Main cut out fuse missing

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SOPHIA1234

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Hi I'm not a sparky or anything close to it, so please go easy on me, ill try my best, but ANY advice is greatly appreciated.

I bought a little flat over a year ago to fix up for my daughter to move into, but found out that their was no electrics water or gas, I called the electric company who basically said its nothing to do with them as its live and so i tried the national grid who sent someone out and told me that their was a lot of terrible cabling and that they suspect a deliberate removal of the fuse for the carrier. I thought nothing about this as Covid kicked in and left any works, figuring i could get trades in when covid was over and tackle anything then. However i have just seen my credit report and it seems i have a years missed payments assigned to my credit report for standing charge 20p a day, so basically they ruined my credit for a couple of hundred pounds, hence im LIVID. In case you are wondering i didn't get any bills as they spelt my email wrongly and i haven't been to the flat as I'm on the highly vulnerable list and have been trying to stay home. Ive tried talking to supplier, but they say they wont correct the credit report. So im stuck!

My question is, if the guy from the national grid/DNO? looked at it and didn't do anything, but tell me my fuse is missing are they liable and is it reasonable for a dispute that i cannot be liable for electric supply if their is no ability to supply as theirs no fuse? 

I hope you can understand what I'm trying to convey, any help really will be appreciated.

Thanks

Sophia

 
Hi Sophia, 

this really isn’t the correct forum for this sort of question. I would advise that you try a consumer credit forum such as AAD as what you need is legal advice. AAD will be able to offer you free advice and access to legal professionals. 
what I will say is that just because they have done what they have doesn’t mean that they had the right to do it so it may be possible to have it reversed. 
head over to here. https://all-about-debt.co.uk

 
I suspect the supply may have been dosconnected due to serious defects, so as well as sorting out the debt issues, you probably also need an electrician to correct the defects or rewire it before they will re connect it.

As a very minimum he will need to perform an EICR and correct any C1 or C2 items to be able to give it a satisfactory rating. With that there should be no reason for the DNO to refuse to re connect.

 
I fear you are caught between a rock and a hard place!

Do you know a local spark? May be worth getting somebody to help you confirm at the flat what is actually missing / wrong so when you call the supplier you are armed with better information. 

Also if the DNO fuse is missing is it the supplier or the DNO you need to replace it? They may say "the other one"

Hope this helps

 
Just a few observations that may or may not help..

And these may be questions you need to get answered to resolve your problem.. 

I assume sometime somewhere in the past you have agreed a contract for the supply of electricity to this property..?  

(otherwise they wouldn't have an outstanding charge against you).

As it is standard practice with a lot of suppliers to have a standing charge..  irrespective of if you have used any energy or not.. 

it is not totally unreasonable to expect a supplier to make a charge. 

(e.g. if you went off on holiday and turned everything off standing charges would still apply).

Can you obtain any copy invoices showing the actual or estimated meter readings..?

As you clearly have access to the internet can't you log on to an on-line account access for your energy supplier..?

(We can, I can retrieve copies of payments, meter reading, Usage, VAT & Standing charges etc over several years.

If you can retrieve historic PDF's over the past 12months this may help your case..

especially if they do show zero consumption..

But..  I am surprised that you didn't find out about these supply issues before you purchased the property?

:C

 
Thanks to everyone whose given their advice, I'm going to pick a bit from each and see where i end up, but will definitely head to a debt advisory service.

I'm still confused though as to who would replace a main fuse, is it typically a sparky, DNO, electricity supplier, Freeholder??  Has anyone ever had to do a job like this and billed as a sparky, DNO, electricity supplier, Freeholder or perhaps one of you might have worked for a DNO or Electricity supplier or as as sparky and had to replace a main fuse as a norm in your role? 

Once again thanks and I promise not to bother you again, I'm off to try the Martin Lewis forum, I bet there not as quick and responsive as you guys. Cheers Sophia.

 
The dno will provide the fuse when on a new service head and on industrial/commercial situations. Usually domestic meter monkeys will carry fuses for homes. A call into the ones you pay the bill too should resolve the issue. 
 

I will ask you this. Have you been provided with written evidence indicating when the fuse was removed, was this date prior to your purchase of property? 
I think they will find it hard to prove you owe a standing charge when there has never been a fuse in the supply. A standing charge is attributable to an in service supply. Clearly no fuse supported with factually proven dates of such would support the argument that whilst the service was live it was not in a serviceable condition for the consumer. 
 

 
Sharpend you need to change your name to LEGEND.

I hoped that someone would confirm my layman suspicions that no fuse means its not an in service supply and you just put it so eloquently.

"A standing charge is attributable to an in service supply. Clearly no fuse supported with factually proven dates of such would support the argument that whilst the service was live it was not in a serviceable condition for the consumer."

I doubt that their was a fuse when i bought the flat, the reason being that there's never been any usage, when the supplier said the electric was live, whenever we plugged anything in it never worked, hence my logic there was never a fuse. Additionally when the chap from DNO/National Grid came round, he basically guided me, for me it was the first time id ever seen the main fuse, let alone knew where to find it in the building basement.

Sharpend you are a Legend and a GOLD member not bronze.


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