Homeowners ‘hounded’ for electricity bills months after fleeing Baberton Mains gas explosion

A couple who were forced to flee their home of 47 years after a gas explosion a neighbouring property say they are being hounded for electricity bills – despite their house being uninhabited.

Mary and Samuel Porteous’s home on Baberton Mains Avenue is one of ten properties cordoned off following the incident on December 1.

James Smith, 84, was killed in the blast which was found to have been caused by “internal gas installations”.

The street remains fenced off several months later with homeowners given no indication of when they might be able to return home.

For Mary and Samuel, the stress of the situation is being compounded by the fact they are receiving “threatening” letters from Scottish Power.

Baberton explosion killed one man and left his home ruins. Supplied

The couple say they have been told they owe over £1,000 with late payments charges also being added on every month.

Despite attempts by their social worker to contact the energy company, they are still being threatened with action.

“They are billing us for non-existent electricity and threatening us with debt collection agencies”, Samuel told STV News.

“They’ve asked for meter readings, which is a blank meter. There’s been no one in the house since December 1.

“My wife is just about driven round the bend. We’re at a loss.

“When the house was damaged, we paid the bill in full and managed to get a rebate.

“If they want to send collectors, send them and they can see for themselves.”

The street remains fenced off several months later with homeowners given no indication of when they might be able to return home. STV News

“It’s tiresome. I just get so upset,”. Mary explained.

“You can only take so much and then you blow up.

“We’ve now had about half a dozen letters. Every time they’ve had late payment charges, saying they’ll send debt collectors.”

Scottish Power has told STV News it has intervened in an automated process to retract the bills the couple have received since being forced out of their home.

A Scottish Power spokesperson said: “Mr and Mrs Porteous’ energy account was closed earlier this year, backdated to December 2023 when they had to leave their home.

“As there is still a live electricity meter showing at the address, our system treated this as a vacant property and continued to generate automated estimated bills to the ‘owner/occupier’ as is normal practice when one customer moves out and we expect another to move in.

“Clearly this is not the case for Mr and Mr Porteous, and we have now manually intervened to correct this. We’re sorry for any issues this has caused at an already difficult time and we will discuss this with them directly.”