Energy Bill Battle and Restrictive Covenants

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Hello. In today's Money Box podcast, HMRC has told MPs it needs to take more care as it cracks down on fraud and error, after a mistake that affected thousands of families. And these centuries old covenants on your home that can cost you or just confuse you. I'm not allowed to keep pigs and I'm not allowed to play the piano after nine PM.

But first, a major British energy company has apologised to a customer after a money box investigation into claims it had ignored the energy ombudsman. When it comes to keeping our homes warm and powered, most of us rely on just a handful of big energy suppliers, and we rely on those suppliers to do their job.

When they don't, we can complain, and then we can take our complaints to the Energy Ombudsman. It's a free, impartial service, and it deals with tens of thousands of consumer problems every single year. In most cases, the Ombudsman's ruling is quickly followed by the supplier, but in thousands of cases like Beth's, that just doesn't happen.

It's relentless and it's tiring. This is totally draining a year and a half of my life. And that is despite Beth doing everything we're all told to do if we're not happy with how our supplier has handled our complaints. Moneybox reporter Dan Whitworth has been looking into this case for actually quite a few weeks now. Dan, tell us a bit more about Beth's story.

Okay, so Beth moved out of her one-bed flat in London fifteen months ago. She says she had just over 1700 pound credit with her supplier, that's British Gas, and owed them for a final bill, which she expected to be a few hundred pounds. So she asked for her money back less that final bill. But weeks went by and there was no sign of a final bill, let alone her money.

Now that's when she complained to the Ombudsman. Fast forward to february twenty twenty five and the ombudsman quite quickly actually ruled in Beth's favour. Now I've got a copy of that decision with me here. Now in it The Ombudsman told British Gas to give Beth a final bill quote based on the readings already provided by Beth. But that still didn't happen.

I already had other bills to pay, you know, you still sign up to another energy provider, you still have all of these things to pay for. It's a significant sum of money, maybe not to British Gas, but to me personally. And then over the last nine months I've actually been pregnant. So, you know, having this kinda hanging over me has been really, really stressful. It sounds it. So Beth went to the Ombudsman, still got nowhere with British Gas. What did she do then?

Well this might surprise money box listeners, but the energy ombudsman, unlike say the financial ombudsman, for example, it doesn't have statutory powers, so it doesn't have a legal power to compel suppliers to abide by its decisions. Now Beth says that left her with just one option. More months and months went by where there was no action and there seemed no point of escalation for the Ombudsman. So I was struggling to get any kind of reaction through the Ombudsman from British Gas.

At which point I took it upon myself to go down a legal route. So via a small claims court, I just felt completely desperate. Um, and like it was the only option to try and get some traction. Beth talked me through the toll that all of that put on her Not only from a financial point of view, in that, you know, that's almost two thousand pounds.

worth of money that I could have done with, but also the admin, the process, preparing evidence packs, dealing with difficult emails from lawyers, calling the court to understand processes, filing things. It's been such a kind of mental and emotional toll. And she also told me about her frustration with how her supplier has dealt with the case. I think British Gas, in my opinion, have completely failed to engage in this Ombudsman process fairly or appropriately. They

Have always requested extensions, they have delayed, they've submitted things as late as possible. And then when they have done, they've not been the correct. the correct things that um have needed to be done. I think They have just ignored, really, in my opinion, what the Ombudsman have said. The point of this is to have intervention at a kind of more senior level to to engage in action, and British gas have taken zero.

Okay, so fifteen months on from Beth moving out of her flat, eleven months on from the Ombudsman ruling in her favour

She has grown and birthed an entire baby in that time. Where is she now down with British Gas? Well, we first contacted British Gas back in early December about Beth's case. Now there's been a lot of toing and throwing, but up until late Thursday night Beth was actually resigned to having to go through with the small claims court to get what she strongly feels she's owed, then British Gas came back with an offer of everything Beth was asking for, which she has happily accepted.

And British Gas also told me, quote, We're implementing the Ombudsman's remedy and together with Beth are finalizing a resolution to her claim. And it finishes We appreciate this has been difficult for her, and we're very sorry for the length of time it's taken to put things right down.

Well to borrow a phrase from a certain Paul Lewis, the money books effect there, Dan, uh she must be delighted. Yes, very much so, very much so. Okay, well this is one case that we know about, but how common is a problem like Beth's where the supplier just doesn't do what the ombudsman tells it to do. Okay, so the latest data we have shows ninety three thousand complaints were accepted by the Ombudsman in twenty twenty four. And remember

You can only go to the Ombudsman once you've already complained to their supplier and waited eight weeks. Now of those cases, around seventy percent, so just over two thirds, well, they were decided in favor of the consumer. And if any action was required to be taken by suppliers, to be fair, the vast majority was actioned within a twenty eight day deadline. But that means ultimately many thousands of cases weren't. I was surprised to learn it doesn't actually have statutory power.

