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Energy Co. Break In Flat, Change Locks? Who I Complain to?
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Hoping someone can offer some advice here. My sister lives in a flat, owned by a housing association. She has her energy bills through EDF Energy.
About a month ago she received a letter from a company called Richburns Ltd in Essex, who stated they are appealing to the courts for a magistrate warrant to enter the property due to unpaid gas bill of £163.86p. They stated they would disconnect the gas supply.
Now the funny thing is, my sister has no gas switched on inside the flat, she never has since she moved in about 5 years or more ago. The housing association have even checked this and a sticker is on the gas box signed and dated of 9th Feb 09 stating no gas supplied in property.
I contacted EDF Energy regarding this, as she had never even had a bill from them and doesnt owe them anything as shes never had gas switched on as stated. I informed them by email that this was against the law to harrass and bully someone who owes no debt. I never had a reply from them.
Now sadly today, my sister went home after being out to find this Richburns Ltd had been, broken in the property and changed the locks so she couldnt enter again. A small scrap piece of note badly written with a phone number was taped on the door left for her to read.
She went to the Housing Association who stated they knew nothing about this and never give them permission to break in their property, although stated that if a warrant was issued they didnt have to give permission.
Now we phoned up this person who did this, got some new keys to the property now and shes back home thankfully.
But I was just wondering who should we make this complaint to? Like stated they have chased a debt that doesnt exist and they have no evidence it does which I believe is against the law.
I checked up and this company is known for chasing debts that dont exist and harrasing customers of energy companies.
Any advice on who should complain to would be appreciated.
About a month ago she received a letter from a company called Richburns Ltd in Essex, who stated they are appealing to the courts for a magistrate warrant to enter the property due to unpaid gas bill of £163.86p. They stated they would disconnect the gas supply.
Now the funny thing is, my sister has no gas switched on inside the flat, she never has since she moved in about 5 years or more ago. The housing association have even checked this and a sticker is on the gas box signed and dated of 9th Feb 09 stating no gas supplied in property.
I contacted EDF Energy regarding this, as she had never even had a bill from them and doesnt owe them anything as shes never had gas switched on as stated. I informed them by email that this was against the law to harrass and bully someone who owes no debt. I never had a reply from them.
Now sadly today, my sister went home after being out to find this Richburns Ltd had been, broken in the property and changed the locks so she couldnt enter again. A small scrap piece of note badly written with a phone number was taped on the door left for her to read.
She went to the Housing Association who stated they knew nothing about this and never give them permission to break in their property, although stated that if a warrant was issued they didnt have to give permission.
Now we phoned up this person who did this, got some new keys to the property now and shes back home thankfully.
But I was just wondering who should we make this complaint to? Like stated they have chased a debt that doesnt exist and they have no evidence it does which I believe is against the law.
I checked up and this company is known for chasing debts that dont exist and harrasing customers of energy companies.
Any advice on who should complain to would be appreciated.
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Comments
Because they have to bust the original locks to gain entry.
Well actually they don't have to given a bit of time they are easy enough to pick but they do anyway.
As for changing the locks, surely the housing association i thought would not be happy as they had keys to original locks now cant even get in own property they own.
Richburns will have gone to court on behalf of EDF to get a warrant of entry. The judge will not have given them this unless he believed that they had correct and legal reason to enter your property and that you had been warned this would happen. Judges don't issue warrant of entry without being satisifed you've had warning as it's human rights act.
To get into the flat they are allowed to break the lock. They then change the lock to re-secure the property. It's possible that all they did when they got in was looked for a meter.. they don't even have to switch one off. By ignoring them, you gave them reason to presume you were withholding access.
Believe me, they won't have reached this point without some other steps such as letters or even visits to the property.
Who to complain to? I'd start by picking up the phone and actually speaking to EDF, and talk to them about it. Yes I appreciate you don't have gas but clearly EDF think you do, and you need to talk to them. But as far as I can see from what you've written, no laws have been broken.
You'd be wasting police time if you did and wasting your money in legal action.
The most the OP can do really is ask Richburns to post/fax them a copy of the warrant of entry to satisfy themselves that the property wasn't entered illegally, and contact EDF to complain about the action thats taken place.
But sadly by ignoring the letter of warning they have made this situation worse for themselves. The law is on the side of the power companies usually. The tenant had warning.
If there is no warrant, then by all means get the police involved. But just because one wasn't left, doesn't mean one didn't exist. Request a copy.. it should be signed by a judge, and speak to EDF.
Surely they need to provide evidence to the courts that this money is owed in order to issue a warrant?
Like I said I dont believe they have any, she has never had any contact from EDF before this letter came from Richburns, no bill or final demands from them as they was no money owed so they couldnt send any bills.
They have now turned up at the property with the police and since there was no one home they opened the door using force which is allowed as they had a warrant.
There is nothing you can do about it apart from go to your local police station and say that someone has gained access to the property and you believe it was by court order.
The police should have the keys for the new locks, and if you can prove who you are they should give them to you.
About not using gas well that is something you now need to talk to the energy company about. Since court orders were requested and granted though you won't be able to do much legally through any court to claim them for the forced entry.
Their evidence is the account statements and any letters they sent to you.
John_Doe: It's possible the previous tenant who lived at the property had an unpaid debt for example. They will have had to prove the the judge they made efforts to contact you, both by knocking on the door and by letters.
I'm a bit confused tho. You just wrote:
"She has never had any contact from EDF before"
Yet in your first post you wrote:
"She has her energy bills through EDF Energy."
