never did (and they should see previous...)

No debt, no default.

 

You REQUIRE them to remove the Jan 17 default, and if they don't you will sue them for damages suffered as a result of the adverse impact on your credit file from the erroneously placed default.

If it comes to it, along with the damages you will seek a mandatory injunction from the court requiring them to remove the default ....

[scarydays]

thank you BazzaS - do you happen to know if there is a head office address for BG I should be writing to?

[martin2006]

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-advice/contactus-personal-details/complaints/gas-electricity.beta.html

 

 

Try here

[scarydays]

Thank you

[Marcovb64]

Hi I wondered if anyone can help me please

I want to take British Gas to court

I had a small outstanding bill which I contested for quite a long time

In the end I agreed to settle this bill and did so via a standing order of £10 a month

the bill was for £150 and has only about £50 left on it

in the time I was paying it British Gas have put missed payment markers on my Experian account and as a result decimated my credit score from 995 to 210

EVEN after I agreed to pay in full they would not remove the markers and I am still one of their customers !!!

the ombudsman said they cant help ( I think they ran over their allotted time and if so I wanted to take action against them as well? )

British Gas not removing markers is just downright malicious to me especially as I have offered to settle

These marker were even applied whilst I was making payment to them !

Just really unfair as I have been with them for 10 years and am still with them

Can anyone help and tell me how I can fight this ?

I have told OS services I don't accept their ruling and I am ready to go to court against British Gas

How can Istart this process please anyone.....?

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

You need to start a new thread of your own please, you won't be noticed on this one.

 

My best, HB