A couple are demanding answers over why they may be having to pay up to £1,500 per month for their electricity. The family is now faced with a bill demand of almost £12,000.
Martin Georgeson and his partner Caroline were also told that this week Scottish Power will go to court to forcibly fit a pre-payment meter. To their relief, the company has since confirmed this would not happen as all warrant installations have been suspended.
The couple, from Avonbridge in Scotland, live with their two children and say they don’t accept that they can possibly be using an average of £500 electricity every month to provide heating and hot water for their modest council house. The couple’s records show that one monthly bill was £1500, with others at £777 and £550, the Daily Record reports.
On first moving into the house, the couple were told by Falkirk Council that the house uses a Thermaflow boiler, which provides heating and hot water. The couple thought it was a new boiler and did not anticipate any problems.
What they didn’t know, however, was that just two months earlier a group of tenants with the same heating system had met with Scottish Power and Falkirk Council, demanding to know why their bills had suddenly gone up by 300 per cent. Mum Caroline, a recently qualified nurse, said: “When we moved in, we were told it was an electric system that provided heating and hot water and it would be very slightly more expensive.”
Martin added: “No-one told us it was actually going to be four or even five times what we had been paying before for almost exactly the same house.” While the couple waited for answers from Scottish Power they continued to pay £68 a month, the amount they had paid in their previous house.
But in 2020, when they phoned to ask how they could claim their warm homes discount, to put towards their bill, they were asked to give a meter reading. Martin said: “The woman on the phone said that the reading could not be right – it was exceptionally high. But when we queried it we were told it was correct and our electricity usage is averaging £500 a month.
“We said we weren’t willing to pay that. It’s impossible to be using that much power in an average home, with average appliances.” When they took their complaint to the Ombudsman, they were offered a letter of apology for the lack of customer service and £100 by way of compensation.
The couple refused this, saying that there has been no proper investigation – no check meter has been fitted and no-one has looked into why the boiler is using so much power. The house was privately owned until the council bought it back in 2019 and at first it seemed perfect.
But the couple are only now discovering the extent to which people in the off-gas areas around Falkirk have been facing massive energy bills ever since prices started to increase. Falkirk Council has agreed to install gas in most of the villages and will pay for new heating systems at a cost of £8 million, although that work has not yet started.
Martin said: “We have been talking to people and are gradually beginning to realise the extent of the situation.” Their local councillor, Claire Mackie-Brown, says that the family are among many who should have been given more information about exactly how expensive the heating system is.
She said: “The stress for this family is awful and there are still hundreds of others in a similar situation. People need to be told much more clearly what these heating systems are like. It’s just so unfair for people.”
Martin added: “It’s just a complete nightmare – no-one wants to admit there is a problem. We’re an ordinary family living in an average house. If anything, we are very careful about the heating we use, so we just should not be faced with bills like this.
“No-one wants to take responsibility for it but we are not willing to accept that this debt is ours. This needs to be investigated properly by experts.”
A Scottish Power spokesperson said: “The customer previously raised a complaint about her billing and her concerns about a potential faulty meter with the Energy Ombudsman. The Ombudsman fully investigated this and, in January 2022, found no issues with the meter or billing and recommended that a suitable payment plan be put in place that took account of both her ongoing usage and her outstanding arrears. A letter of apology for the shortfall in customer service and a goodwill payment were also suggested – the customer turned this down.
“As a result of a further complaint raised last week, we have stopped all follow-up activity on the customer’s account while we investigate further. This will include a visit from our customer liaison team – which we are actively trying to arrange – to check the meter and usage at the property as well as a review of the account to ensure the customer is getting all the help and support she’s entitled to.
“In line with other suppliers, we have currently suspended all warrant installations.”
A Falkirk Council spokesperson said: “We have recently been made aware of this tenant’s energy costs and will contact them to establish ways we can help in relation to fuel poverty.
“The Housing Investment Programme includes the installation of new triple glazed, A rated windows and doors to improve energy efficiency. The offer to install these replacement windows and doors was declined by the tenant. The property does have solar panels installed and this usage would appear excessive.
“The council has no influence over the tariffs set by energy companies.”
