Victory over my energy company. Finally got a decision on my case. Seventy-five big ones. Minus fifty-five for a final bill that they claim I never paid. So in conclusion, I wasted my time.

The decision came by way of telephone from the Omsbusman. The complaint was that energy company kept sending me estimated bills even thougb I kept sending them actual readings. This went on for about nine months during which I was in constant contact with them to try to rectify the situation.

The Omsbusman didn't care about any of that.

Instead, they were interested in the two weeks it took the energy company to switch my account to a new company. They delayed the switch claiming that they didn't receive payment.

So it's during this two weeks, the Omsbusman claims, that I used £55 in gas and electricity. It's not possible. And I shouldn't have to pay that anyway because the switch should have happened.

So I tell the guy from the Omsbusman first of all that I never received any £55 bill. He says that he has it and he'll send it to me.

I say that I paid the final bill when I gave the final readings. He says, "Let me tell you how energy companies operate. You have to pay for energy used."

I say, "I'm not an idiot. I know that you have to pay for energy used. But assuming that this £55 is at all accurate, that's money that should have gone to my new energy company because the old company delayed the switch. Why should they get enriched for delaying the transfer?"

I had this faggot over the proverbial barrel. He had no answer for this. "We're not here to talk about which energy company should get paid. This is about you paying. And we've decided that this bill should be waived."

By the way, I have no idea how they arrived at this bill because I never gave that company any additional meter readings. So it looks like this is another estimated reading WHICH WAS MY COMPLAINT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

So yeah, a total waste of time. £30 for all of this. That doesn't cover the time it took me to write my brilliant argument. Also an apology letter is coming. Whoopee.

So the lesson here is that if you have a dispute with your energy company, take it to court where it will be heard by an independent and impartial judge.

Speaking of which, my previous landlord is trying to deduct about £250 from my deposit. Part of that is for the inventory that I didn't pay and part of that is for "cleaning".

Oh mean, I'm going to tear her a new one. She should have got legal advice on this. That inventory fee thing falls at the first hurdle. There's a limited scope of things that can deducted from tenancy deposits (unpaid rent, damage, cleaning). A checkout inventory is none of these things. But aside from all this, there was a clear breach of the contract in not sending me an invoice.

Secondly, the cleaning. This won't get off the ground either. The check-in inventory describes the place as needing cleaning. You can't expect for a property to be returned in better condition than when it was let out.

And in any case, there are NO PICTURES on this £120 inventory. Check in or checkout. Can you believe that shit? I've been renting for 15 years and always took pictures.

Now, I took pictures before I left. So I'll submit those as proof that the place was clean. The landlord will have...nothing. Just the "independent" word of the inventory company. "This place needs some cleaning". Not good enough. Need photos.

The landlord also mistakenly sent me email correspondence between her and the inventory company where they're conspiring how they deduct things from the deposit. In the end, all they went through with was the cleaning. But you can see in the emails that they were trying to think of all kinds of shit but they all ultimately failed because I did everything above board and the place was in fine condition at the end.

So that's just the icing on the proverbial cake on this case to show that the inventory company is not independent, there was a conspiracy to trump up ridiculous deductions, she was angry about me not paying the checkout inventory, and the whole inventory checkout is tainted and can't be relied upon.

I'm going to shut this scam down cold. I took another landlord to the dispute resolution service over £20 letters that he was trying to get back and pretty much won that. Not a total victory but the adjudicator agreed that £20 is a punitive charge which is illegal. So he brought it down to £5 which I think is still ridiculous because we all have email and if you want to send letters that's your decision but why should I pay for it? But whatever.