Dodgy Dyllan owes me £2k after failing to service the photo voltaic panels

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below. 

P.C. writes: My wife and I are in our 80s, and last October we paid NQ Energy Solutions Limited £2,000 for ten-year cover on our solar panels. 

We rang them in April as our meter has gone wrong, and we found the firm has gone out of business. I hope to warn others.

This is Money readers spent £2,000 on solar panel cover – the firm has gone out of business

Tony Hetherington replies: You paid £2,000 last October 20 so your solar panels would be looked after for the next ten years, yet company records show that on January 18 this year NQ Energy Solutions was put into liquidation.

It has never filed any accounts, and its liquidation papers show no debts or obligations whatsoever to you or any other customer, despite the fact that the company gave you what it says is a ‘full ten-year parts and labour warranty’. 

It has claimed to have no assets, and the only debts declared are two business bills totalling just over £8,000, and an estimated £40,000 owed to the taxman.

There is nothing to show whether it was already heading for failure when it pocketed your £2,000, or whether a completely unforeseen disaster struck the company in the roughly 12 weeks after you forked out for a solar panel safety net which it cannot provide.

Not that this will matter much to the man behind NQ Energy Solutions. 

He is Dyllan Davenport, 29, from Sittingbourne in Kent, and he has already moved on to his latest company, SES Electrical (Kent) Limited. 

He set this up in February last year under the name Solar and Electrical Solutions Limited, and changed it to its current name a few weeks after he put NQ Energy Solutions into liquidation.

And this was not the only name he changed. Until January this year, Dyllan Davenport gave his name in company records as Dyllan Moore.

Now here’s a funny thing. A Trustpilot review for NQ Energy Solutions describes it as ‘an honest helpful company from start to finish’. Who posted this review? Dyllan Moore!

And here is another funny thing. A Trustpilot review put up on the same day says: ‘I would highly recommend.’ 

That review was posted by Lauren Pearson, better known locally as Dyllan’s wife, Mrs Davenport, and a director of SES Electrical (Kent).

Other reviews paint a different picture. 

Three posters make identical complaints, saying NQ Energy Solutions rang them or their family, offering a solar panel inspection, and then scared them with tales of overheating cables, faulty kit and serious fire risks until they paid around £3,500 for so-called urgent work.

Dyllan Davenport knows his way around the limited company system, for NQ Energy Solutions is not his first venture.In 2021 he set up ABD Property Services Limited, based in Canvey Island in Essex. 

It filed no accounts and was compulsorily struck off by Companies House in 2022, but I checked court records and found that it was in business long enough to notch up a still unsatisfied County Court Judgment for £507.

Should Dodgy Dyllan be allowed to hop from one limited company to another, walking away from the wreckage each time, only to start again under a different business name? 

No, of course not, and I hope the Insolvency Service takes note of The Mail on Sunday’s findings and takes strong action.

And I trust anyone doing business with his new company takes note as well.

Dyllan and Lauren Davenport were both invited repeatedly to comment but did not respond.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email [email protected]. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned. 

Faulty smart meter generated huge bill

Ms H.B. writes: We moved into our bungalow in July 2022, having already been a customer of Utility Warehouse for many years. 

A few months later, the property needed rewiring so an isolator switch had to be installed. UW said that if we fitted smart meters, this would be free of charge, so I agreed. 

The meters were installed in October 2022 but did not work, and I paid estimated bills until February 2023 when they began working. However, UW sent a bill for almost £1,000 for the same period as their estimated bills.

Tony Hetherington replies: In a nutshell, UW estimated your electricity bills because the meters it had installed did not work. 

And then it issued a demand for almost an extra £1,000 because its estimates did not work!

You complained to Ombudsman Services, the private company that UW and others pay to referee disputes. Its decision last June was that UW should carry out a free meter test, apologise for its poor service, and give you £35 as a goodwill gesture.

The meter test was meant to have been done by last July, but when you contacted me, you were still waiting. 

Meanwhile, UW was still demanding its near-£1,000, and adding £6 to every monthly bill as a late payment fee.

I asked UW why it had failed to honour the Ombudsman’s decision. 

Ten days later, it credited back the late payment penalties, and exchanged your meter for a new one. 

UW is now reassessing your bills for late 2022 and early 2023, and has credited your account with £100 by way of an apology for this long drawn-out affair.