Gas firm ordered to pay damages for disconnection

The Isle of Man's monopoly gas provider has been ordered to pay a customer £1,331 after a deemster ruled that his disconnection was "unlawful".

David Brown, who was £3,278 in arrears, took legal action against Isle of Man Energy after being cut off in August 2023 and receiving no response when he wrote to the firm.

Deemster John Needham said there was "fault on both sides", and while it was "objectively unreasonable" for the firm to disconnect Mr Brown, he should have paid the accurate invoices that were issued to him.

He awarded damages of Mr Brown £4,610 to cover the additional heating costs he had incurred and to rectify damp, while also awarding Isle of Man Energy the cost of the outstanding invoices on its counterclaim.

Mr Brown, who lives in Santon and had been an Isle of Man Energy customer for 13 years, had fallen into arrears and had not paid for gas since July 2022.

He had admitted that although he was financially able to pay the bills, he did not due to a "lack of confidence" in the validity of the invoices that he had received.

At the time, the gas provider had issued a number of inaccurate bills to some customers and had undergone a rebrand.

Deemster Needham said, with the exception of about £150 from an estimated bill in November 2022, it was now known that Isle of Man Energy's accounting in relation to Mr Brown's gas usage was accurate.

But Isle of Man Energy "appeared to accept that for a period it had systemic shortcomings" in the reliability of invoice delivery and staff availability to answer telephone calls about bills, the deemster continued.

He said while he found Isle of Man Energy's lack of response to Mr Brown's communications was "bureaucratic indifference" and the firm was "in breach of duty" in disconnecting him, the actions "were not malicious or deliberate".

Ordering Isle of Man Energy to reconnect Mr Brown, and pay him £1,331 within seven days, Deemster Needham said both parties needed to "draw a line under this unfortunate dispute".

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