Well the energy ombudsman is supervised by the regulator Of Gem and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, so AKA the government, right? And interestingly, there is a review of the Ombudsman happening at the moment.

Now when I asked about all of this, the Department for Energy told me it's quote strengthening the Energy Ombudsman so consumers can be confident that when it has ruled in their favour, action will be taken. All of that, by the way, has been welcomed by the Energy Ombudsman. And what about the regulator of J? Well, it says it expects suppliers to abide by Ombudsman decisions, adding that in the last year it's issued fines or so called what are known as payment by agreements.

totaling twenty seven million pounds against suppliers. for consumer rate consumer related issues. Now here's what Jackie German from Off Gem told me when I asked about those cases where where customers basically complain that suppliers are ignoring Ombudsman decisions. The message the suppliers is really, really clear. When the energy ombudsman makes a drilling they should implement that ruling. They should do that as quickly as possible.

We don't deal with individual areas of complaint, but where we have any evidence and we meet with ombudsmen regularly and share data regularly. Rydyn ni'n gwneud rhywbethau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau sylwadau. We will take either compliance or enforcement action and have done so in the past. And there's just been a consultation.

Yes, and that ended just a few weeks ago. Uh and as part of that, the government's looking at plans including halving that waiting time period from eight to four weeks. before consumers can go to the ombudsman, giving customers quicker access to redress for that read money when their supplier lets them down and forcing suppliers to pay compensation if those rulings aren't implemented quickly enough. Now this is all significant stuff.

And we've been told we'll hear more in due course and then of course we'll let you know. Now just remember If you are having a problem with your energy supplier, the Ombudsman is still the place to go. The vast majority of complaints do get sorted out, remember, within that 28-day deadline. Dan, thanks very much. And if you have experience of your supplier ignoring the Ombudsman, do get in touch with us. Moneybox at bbc.co.uk.

HMUSE has told MPs it needs to take more care in how it handles efforts to crack down on fraud and error. That's after a mistake that meant thousands of families incorrectly lost their child benefit because it was wrongly believed they'd moved abroad. People like Eve. I think it's about a hundred and five pounds a month I receive. So that could be a small amount to some people, but actually it's really helpful that money. It just seems a bit ridiculous, doesn't it?

Well the tax office bosses were giving evidence to Parliament's Treasury Select Committee, and our reporter Ema Devlin was watching. And in fact, Ema, you've been watching this story since last year. Yes, this was all about a new way that the tax office wants to tackle fraud in child benefit claims, which is a payment worth at least a hundred pounds that all families can apply for, although higher earners then pay it back through taxes.

It estimates£270 million of child benefits were incorrectly claimed last year and says that people moving overseas and not telling them is a big reason for that. To try to tackle this it used travel data, like flight records, to conclude families had permanently left the UK, but it turned out many of them had simply been on holiday. So what did the tax office tell MPs? Because there had been a pilot of this scheme.

Yes, and HMRC bosses explained that in that pilot employment checks were being done at the beginning of the process, but when it was scaled up, the check was moved to the end, meaning that travel data alone was being used to check whether people had returned to the country within eight weeks. Diameg Hillier MP, the Labour Chair of the Committee, asked John Paul Marks, the chief executive of HMRC, about why the employment check was moved. Here's what he said.

Decision was made m it was related to trying to streamline the scaling of the operation and the the judgment yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r

He also said those employment checks were then moved back to the start of the process when the problems were discovered. Well we reported last week some new numbers showing that almost 15,000 people had had their child benefit wrongly taken off them. Did we learn anything more about the scale?

Yes, HMRC gave new figures which now show that seventy one percent of people affected were wrongly penalised and have now had the payments reinstated. Here's John Paul Marks telling the committee how many cases were still outstanding. responded to phone calls, letters or anything. So deemed letters. So you've banked five percent of uh of the of the cohort you checked, five percent were basically fraudulent claims. Is that a lot of pain to have gone through for Yes, currently confirmed five.

There were also some quite specific problems for people living in Northern Ireland, were those addressed by this committee meeting. Yes, so this is about the common travel area, which means that there's free movement without mandatory passport checks across Britain and Ireland. So for people travelling from Northern Ireland there are no checks on the Irish border.

So for example, if someone had left from a port or airport in Northern Ireland and come back via the Republic of Ireland travelling home across the border, their return journey wouldn't be recorded in the UK. DM Meg asked HMRC about how that oversight happened.

You cover all of the UK. So why didn't anyone pick up the the the common travel area issues, the the issues of the bound the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic? I mean this just seems to me an egregious error from a UK government department. Jonathan Atho, the Director General for Customer Strategy and Tax Design, gave this response. I think you know while we did the pilot.