So which is it?
I mean she is signed with EDF Energy for her Gas energy, as the salesman said she had to legally sign with someone for Gas due to european law, she couldnt be with no one as her supplier so she signed to them.
She has never had any bills from EDF as she doesnt use any gas and they are aware of that when she signed to them as she told them she doesnt have it switched on. Shes never had even a letter from them since she signed from what i believe. Shes been there about 5 years and never even sent her a bill during this time.
The thing is, even the housing association know theirs no gas switched on in the property, as they come and check for leaks and check ups once a year and last time in feb stuck a sticker on saying no gas supplied or something like that to the meter.
Police usually attend any forced entry.
I know here in Scotland that all right to enter warrants must have police involved including 2 officers at the address.
As my dad's company is involved in forced entry we have a few things we must do in accordance with our "licence".
One of our landlord customers would at first need to contact us about the situation and then from there the must also contact the police before they go to the courts to request the warrant to force entry. Once granteed we must arange times with the police and the customer to attend the address.
Once on scene before we can force entry we must ensure that the property is empty or the occupants are refusing to cooperate after that we must photograph the door and then after to police are happy we can then force entry.
Once the door is open the police must ensure the property is empty and then we can change the locks and make the property seccure. During this process photographs are also required. Once the property is secure the keys are provided to the police and we must sign off on the forced entry.
After that the landlord can request the keys from the police if there isn't a landlord the keys are held at the police station where they can be issued to a named person.
I'd give EDF a call in the morning and clear this up once and for all, perhaps ask for a copy of that warrant too if you really feel like checking the rules were followed. If they really have cocked up at EDF you should complain.
Sorry you're having to deal with this.
PS: I don't work for any of the companies involved, but I do have knowledge of how this process generally works.
They did contact EDF who did nothing.
Where does it mention the police were involved. And they have retreived the keys from the bailiff.
If they have only received one letter about the debt where did all the other letters go?.
Could the alleged outstanding monies be from standing charges for a gas supply that isn't in use?
If the police aren't involved in a forced entry it is illegal and and new keys must be given to them first. (just checked this with the legal stuff I have and in the UK the police need to be involved). They don't need to beinvolved for a court order that allows them entry but only when the house holder is there.
Only one letter needes to be issued about the situation and if they did contact EDF and they done nothing then they couldn't have informed them of the full situation.
First, we did contact edf, ok by email from their official website not by phone, but my sister doesnt have a phone in flat, and she doesnt like using one as a phobia, so I emailed on her behalf.
As for the keys, they were retrieved from the bailiff I believe, it was some number we contacted, not a police station or anything the number was direct to Richburns Ltd who passed the message on to the guy who broke in and would call back with the keys, which he did and we didnt have a go at him or anything for doing it as hes just doing what hes told to. He just asked for id from her and handed keys over.
As for no gas switched on, yes its confusing sadly so pardon me if not saying right. She has a meter installed in the house, but its not switched on as she doesnt use it. I believe the housing association arranged to have it switched off as she said she didnt use it for anything so as far as i am aware its switched off at the main meter?
As for standing charges? Maybe I aint sure, but like I said i dont know if you dont have gas being used surely you dont incur standing charges, i may be wrong though?
The funny thing is, the letter she got from Richburns stated that it was for a gas bill but she has never used gas in the flat?
Also the funny thing was that the letter stated she was at risk of being disconnected, the thing is she already was as she doesnt have it switched on so surely they know that?
The landlord (Housing association) said they knew nothing about this when she went over to see them about what happened, so they dont have any keys anyway now to enter their own property. And sadly the woman she saw was quite useless and really didnt care about it and just told my sister to deal with it herself.
They claimed they sent letters before, but this was only one she had, and she never even had a gas bill from edf, so how can they even expect someone to pay for something they dont have a bill for?
Its all really confusing, obviously she is a little shaken up by this, shes never had a problem for years with them then this happens out of the blue.
She does feel violated a little at someone else being in the property, and she believes this person went upstairs also (as upstairs flat) as a door was left open which she always leaves closed, when the gas meter/electric meter was downstairs just inside the front door in a cupboard and surely they first thing youd look inside?
Since you emailed them it probably wasn't even looked at. You should have called them. All you can do now is contact EDF and complain nothing else can be done really.
As for someone going upstairs they have a duty to ensure that no one is at home and hiding from them and that is usually what the police would do as it is there job. It is to ensure the safety of the people involved.
OK, I think you need to get a friend or someone to check your meter and gas supply. I think that basically someone, has isolated the gas supply at the meter. Rather than arrange for the supply to be cut off permanently.
If so, depending on the tariff you are on, despite the fact your sister is not using gas, she will be liable for the standing charges.
Get it checked, it's not difficult if you know what your looking for, and a neighbour may be able to help.
Call and write at least with a call they may start to stop the proceedings.
It is one of those ones though where no matter what you do to try and sort it out you will still be likely to get them turning up at the door.
Ideally since a leter with court date was delivered they should have went to the court and see what is said.
Could they have charged a 'signing on' fee for the supply? Maybe there is some charge around having a supply even if she is not using it. Don't know, but that salesman might have got her to sign for a supply charge.
Surely they can quantify what the unpaid bill was for? Can richburns tell you?
Richmonds said all they are told is that edf said a gas bill hasnt been paid, not what the amount is for or anything when we contacted them for the keys to be returned, just saying they just get told to take action basically against them.