Isle of Man gas provider facing enforcement action over bills

Isle of Man Energy has been asked to give the OFT a written assurance the issues will be fixed

Legal action against the Isle of Man's monopoly gas provider over billing issues has been instigated, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said.

Issues with a new billing system implemented by Isle of Man Energy first emerged in November and saw some inaccurate bills issued.

OFT Chairman John Wannenburgh warned action would be taken if the errors were not fixed.

He told the House of Keys enforcement action had now been instigated.

Mr Wannenburgh said the company had already been given "reasonable time to resolve the problems", which are known to have previously impacted about 150 gas customers, and the OFT had now "been left with no other option" than to take further steps.

Full audit

Since the firm had made an affirmation to resolve the issues as soon as possible on 16 January, a significant percentage "but by no means all" of the complaints had been fixed, he said.

However, he added: "Unfortunately some complainants are returning with new or repeated billing issues.

"Worryingly we are also still receiving complaints from new complainants."

Having reviewed the situation at the end of January, the problems had "regrettably" not been resolved and action would commence, Mr Wannenburgh said.

He told the House of Keys Isle of Man Energy had now been required to give written assurance that the problem would be resolved and again given a reasonable time frame to make that happen.

Should the situation still be an issue, it would be for the Attorney General's chambers to develop the action taken from there, he said.

The OFT was also "pushing for a full audit for all gas consumers" over the period when the issues with billing have persisted, he added.

Isle of Man Energy has been asked for a response.