Mae'n ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud hynny. This whole story happened because that one piece of data, the employment check, was taken out from earlier in the process. Here's Jonathan Atho again.

Rwy'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod, Um and you know, we were very clear of that all the way through and it should only be the start of an inquiry, not determining whether somebody is eligible or or or or or not. But obviously as as as as JP has said, we've made changes to the process now.

So what happens next? Because we know they've apologised and made some changes. Did they give any assurances for the future? Yes, so the main thing is that they've said that they need to take more care now. Here's what HMRC said about their approach going forward. The important thing now is making all the changes to the customer journey. As you quite rightly say, Northern Ireland case is out.

PY check in, more time in the journey, simplified customer communications, and we will take it very slowly this new year. to get it right because we do have a fraud and error exposure that is uh a quarter of a billion a year. We have no problem about you pursuing fraud and error. I think we'd be clear of that as a committee button. But we need to do it with more care John Paul Marks and Dame Meg Hillier there. Thanks very much, Ema.

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It was the Scottish Government's budget this week, and there were quite a few changes promised for people's personal finances: an increase in some income tax thresholds, an expansion of the Scottish child payment, and a new so-called mansion tax on high-value homes. Here's Phil Simm, political correspondent at BBC Scotland, to give us a round.

This budget comes just a few months ahead of a Scottish Parliament election, and many of the key pledges are about the amount of money in people's pockets. Scotland has its own system of income tax with six bans ranging from nineteen percent to forty eight percent.

While ministers haven't proposed changes to their rates, they are going to tinker with the thresholds where they kick in. Those for higher earners have been frozen, so as people get pay rises, more of their income is taxed at higher rates. But the thresholds for the lower rates are being increased by seven point four percent, twice the rate of inflation from April. On current forecasts that should deliver on a key SP pledge, as described by the Finance Secretary Shona Robison.

than if they lived in England, Northern Ireland or Wales. That's over 55% of Scots set to pay less income tax... The difference for lower earners is small, at most a benefit of forty pounds a year compared to elsewhere in the UK. But someone earning fifty thousand pounds will end up paying almost fifteen hundred pounds a year more than if they live down south.

There are also plans for an expansion of the Scottish Child Payment, a weekly payment for families in receipt of certain benefits, to forty pounds a week for kids under one. At the moment it's£27 a week for children under sixteen, but that and a pledge to fund breakfast clubs in every primary school are not due to come in until the summer of twenty twenty seven, something which anti-poverty activist Heather Kay says means it won't help people straight away.

direct income support like the Scottish Child Payment. you know, is going up to to forty pounds a week, but that's in a year's time and that is for children under the age of one. So really does that put p money in people's pockets who are struggling right now? No, it doesn't.

There are also plans for a mansion tax, two new council tax bans targeting homes worth more than a million pounds, but that too will not kick in until twenty twenty eight, so quite a few of these announcements may turn out to be campaign pledges for May's Hollywood election rather than for the coming year's budget. Thanks Phil Sim for that.

Now, last week we looked at changes to taxes for electric cars. The biggest difference is that fully electric cars will face a road charge of three pence per mile from April 2028. Plug-in hybrids will pay one point five one and a half pence per mile from the same date. As we explained, the mileage will be checked every year, usually during an MOT. But lots of you got in touch to make the point that new cars don't actually need an MOT for three years.

So what happens then? Well answering your questions is what we live for here at Moneybox, so we went back to Erin Baker at Auto Trade. Well, I'm not surprised that your listeners are asking about that. The short answer is that there currently is no answer, and that's because the government is in the consultation process about how this is all going to work until March. But

They have very much encouraged consumers to add their views to the consultation. So I would encourage all your listeners to make their views and their queries and their concerns known sooner rather than later. Thanks, Erin. And if you do want to have your say, just search electric vehicle consultation online.

And on Wednesday's Money Box Live, I'll be plugging into the real costs of electric cars, from charging at home to public prices, the new tax rules, incentives to buy, and as always, we want your questions and experiences. You can email moneybox at bbc.co.uk or you can send us voice notes on WhatsApp. The number is O3306 783 183.

Now, there is a huge amount to think about when buying a home, from sorting the mortgage to getting quotes for removal companies. But one thing you might not be expecting is that your new home could come with rules telling you what you can and cannot do with it. Restricted covenants, or real burdens, as they're called in Scotland, are binding conditions written into the actual property deeds or contracts.

