British Gas

[HP Mum]

Gas appliances will be internally connected.

No-one should be inside and using any utility. But things are connected.

Not an expert on this - but years ago BG turned off the supply cos of a suspected leak.  They didn't turn off anything inside.  Why would they need to go inside if they have the ability to switch off the gas outside?

[unclebulgaria67]

I think they have to go inside to complete a safety check on gas appliances.

[dx100uk]

correct

[Nom De Guerre]

The letter that you received was dated 19 July 2021, and was from British Gas Trading Limited?

 

Exactly who signed this letter?

 

Though I am not legally trained, the (19 July 2021?) letter that you described may be a legally-required and prescribed legal document, a Letter Before Claim (LBC), and learning more about the "Practice Direction on pre-action conduct under the Civil Procedure Rules" may be of some assistance to you.

[dx100uk]

PAPLOC's are in relation to County Court and CCJ's , not magistrates warrant applications.

[HP Mum]

The letter was just from "your BG team"

Their letter is covered by the rights of entry act "54

 

Property has full security and alarm. Will be interesting if they do force entry when meter is external...

Edited August 13, 2021 by HP Mum

[Nom De Guerre]

Please define "PAPLOC's".

 

The reason that I asked HP MUM, is that I am aware of grave legal irregularities which appear to have occurred involving such letters issued between 1 September 2020 and 26 March 2021, and it is presumed for quite some time after this.

 

If there is any chance that you, or anyone in your household, might in any way be considered "vulnerable" for the purpose of having your name/names added to the Priority Services Register of British Gas Trading Limited, I would strongly recommend that you act to do so immediately, and for a number of important reasons.

 

If you do so, record your telephone-call, and take accurate notes relating to your telephone-call.

 

If you research Letters Before Claim (LBC), sometimes known as Letters Before Action (LBA), and the relevant Civil Procedures rules as far as I am aware, the legal reasons for the letter being sent should become apparent.

 

(Gas and Electricity Boards) Act 1954 as amended, it appears.

[HP Mum]

The property is empty/ unoccupied! 

[Nom De Guerre]

An energy customer raised to a Priority Services Register can also have accounts relating to empty, unoccupied properties.

[dx100uk]

PAPLOC  - pre action protocol letter of claim.

 

gas companies don't need to use the civil county court system, because as you point out the gas act gives them the power to disconnect or change meters in cases of persistent non payment under a magistrates court.

 

HP mums situation is somewhat complex...

[Nom De Guerre]

My understanding is that there are a range of differing Civil Procedure Rules depending upon the type of civil court action, but I believe that these exist in some form in relation to all civil court actions.

If you choose to read some of the actual Civil Procedure Rules, you will see that the Letter Before Claim (LBC) letter of the type that HP MUM received is actually prescribed in form, defined if you will.  And copies of these legal documents are submitted to magistrates' courts because they are legally required to do so, or run the risks of suffering adverse legal disadvantages in one form or another.

The rules appear designed to lessen unnecessary litigation, and also unnecessarily protracted litigation, as well as to promote a sense of fairness.

I would definitely recommend that HP MUM carefully scrutinises any and all energy meter serial-numbers that might be involved, all dates that any meters were installed on and removed on, and each and every energy bill matched to serial-numbers and patterns of energy usage.

Energy customers are being billed using energy meter serial-numbers that are not from their own meters, and are being billed using the serial-numbers of prior meters that were once installed and then removed, and are even being billed or charged simultaneously for two meters for the same fuel at the same time.  I have personally witnessed many of the above types of occurrences.

A Right Of Access Request (ROAR) (known to many as a Subject Access Request, or SAR) to receive a copy of all personal data held in paper and electronic forms pursuant to UK GDPR and the DPA 2018 as amended would be a good idea.

Also, asking to receive a copy of a record of all meter inspections that have occurred, and exactly when they occurred if they did, and seeking to explore the possibility that a meter might be out of calibration or might have suffered some fault or from some adverse network condition(s) affecting its accuracy, would be desirable to at least consider the possibility of.

HP MUM, if you have or can get an online account with British Gas Trading Limited, copies of many past energy bills should become accessible to read and to download copies of individually.  And as mentioned, a Right Of Access Request (ROAR) might also be of use to you.  You can also request that British Gas Trading Limited posts you copies of all bills that have been issued, as quickly as possible to you.

I have found evidence of alarming entries, references, discrepancies, and omissions within a ROAR disclosure received by email only last month in July of 2021, and these issues have combined to profoundly and unlawfully affect the billing of the British Gas Trading Limited accounts involved.

If there has been any unusually-high energy usage that has occurred relating to an account, such as might be caused by a defective or otherwise inaccurate energy meter, this fact is often found written and highlighted somewhere on the energy bills issued, for example, there might be a statement indicating or describing that a 50%, 100%, or even higher increase in energy usage for a given fuel has occurred compared to the energy recorded as having been used within a prior year on an account.

If you do dispute the accuracy of account billing, or dispute that you actually used the amount of fuel alleged, and even if you are putting forward other issues in response to the energy company's communications made to you, I would recommend that you send as many emails as possible to as many email-addresses as are needed

to prove that you are in fact responding to the concerns that have been communicated to you by British Gas Trading Limited, CC each email to many others to create an electronic audit-trail of your (quite possibly desperate) attempts to engage with your energy company.  I can supply additional email-addresses if you have an interest.

I do realise that this coming Monday, 16 August 2021, may be the day that a warrant to authorise entry is executed, or may be attempted, from what you have reported previously.

[dx100uk]

more commonly known as SAR sar

 

 

[Nom De Guerre]

I prefer not to use "Subject Access Request" or "SAR" as these do not seem to appear as such within relevant Data Protection law.  But my understanding is that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) continues to allow their use.

 

I have used the following, recently, it seems to me to be far more precise:

 

"Right Of Access To Personal Data Request By Data Subject, Article 15 UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018)".

 

Adding "As Amended" at the end might be more precise.

 

"Rights of Entry (Gas and Electricity Boards) Act 1954 as amended"

 

is also a more precise citation.

[HP Mum]

I made another call to BG to try resolve

This time I got, firstly, a sympathetic employee and, secondly, someone in the debt department who DID resolve with zero fuss.

 

The previous call I had last month I obviously caught someone having their own bad day who projected it on to me - they were vile and brutal.

 

Basically BG have what is known as an 'extended payment plan'.   They can string out your arrears over 5 years.

 

The key issue is that anyone with payment problems must pay and clear the standing charges.   This will halt angry action.

 

So - this nice person advised that NO warrant had been applied for - there had been no court date set - and there was no date organised for meter removal either.   The previous vile person had just been trying to make me "panic pay".

 

I now have a monthly direct debit for lowest possible £ amount set up for 5 years.  If things change then I can pay more in-between.

 

Of course - this payment plan only applies to my old consumption up to 2y ago. 

There should be no consumption now.  But I know there has been by 'others' - which will be subject to alternative (legal) action...