Scottish Daily Mail

Couple whose energy supplier broke in and changed their locks

- By Megan Sheets and Paul Thomas

AN ENERGY supplier broke into a family home and changed the locks without the owner’s knowledge, because a former tenant had failed to pay a £227 bill.

James Mant, 44, and Victoria Parsons, 41, have filed a claim against Scottish Power after a year-long struggle to resolve the issue.

Having moved into the fivebedroo­m property 12 months ago, the couple received several letters from the energy firm chasing payments for electricit­y bills.

Despite explaining to Scottish Power on numerous occasions that the £227.34 bill was owed by a previous tenant, a debt recovery firm went to the couple’s home.

Then, on December 6, a debt recovery firm acting on behalf of Scottish Power broke into the property in Whiteley, Hampshire, while restrainin­g the couple’s eight-year-old Springer Spaniel, Oscar. The door was damaged, so new locks were fitted.

The company installed a prepaid gas meter during the break-in — even though it hadn’t supplied gas to the home since 2015 and the unpaid bill related to electricit­y usage. Scottish Power has apologised for the distress and says it made a ‘genuine error’.

James, an insurance broker, says: ‘It was a horrific situation. You think your home is safe and that your dog is safe and secure. It felt like a burglary had taken place. ‘Victoria was left feeling sick and faint, and I was very angry and frustrated as no one seemed to be taking the situation seriously.’The couple have launched a £7,000 claim against Scottish Power after compiling an itemised list detailing the financial impact of the dispute — including hours of work lost dealing with the issue, locksmith costs and damage to the front door.

When they bought the house in December 2016, they elected to use the existing utility services — electricit­y from Scottish Power and gas from Bulb, who had been supplying the property since 2015.

At the time, they were not aware the previous tenant had left an outstandin­g electricit­y balance of £227.34. After receiving a bill addressed to ‘Lettings Northwood’, James opened it to find out who the suppliers were and called the company to change the name on the account. He said he also tried to give them a meter reading. The couple contacted Scottish Power a further nine times to resolve the issue — four times in January last year, once in April, once in May, twice in June and once in September — but the dispute was passed to a debt recovery firm called Richburns on August 25.

According to the company, an agent visited the property on September 22 and reported the home was vacant, even though Victoria, a financial planner, works from home. A letter was then sent to the couple providing details of a court case on November 24, in which Richburns would request a warrant to enter the house.

This is usually an energy supplier’s last resort if you fall behind on your bills. A court will grant access so the firm can switch off your energy supply or install a pre-payment meter.

The new meter puts you on a more expensive tariff, so the debt is cleared more quickly.

Before it can apply to the court, the energy supplier must write and call you many times. If it still receives no response, it must send someone to visit the property. James and Victoria say they never saw the letters Scottish Power claims to have sent.

This is because those that did arrive were not addressed to them — so they returned them to sender and told Scottish Power what they had done. On December 6, the family’s dog walker called to say he couldn’t get into the house and that there was a notice from Scottish Power on the door. It gave them the locksmith’s number as he had the keys to the replacemen­t lock.

The dog, inside the house, was getting distressed and the couple had to wait three hours for the locksmith to return as he had been called to another job.

James says he is worried for his dog, Oscar, who is now ‘very nervous’. ‘I hate to think of what they had to do to get him on a lead,’ he says. ‘When they saw the dog, it should have been quite obvious the home was occupied and a mistake had been made.’

Victoria says she was unable to sleep because she was uneasy about someone having been in her home without consent.

‘It’s unnerving to think that we know nothing about the locksmith that was used,’ James says. ‘We thought there’s no way of knowing if someone could come back, stick the key in the lock and rob us. We changed the locks again for peace of mind.’

Scottish Power has admitted to Money Mail that it failed to act correctly and should not have entered James and Victoria’s home. Under the Human Rights Act, a notice should have been sent via recorded delivery to ‘Mr Lettings Northwood or Current Owner/Occupier’.

The letter sent by Richburns was addressed only to Mr Lettings Northwood. So the couple were right to return it unopened. A spokeswoma­n for Scottish Power says: ‘This was a genuine error for which we apologise to James unreserved­ly. Enforcemen­t action to recover debt is only done as a last resort, but we completely accept that the outstandin­g account on our system has nothing to do with James whatsoever. ‘We are investigat­ing this as a matter of urgency to understand what went wrong and why this was allowed to progress to the stage where we entered his property. We will also provide James with compensati­on for the distress this has caused to him and his partner.’

The company has now agreed to pay James and Victoria £5,666.

Richburns did not return requests for comment.

In April 2016, Scottish Power was fined £18 million for unfair treatment of customers after an investigat­ion by energy regulator Ofgem. Customers told Money Mail of receiving astronomic­al bills, complaints being ignored and threatenin­g letters sent to the wrong homes.

 ??  ?? Energy crisis: James Mant and Victoria Parsons were traumatise­d by a dispute with Scottish Power
Energy crisis: James Mant and Victoria Parsons were traumatise­d by a dispute with Scottish Power

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