Scottish Power Bailiffs/Locksmiths warrant - broke in, bill had been paid - i was in! & asleep!! woke up to find people in my bedroom!!

[Help needed please]

Hi

I hope you can help me with some advice on recourse after a bailiff broke into my home with a locksmith while I was in bed. 

I woke up to find a complete stranger in my downstairs bedroom and 3 others turned out to be waiting in my hall.

I genuinely nearly had a heart attack, I am a woman living alone and was completely naked in bed.

 

The bailiff quickly explained who he was and that he was looking for my electricity meter as they had broke in to change it to a pre-payment meter as they had a warrant. 

I knew absolutely nothing about this. 

 

He politely removed himself while I got dressed, I was in shock and crying by this point. 

 I went out into the hall and he explained that he had an outstanding bill for electricity from August.   

I had paid the bill in full Nov 2019 and was able to show him this by bank statements

 

he said that I should have had a letter to say the bailiff was coming and that the electricity company still had it listed as unpaid, I had had nothing whatsoever except my last bill which was dated Nov 2019.

 

He rang the supplier and they then 'found' the payments and confirmed it was there, saying that as I had paid it on a standing order, their system does not recognise this as a payment method automatically so I should have paid by a different method.   

 

Just for clarity, the  original bill was almost £800 and I had called the supplier at the time to say I couldn't pay all at once and they agreed £200 per month. 

I paid this in August, Sept, Oct and Nov, paying the bill in full.   

 

No payments were missed but their system only recorded the Oct payment, even though all payments were made from same bank using the correct supplier and customer reference number and the Aug, Sept and Nov payment were recorded goodness knows where, but were instantly 'found' when the bailiff called.  

 

The next bill was issued in Nov and considerably less, so I just carried on paying the same £200 and in Nov and Dec 2019 paid that second bill off too.   

The next invoice is due around now but haven;t had it yet. 

 

There were no arrears therefore at the time of entry, no letters issued, no warning.   

They do have my address incorrect, and I have corrected it twice now but they haven;t changed it,  listing it as a village 6 miles from the actual village but the postcode is right so some, if not all, post should still reach me, it was certainly no problem for the bailiff to find me.

 

The bailiff accepted an error had been made and the person who he called at the suppliers just told him to tell me that I could carry on paying the £200 per month for next due and future bills but by direct debit and not standing order.  The four unwelcome visitors all then left my house- without changing the meter.

 

How can this happen, it was the most distressing and frightening experience and I would like help on what recourse I have and with whom.  The supplier?  The bailiff company?  The court for issuing a warrant on a paid debt? Who should have stopped this process in it's tracks before it got to this point? 

 

I haven't slept properly since this, I keep re-picturing the intense fear of waking to find a stranger in your bedroom and even though he explained quickly who he was and left immediately to restore my dignity, that first few moments I thought it was a burglar and I was going to be murdered in my bed.  The neighbours must have found it entertaining too and I am mortified. 

 

I have raised a telephone complaint with the supplier and waiting for somebody to call me back, nothing so far.

 

Can anyone advise me please?

[brassnecked]

Hi welcome to CAG, who is the supplier? You might need to start a complaint with them,  initially to get a paper trail, and the reason they like Direct Debit over Standing Orders is they can unilaterally increase a DD but not a SO. You have had no communication from them as to the bailiff coming with a Locksmith and electrician to change the meter at all.  If you could tell us who the supplier is others will be along soon with further advice.

[Help needed please]

Thanks Brassnecked.  It was Scottish Power and the bailiff said he was either from a company called Richmond or his own name was Richmond, it's all a blur with the shock.  He did not show me any paperwork at all, although to be fair, I didn't explicitly ask and just listened to what he verbally told me about a warrant being issued and why he had the right to be there. 

[brassnecked]

I would escalate your complaint to Scottish Power, Head as Formal Complaint, Might be worth copying your MP and OFGEN.  Others will be along soon to advise other actions you can take.  the Bailiff actually did nothing wrong they had to execute the Warrant Scottish Power obtained, on what looks like dodgy evidence that calls their systems into question. It's Scottish Power who are at fault, as their system obviously cannot deal with Standing orders, but you should have had several letters about this, so that will be part of your complaint, also they will probably have  added the costs of getting the Warrant and bailiff to your account, so check if they have.  All will form part of any complaint and coipy in OFGEM and MP.

[Peterbard]

Hi

 

Sounds awful, I hope you are OK.

 

Yes you are correct to contact the supplier first. They should have sent a chance to remedy notice at least 28 days before obtaining any warrant from the court, then you should he received a 7 day warning before the bailiff called.

 

Find out about the warrant, ideally you want to see it, but failing that you need to know when it was issued and on the request of whom, try and get a name.

