Prepayment meters: Magistrates told to stop allowing forced installations

Magistrates courts successful England and Wales person been ordered to halt authorising warrants for vigor firms to forcibly instal prepayment meters with contiguous effect.

One of the country's astir elder judges said the cases indispensable beryllium halted successful airy of the increasing concern.

The bid comes days aft it emerged that courts person been waving done applications to instal these meters.

Regulator Ofgem has asked companies to suspend forcible installations.

Monday's bid from Lord Justice Edis, the justice who oversees the workings of each courts, present makes some a applicable impossibility.

In a connection issued to magistrates, Lord Justice Edis said each magistrates had to "act proportionately and with respect to the quality rights of the radical affected, [in] peculiar immoderate radical with vulnerability".

"However, it has present travel to airy that Ofgem has go sufficiently acrophobic astatine the cognition of suppliers arsenic to inquire each vigor companies to suspend forced installation of prepayment meters," helium said.

"In airy of that, applications for warrants of introduction for the intent of installing a prepayment metre should, with contiguous effect, cease to beryllium listed and nary further specified applications are to beryllium determined until further notice."

Lord Justice Edis said that portion vigor firms could inactive marque a lawsuit for a warrant to beryllium heard, they would person to archetypal fulfill a tribunal "in item arsenic to the integrity of their procedures, successful peculiar relating to the vulnerability of occupiers".

He has not enactment a bounds connected however agelong the moratorium volition past for, but said that its lifting would beryllium connected investigations by Ofgem and the government.