Courtlands Estate is a large private residential estate located in Richmond,
on the Surrey / Greater London border. It comprises 11 main residential buildings built between the 1930s and 1960s.
The estate management team approached Boxfish to assist with an ongoing utility dispute with their gas supplier that had reached a stalemate.
The utility dispute was linked to the transfer of the gas supply from the previous incumbent. While the new contract went live in Oct 23, Courtlands Estate didn’t receive their first invoice until May 25.
Using our in-depth knowledge of the energy industry, Boxfish challenged this by highlighting that OFGEM’s industry codes protect micro-SMEs and only allow back-billing up to a maximum period of 12-months.
However, the supplier pushed back, claiming that the client was not a micro-SME. Boxfish identified that this incorrect classification was based on the flawed assumption that non-executive directors were employees, and after reaching deadlock with the supplier, raised this with the Ombudsman.
As non-executive directors are not legally defined as employees, they should not be counted toward total headcount and therefore could not be counted towards the size classification of the business.
After several exchanges, the Ombudsman Regulation team eventually accepted this argument and agreed that the client was in fact a micro-SME. This proper classification meant that the first nine-months of the contract charges could be written off.
Having worked with Boxfish in the past on energy procurement, we knew about their technical expertise and in-depth knowledge of the utilities industry, so when we reached the initial stalemate with the supplier, we reached out looking for assistance.
After initially discussing the background to the case, they were confident that we had a strong argument but advised that it could take time to challenge the charge on the grounds of the business classification. A gain share commercial arrangement was agreed with Boxfish in order to limit our exposure to the costs of challenging the invoice.
The team at Boxfish were knowledgeable and tenacious, and their persistence was the difference in getting the utility dispute result we did. We’re delighted with the outcome and would highly recommend them to others who find themselves in a similar position.