A lot of them are fairly straightforward. They can stop you doing things like using your home as a business, and they can require you to do things as well, like maintain the gardens. But some of them can be very unusual historic rules that date back for centuries. I've got a couple of covenants in my head lease that say I'm not allowed to keep pigs.

and I'm not allowed to play the piano after nine PM. And I imagine the pig's thing is to make sure that they don't play the piano after nine PM either. I'm not allowed to make or burn any brick. I'm not allowed to excavate or remove any soil or materials apart from the purposes of building, but I am allowed to erect a school and build playing fields. There are restrictions from me putting in political posters in the windows or drawing washing.

on the alchemy and all sorts of uh restrictions like that. We're not allowed to have a booth show swing or booth stall swing on our property, um or a roundabout. Um so we're not allowed to have a fun fair basically. It's been there since Edwardian times, but far more worryingly, um we're not allowed to erect any property or house On the land that's less w worth less than three hundred pounds. So as a result, monopoly is banned in our household.

Thanks to Margaret, Paul, Gordon, and Mark for those examples. But away from pigs and pianos, there are some serious financial considerations for some of these covenants. Olivia Eggdill Page is a partner at Joseph A. Jones and Co-Solicitors, which operates across

England. Olivia, how do you know if your home has a covenant? So restrictive covenants will generally be shown on the land registry title to the property. Most properties across England and Wales are now registered and in the event that it's not then they'll be contained within the pre-registration title deed.

Okay. Uh we're getting a few in Andrew's message to say his late mother's house had a covenant that allowed the Duke of Rutland to retrieve game birds from her garden. Um but some of these they can have a much bigger effect on a household, can't they? They some can mean for example you can't Change the appearance or build an extension without permission.

Rydyn ni'n ymwneud â'r hyn sy'n ymwneud â'r hyn sy'n ymwneud â'r hyn sy'n ymwneud â'r hyn sy'n ymwneud â'r hyn sy'n ymwneud â'r hyn sy'n ymwneud â'r hyn sy'n ymwneud â'r hyn sy'n ymwneud â'r hyn sy'n ymwneud â'r hyn.

yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw Um, which on the face of it seems okay, but then that actually has been found to prevent use for short term holiday letting, um, which clearly it can be a problem for some purchasers.

Luke has been in touch to say uh his neighbour had popped round with a document from the eighteen fifties that said they have the right to draw water from the well that is currently underneath his office floor. Uh Presumably that neighbour wasn't being serious, but things like access or or use, as you've just been describing, they can cause expensive legal battle. Absolutely.

A covenant can be enforced and there are various rules and requirements for that. The remedies that are available to the person enforcing them can include obtaining an injunction through the court, which would be to stop or reverse a breach. and also they cannot you know require you to rectify the situation so for example if that office had been built over the well you know ultimately they could

ask you to remove that structure so they could gain access. So they can be far reaching. So you might have to pull down an extension, for example. That'd be very expensive. Absolutely, absolutely. Can you buy insurance products to protect you against the fallout from a covenant like that? Yn can. Yn can. Yn can. Yn can. Yn can. Yn can. Yn can. Yn can. Yn can.

cover you from financial loss in the event that you were required to remove the structure and associated legal fees, surveyors' fees as well. How much are they? And and are they something people need to think about? The cost of a policy will really depend on the value of the property, the type of covenant that's been breached and also the extent and the age of it.

Yn yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw. But the cost would so it does vary depending on those various factors. But I'd say m in most cases for an old breach, as it were, you'd be looking at between, say, a hundred and five hundred pounds for that.

you know, you're buying that with the knowledge that that is a restriction on the title. And so if you then breach it, you know, on your head be it really. Aaron Powell What's your best advice then to someone who's worried about a covenant, briefly? Mae'n ymwneud â'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw

Um and if you're not sure, then really to contact your solicitor. Olivia Eggdill Page from Joseph A. Jones and Co, thank you very much. Remember to send us your electric car questions for Wednesday and to contact us with any stories you want us to look into. You can email moneybox at bbc.co.uk. You can also send a voice note or comment on WhatsApp. It's O3306 783 183. We read and listen to every message.

In this podcast, the reporters were Dan Whitworth, Phil Sim, and Ema Devlin. The researcher Joe Krasner. Studio Manager Chris Mather. Our editor is Jess Quayle. I'm Felicity Hannah. And this was a BBC News Money and Work production for BBC Sounds. I'm Paul Kenyon, and for Radio 4 and the History Podcast, this is Two Nottingham Lads. When the invasion happens.

The sad thing about war is people lose I want to know how two men from Nottingham ended up on opposite sides in the war in Ukraine and what became of them after a chilling encounter in a prison in Donetsk. It's a story about how and why You pick a side in a war that's not your own. You can listen to two Nottingham lads first on BBC Sounds.

If there was a big red button that would just demolish the internet, I would smash that button with my forehead. From the BBC, this is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday life, and all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcast.

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