SSE sent me £7,000 bills for a communal gate post | Money

We moved into our current home, a new-build at the time, 15 years ago. Our end-of-terrace is next door to a block of flats that is part of the same development.

Just inside the block’s car park there is an electricity feeder pillar that powers the gates. Because of an admin error, when the site was being developed, the feeder pillar was assigned our postal address not the flats’, which resulted in several years of letters and bills from SSE Energy addressed to “Feeder Pillar”.

We usually marked them “return to sender” or “not known at this address” and posted them back. We tried contacting SSE and its response included quizzing me on “why are you opening mail not addressed to you?”

Then two years ago, a debt collection firm turned up at my door. They were acting on SSE’s behalf and said I owed more than £7,000 in unpaid bills for the feeder pillar and that, if we didn’t pay up, they’d start legal proceedings.

I contacted my local MP, who approached SSE. It opened a complaint and told me that its collections department had been stood down.

Sorted, or so I thought, until two letters from the same firm were delivered.

The feeder pillar now owes £8,626 and SSE is starting court proceedings to gain a warrant of entry to my home. At what point does it stop being incompetence and start being outright harassment?

CA, Manchester

That’s a good question. You have been treated appallingly.

SSE tells me: “We’re sorry the issue of CA’s address has not been resolved internally until now. We have made changes on our system and requested changes from the national database to ensure our business customer, not CA, receives all future correspondence and engagement relating to the electric gate.”

I asked about compensation and it offered £80, which you feel is “derisory”. I agree, given the aggravation and stress.

You should complain to the Energy Ombudsman.

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