[ad_1]
The vitality regulator has introduced more durable guidelines on prepayment meters. Sky Information has spoken to a resident concerning the expertise of getting one pressured on her residence.
It was a neighbour who first alerted Mary that employees from her vitality firm had been inside her home.
She’d simply returned from work. Footage filmed on her doorbell digicam confirmed that after knocking on her door, they’d used a drill to let themselves in.
Mary is not her actual identify and we have agreed to guard her id as she does not need folks she works with to search out out what occurred.
She’d been struggling to maintain up with vitality funds that had greater than quadrupled. However she says she’d been in common contact along with her provider, offering them with meter readings and paying what she may.
She says understanding they’d been into the home that she owns in Birmingham, the place she lives alone, made her really feel violated.
“I felt as if I might been burgled,” she says. “I felt unsafe. It simply did not make any sense to me as to why they wanted to take that motion. I used to be corresponding with them.”
Learn extra:
Forced installation banned for over 85s
How do prepayment meters work?
As soon as inside, a difficulty with wiring meant they could not go forward and match the meter. However she was left with a notice warning they’d come again.
“For every week I did not truly go away my residence. And even now I’m going out and the alarm’s on. I am continually now checking after I hear my doorbell go, whether or not or not they’ve returned,” she says.
Energy regulator Ofgem has announced new rules that vitality corporations ought to comply with earlier than forcing the set up of a prepayment meter.
Evaluation:
Ofgem’s prepayment rules are too little too late
However charities are warning they nonetheless go away many individuals susceptible to having their houses focused for enforced meter fittings. Some had been calling for a complete ban on the follow.
Mary would not be exempt below the brand new guidelines. She has been attempting to repay the debt however there may be some approach to go.
“I nonetheless really feel extraordinarily weak,” she says.
[ad_2]
Source link
