Conscious Attempt to Commit Fraud (nearly 500EUR on heating expenses) or just an Accidental Mistake?
What would you answer if I ask you “Have you ever paid unwillingly someone else’s heating bill”? The bill of your house’s previous owner or tenant? You will probably immediately deny, but can you be absolutely sure? Maybe you actually did, not being even aware of that? It all may sound like completely silly questions, but just a few days ago I was (almost) successfully tricked into doing that.
Real Estate Agent (in Dutch: “Makelaar”) — First Round
In the Netherlands as part of the real estate property transfer from the current owner to a new one, so called inspection document is created by the respective real estate agent (usually the one representing the seller). This document includes statuses of meters (heating, energy, water, gas, etc) at the time of transferring the property. In my case the most interesting was the heating status. Its screen shoot taken by the agent is shown on the Image 1.
The number was 218,314 GJ. Nothing extraordinary, just a number like any other. I totally trusted the agent who (although not representing me) was very experienced and had completed similar procedures maaaaany times in the past. Later on however, when I was busy with reading received inspection document, what brought my attention was a tiny, small mark similar to the “T” letter in top-front of the most significant number (0) of the status. The label on top of the mark (a bit blurry on the Image above) reads: “vorig jaar”, which translating into English means basically “last year”.
I started to worry. -:(
Landis+Gyr T550 UltraHeat
The heating status in question was taken on the Landis+Gyr T550 UltraHeat meter. Its manual can be relatively easy found online (https://www.landisgyr.eu/webfoo/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Technische-Beschreibung_32-16-101-001_g.pdf). The device is operated using two green buttons on the right side of the display. The left button with the label “Loop” on top of it allows selecting between Loops from 0 to 4, where Loops are sort of menus. The right button supports navigation between values available in the specific Loop. According to the manual the accumulated heating status can be taken from the Loop 0, called also the user Loop. After switching the device to the Loop 0, I used the right green button to navigate to the aforementioned value, what is shown on the Image 2.
So the correct value was 229,727GJ and we had a difference of 11 GJ between both measurements. According to the prices list from April 2022 (www.eneco.nl) 1GJ was worth 43,76EUR, what gave the total difference 11*43,76EUR = 481,36EUR. Now it was time to check, where the value taken earlier by the real estate agent (Image 1) came from. I used the Loop button to navigate to the (service) Loop 1, and then with the right green button navigated to the value shown on the Image 3.
The value (218,314GJ) was identical to the one taken by the real estate agent just a few days earlier! According to the manual it was the heating status on the previous year on set day! If I had accepted this value, I would have covered heating expenses of the previous house owners from beginning of the year (2022) until the end of April. 481,36EUR in total!!!
(Potential) Fraud Attempt
Was it just a mistake or I became a victim of a possible fraud attempt? Do not get me wrong, I’m not accusing former owners. I do not have any grounds to do that. But it is still worth to discuss what is possible (even if only in theory).
Lets imagine that before the inspection visit someone switches the device from Loop 0 to Loop 1. If the agent is not very familiar with the device, she would just use the right green button and navigate to … yes, to the heating status from the beginning of the year. What is worth to notice here, is the fact that the actual potential fraud does not put her/himself at any risk, because the status value is checked and documented by the agent. In the “worst case scenario” the fraud attempt will just not be successful without any other consequences.
Whatever really happened, whatever was the root cause of whole this situation in my case, it was time to act upon.
The Heating Provider (Eneco, www.eneco.nl) — First Round
I made a number of calls to the Eneco call center and also used their chat feature. My feelings were rather mixed. Only one of the consultants gave me correct answer and advice, which was in line with manual of the heating meter. Others informed me incorrectly or even contradicted each other. Having this one correct confirmation I decided to contact the real estate agent again.
Real Estate Agent (in Dutch: “Makelaar”) — Second Round
My idea at this point was to ask the real estate agent to contact their client and to correct the mistake collectively together with Eneco. I shared full explanation with screen shoots of the correct heating measurements. We also had a number of discussions and some of them not really pleasant. After all I received the following email:
Saying only that I was disappointed was like saying nothing. But we need to understand that real estate agents do not make money on correcting their own mistakes or by calling heating providers. Commission on this deal was already cashed so there was no point for them to continue discussions with me any further. There was also no other choice for me than contacting Eneco again by myself.
The Heating Provider (Eneco, www.eneco.nl) — Second Round
Another discussion with Eneco was also not satisfactory. Their next consultant’s vision on how the heating status should be taken from the meter was still quite far away from what the device manual said. But I was also told that if I still do not agree, then I can contact Eneco using their contact form or via email. This way I could fully describe the problem and attach all supporting records and evidences. And this was exactly what I did.
Two days later I was called by another Eneco’s employee. This time it was not a consultant (the easiness of having conversation with clients was gone), but rather a technical guy. He told me that the correct figure is 229,727GJ and this is how my new heating contract would start. I also received the following confirmation:
Conclusions & Lessons Learned
After undergoing all of above I came to the following conclusions:
- I’m not going to further elaborate professionalism and ethical integrity of the real estate agency involved in my case. It would be basically waste of time.
- Trust only yourself. Always check and verify everything by yourself. When it comes to buying or renting — ensure that you fully understand how to take statuses of utilities from all the meters. If you are not strong technically, bring someone who can help.
- Landis+Gyr T550 Device — Its user interface unfortunately opens fraud possibilities. Access to options which are not meant for regular users (like Service Loops 1–4) should be restricted. The simpler user interface the better. Smart meters will hopefully address this issue when we switch to them entirely.
