Last Wednesday night I got a call from a lady saying she was in the complaints department & that this really should have been dealt with by a manager in the Call Centre, to which I replied that that is what I had tried but nobody would allow me to speak to one. She then went on to say as it was now in the complaints department she would deal with it. She went onto explain that they believe that the meter was bypassed before my son moved into the house, but because he had benefited from the bypass he has to pay this £546 I asked he for the exact date that the meter was bypassed but she refused to tell me, I also asked how they had calculated the amount, she didn't know, so we went around & around for quite a well, her sticking to her guns that my son is liable, me maintaining that unless they have 100% proof with a daily breakdown we're not paying. After a while it became apparent we weren't getting anywhere but at some point she had mentioned a Revenue team that did all this work, she offered a number for them & said she would call back on Friday after I had chance to talk to them.
Didn't get chance until Friday but rang them, but it was much the same story, the meter has been removed from the property, there was evidence that it had been tampered/bypassed prior to my son moving in, they refused to say exactly when/how it was tampered with, the amount he owes is based on average UK estimates, pressed on how they knew when it was tampered with they refused to explain. The reason I asked this is when he moved in we had an electrician fit a new shower, (the old one was just wired into the ring main), he had the consumer unit apart & didn't mention anything, which I would have thought he may.
I tried to explain that for the period in question my son had a full time job, didn't spend a great deal of time in the property, he would go to work, then he would go to his friends houses, stay there until bed time & then go home to sleep & repeat throughout the week. All his circle of friends live within a small area which was within 2 miles of where he worked, the house was 8 miles in the other direction, it made no sense to him to go back to the house to change out of his work clothes to go back past his works to his friends, he just got changed there. Either scrounging food off them or eating out. She also stated that the Ofgem 2007 Back-Billing agreement wasn't relevant when I mentioned it.
They seem to take the attitude that he is guilty & it is our job to prove his innocence, their suggestion is that I prove that he was living on his own, by getting the details from the council when his girlfriend left, provide them with his timecards at work for the period (although they didn't have them).
Relevant or not my joint gas & electricity for the period was around £1400 for a 3 bedroomed detached house with 2 occupants one of them who is at home all day I'm not sure how that breaks down but I think it's 70/30 between electricity & gas, so £1000 for the electricity for the year, he was living in a 2 bedroom semi-detached house & they are wanting £765 for 6 months when nobody was there most of the time.
The promised Friday night return call never happened, but is it time I seek legal advice?
