Forced installations of pre-paid energy meters in homes across Britain have been approved by a judge for the first time since a scandal about the practice broke in January.
District Judge Samuel Goozee signed off on 124 warrants at a court hearing on Thursday, allowing debt collectors Richburns Management to enter homes on behalf of Scottish Power.
In a sign of change in the system, the judge spent two hours combing through the warrants, questioning a debt collector on steps taken to settle bills with customers, and securing assurances that homeowners would be checked for vulnerabilities.
This contrasted sharply with reports in January of hundreds of warrants being signed off by magistrates in a matter of minutes, with only cursory checks of the paperwork.
Ofgem imposed a temporary ban on the practice after an outcry about struggling families being forced on to pre-paid meters, and vulnerable people being penalised instead of assisted to pay their bills .
Debt collector Edward Skirrow told Reading magistrates court that the new warrants, if approved, would not be acted on immediately as regulator Ofgem has not yet agreed that the installation of pre-paid meters can restart.
“Ofgem has not approved the recommencing of warrant activity, and Scottish Power won’t execute any approve warrants”, he said as the hearing began.
The judge picked out 20 warrant applications at random, and questioned the debt collector on the size of the outstanding gas and electricity bills, efforts made to contact the customers by phone, letter, and email, and the results of a visit to the home.
The court heard a woman in Grimsby had an unpaid bill of nearly £5,000,and 17 attempts at contact had gone unanswered. She had been sent an initial demand for payment on August 14 and a notice of intention to seek a warrant for a forced pre-payment meter on September 26.
“On the visit it was non-contact”, said Mr Skirrow. “There was no reply from the property or the neighbours on either side and we left at that point. We couldn’t confirm the occupancy.”
He told the court of several homes where agents had seen furniture and signs of living through the window, but no one answered the door. Other properties had racked up energy bills but appeared to be empty.
“All the blinds was closed and we couldn’t establish whether it was occupied or vacant”, he said, of a home visited in Preston. “The neighbours hadn’t seen anyone for a few weeks.”
He told the judge of an agent chasing a £6000 debt who spoke to a man on the doorstep in Sidcup.
“We spoke to a male who confirmed the occupancy and said they were out at work”, he said. “The male refused to provide any further details.”
Mr Skirrow said Scottish Power pre-paid meters, when forcibly installed on a home, are loaded with £30 credit, and the energy usage is monitored over the following fortnight together with follow-up contact with the customers.
The court hearing was intended as a “pathfinder” session, to test the way warrants are going to be approved in the magistrates court of England and Wales in the future.
According to revised Ofgem rules, the debt collector gave an assurance that any signs of high risk of vulnerabilities would stop the installation of a pre-paid meter, while signs of medium risk of vulnerabilities would be passed on to the energy company for further assessment.
At the end of the court hearing, the judge said he was satisfied the energy company had a right to pursue unpaid bill, and all 124 warrants for the installation of the meters were “proportionate”.
He noted Scottish Power records all its visits to homes, and is in the process of rolling out body-cameras to its agents.
“The issuing of warrants to allow Scottish Power and Richburns on their behalf to install involuntary pre-paid meters is both a proportionate and necessary exercise”, he said.
Last month, Ofgem announced that its new rules, due to come into effect in November, would ban the forcibly fit meters in the homes of people with severe health problems, those aged over 75 without domestic support, and people with children under the age of two.
