Dear CAGers This for a friends relative who is 76 and lives in a flat. Following the death of her husband this lady has gone into arrears to a moderate amount (I think around £1,000). As she only receives a state pension and housing benefits she has limited means. A gas meter reader visited the property on the previous Friday and merely read the meter with no other comment or documentation. A man has previously visited the property (around Feb/Mar) and for want of a better description 'bullied and intimidated' a small payment from the lady in question, in addition to her regular amounts. He intimidated her to speak to an unknown person to make a payment using his mobile phone. This action really distressed this old lady and has made her more than a little scared. Last Monday, 3 men turned up at her flat. The first the lady was aware of it was when she heard her front door open and saw a man standing there. She told him to get out and he did so - after some fuss. He did not ring the door bell nor make any attempt to alert the resident he was there before he entered. There has been no warning letter, nor personal visit as I believe is required in this instance. Whilst they were there my friend had a pre-arranged call on her mobile to gather family tree information where they record the call and use this lady's knowledge to progress their family tree. A recording of a lot of the events exists and is actually quite distressing even for a non-interested third party. The main man (same as Feb/Mar) claimed to have a warrant, but the piece of paper flashed in front of the lady did not look like a warrant (she has seen some before). He also did not give her a copy, nor allow her any time to gather reading glasses, let alone actually read it. It appears they claimed to be there to change the GAS meter to a pre-payment type. Whilst the call was on, the lady so terrified by this man that she said she was going to call the Police. Almost immediately following this (and hearing the lady was speaking to someone on the phone) the ELECTRICAL power to the property was turned off, the mains supply switch being located outside the front door. One can only assume that the man in question believed the lady was on a cordless phone and wanted to stop her from communicating with the Police. I received a call from my friend and jumped to the CAG board and discovered the Police will consider this a civil matter, but procedures must be followed to have the right to enter a property. The call continued and it appears three men were there, considerably taller and bigger than this 76 year old lady. The main man then tried to claim they had the right to enter and HE would call the Police. A stand off ensued lasting a few hours. During this stand off, various attempts were made by (what sounded like) the main man to poke metal devices through the letter box, fiddling with the door lock and loud voices. As another method of intimidation what sounded like a power drill was brought up and whirred near the door. The lady in question was getting really distressed and does keep her correspondence and payments fairly well organised. She had no advance notice of these people CLAIMING to be from npower GAS turning up. The mains electricity switch was returned to the ON position before they eventually departed. The police did not attend. No documentation was left identifying who was there or why. This has left the lady quite shaken and does not know what to do about this. On Wednesday a letter arrived from (I think United Utilities) stating they would be visiting the property on the PREVIOUS Monday. What exactly would be the procedures they have not followed? As this three-man team claimed to be there for gas, did they behave correctly in switching off the electricity supply? If they have not followed procedures, would the man's entry into the property be considered burglary? What legal avenues are available? What documentation should be present and left to read and refer to? How can this lady prevent that particular man from turning up again as he frightens her? As always, any help on these matters is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hi all, I have requested British Gas to take over my electric and gas meters as i'm currently paying in excess of £50 a week alone in electric to NPower for our small 2 bedroom house. I'm a single mum of two teenagers and self-employed. Business is dead at the moment so our sole income is tax/child tax credits. I can't afford gas, in fact I only put money on my gas card when the cold is unbearable as we only use the gas for heating purposes, a couple of weeks ago I put £15.00 on the gas card that only gave us around £4.50 of gas. The bill for my gas is currently at £300.00 because i'm not putting money on the card weekly, just when we need it desperately. I'm livid that I have a bill so high for something we seldom use. There is apparantly a daily fee for having the pre-payment meter in the first place. I only requested it in the first place so I didnt have yet another large bill to pay out for and wanted to remain in charge of what we spend. As you can imagine with all of our other daily living expenses we are on an extremely tight budget and I'm finding it more and more difficult to survive. British Gas sounded very good and said they were cheaper than NPower but will they allow me to change suppliers if there's a £300 bill on my gas pre-payment meter? I'm becoming desperate! I did call NPower and said something must be wrong but they said the meter reading sound right, we dont have anything running longer than it should and I have become very strict on leaving lights on/standby etc but it's making no difference.