To do this you may have to contact the bailiff unless you know which court issued it. Let us know how you get on..

 

I would also issue a request under GDPR to the company, This will give you records of what went on over the period in question.

You will be able to see if notices have been sent, hopefully.

 

You can ask by phone. I would ask them to provide all details relevant to your account from inception , bank statements, records of phone calls, the lot. Get the name of the person you are talking to and email a confirmation of the request.

 

Please let us know of any developments.

 

Later BN

 

 

[brassnecked]

Yes DB let Scottish Power mess it up first then involve OFGEN and MP

[Bailiff Advice]

You have received good advice from other posters so please do issue a formal complaint.  

 

You mention that your bedroom is located downstairs.  I am curious as to how it could have been that you did not hear somebody either knocking at the door or using a locksmith to force entry?  

 

Did the locksmith repair the lock? 

[brassnecked]

 Good point BA If they didn't repair the lock or replace it and give you the keys, that will also be part of the Complaint.

[Help needed please]

Hi All

 

Thanks so much for your advice,

I will keep you updated on developments and as it seems that SP were at fault not the bailiff,

I will contact SP again tomorrow so that they cannot just hope that this goes away. 

 

Thanks Dodgeball, I will do a SAR under GDPR as I want to see what they claim they sent me if anything at all, but certainly nothing was received since 11 Nov which was just a normal bill, otherwise I would have reacted and contacted them to inform that I had fully paid and they had an error somewhere.

 

BA, the bedroom is downstairs but at the rear of the house, it is a very large detached old property with 2 foot thick walls and I was fast asleep when they knocked, I have full CCTV all around and watched it afterwards, they knocked twice and then broke in.  

 

There is an outer double porch door which makes it hard to hear knocking from the rear of the house but these outer doors are usually unlocked and open once I am up and about - but were locked that morning as I was still in bed fast asleep.   

 

No damage to locks that I can see and no locks changed, they appeared to 'pick' the locks on the outer door according to the CCTV. although I couldn't tell how they got through the inner door as their bodies were in the way of the camera shot but it was quick, which makes me question my lock security too and will be upgrading.  

 

 What woke me up was him coming into the bedroom and I hadn't heard a thing before that.  

[brassnecked]

They might well give you the runaround on the phone so if you can record any call, a Formal Complaint in writing by email with a hard copy in the post with a free proof of posting from a post office counter. And get that SAR off todyY, its now free under GDPR regulations.

[Bailiff Advice]

Thank you so much for the detailed reply. 

I am truly dismayed at what you have experienced and I would urge you to keep the forum updated. 

 

I agree that the fault certainly appears to be that of Scottish Power.

It is really important that you keep a 'paper trail' so I would encourage you to write to the company.

By all means, call them today and ask for the contact details of the relevant department. 

 

[Help needed please]

Hi All

 

Just to update you on this matter, they did give me the run around for over a week, with promised call backs from the Complaints Dept which never materialised but I persisted.

 

They have offered me compensation by way of a goodwill gesture of £50, then when I declined, they increased it to £80 but will not budge on this.  I have no idea what is reasonable considering their actions but to me, £80 seems very low considering that they broke into my home unlawfully and caused me such a lot of distress.   

 

It transpired that they had also added the cost of this 'visit' to my account of £27 and £150, but have now removed these charges.   

 

Thanks to Brassnecked for suggesting that I check this as I wouldn't have thought of it and you were right, they had applied these charges and have only removed them when I directly asked whether they had done this. 

 

They now say that we have reached 'deadlock' as they have made two offers that I have declined, and are sending me a letter to that effect so that I can go to the ombudsman.

 

Am I being unreasonable expecting more than £80 for what they did or are they just trying it on?  I really think that £80 for such a catastrophic error seems measly and I am not after a windfall here, I am genuinely not rubbing my hands in glee that I'm getting a payout as I would much prefer that it had never happened in the first place as it has taken my sense of security in my home away and that is priceless.  I just don't think that £80 sounds the right level considering I was in tears for two whole days, cancelled a social event as I was too upset to go and can't sleep properly (or naked) any more. 

[brassnecked]

Thanks for getting back, £80 seems paltry for such a mess I would hold fire until more of the team have stopped by as there will be suggestions for you to consider, looking for ones that will be of benefit to you.  I thought they would add the cost of their warrant to the account, and good on you for remembering and challenging, they would have just left it there if you hadn't.  At least you now have some control over the situation and  they are on the back foot.

 

Not too sure about GDPR, but if the whole Court Application was wrong, and therefore the transfer of your data to Bailiff and locksmith was not covered as a legitimate legal purpose, due to warrant was wrongful through application and Execution there might have been a GDPR breach that would be worth about £500 to yourself.  However that is not certan, so others may have thoughts