Asbestos backboard removal- Who's responsible?

No, that’s not what I’m saying.

Per this guide, OVO cannot replace your meter backboard as you (the customer) are responsible for maintaining it. If it’s stuffed with asbestos, OVO cannot touch your backboard at all. You are also responsible for providing a backboard that OVO can fit a meter to.

These rules are global - there’s no known exceptions. You should speak to Citizens Advice if you need help replacing the backboard.

In these situations, collaboration is required - you have to work together with OVO (or whoever your supplier is) and your DNO if you want to swap a meter that’s on an asbestos backboard and/or has asbestos fuses hooked up.

AFAIK OVO can’t be held responsible if you don’t make it possible for them to do their job properly. I would imagine the inability to swap the meter because your environment isn’t suitable (e.g. due to asbestos) would probably be considered your problem to resolve.

Why do you think people will be paying peak rates for storage heaters? This is the first time you’ve mentioned them …
There are plans available for those who use storage heaters, and this will be taken into account when the time comes to exchange the meters. 
 

What plans are they? OvO haven’t mentioned any “plans” in their first 3 attempts to change the meter.

It’s terminology related. OVO uses the term Plans instead of Tariffs, but they’re one and the same.

The Plan(s) you get offered is whatever OVO feels works best when you book the meter swap.

plans.ovoenergy.com 

You are clearly not on the same page. Yes, this is one meter, but this involves thousands, and should have a global overview. However, SSEN have now decided to send a compliance officer to sample the board, so that saves £150 at commercial rates, we’ll see what happens after that, and if they offer to save this particular old person another £350 at commercial rates to replace this particular board if necessary. Still does nothing for the other thousands affected, though, but hey,ho.

Keep us posted with how it goes with SSEN ​@shirleyambarrett. I hope this gets sorted for you ASAP. 

You’ll remember my response three days ago, when I wrote “I know that some network operators are helpful in having backboards replaced, even though the owner usually has to supply the board itself. But dealing with asbestos needs specially trained operators with special equipment, and it won’t be cheap whoever pays.” I’d be very pleased to learn that SSEN have joined that club.

It’s not clear what you expect to happen. Everyone affected by the RTS shutdown will have been bombarded with news about it, and a great number have already reacted and are now enjoying the peace of mind that comes with their shiny new meter. Some subset of those affected will face other challenges, like having an asbestos backboard. This won’t necessarily come to light until the procedure has been followed to order a meter exchange (a phone call to the supplier) and an engineer has been to the property concerned. The campaign to alert OVO customers to the RTS shutdown started last summer as soon as a viable alternative became available, and I expect other suppliers were sparking at the same time, in addition to the widespread coverage in all the media designed to persuade people to act.

Please keep us up to date with what happens in this case; your MIL’s experience may help others in the same sort of situation.  

SSEN compliance officer tested board, no asbestos, smart meter fitted. Apparently, since I raised this with the MP to pass on to Millipede’s dept (coincidence?) OvO are now having a specialist team to deal with these who will be trained to recognise the difference between asbestolux and supalux to obviate the need for testing according to the meter replacement engineer.

Thanks for following up. It’s good to know that everything was sorted out in the end. 
  

So, it took a technician with special testing equipment to determine that there was in fact no asbestos in this backboard. He obviously couldn’t tell just by looking at it, even though he was a specialist. It’s not surprising, then, that a lowly meter installer wouldn’t have the knowledge, skills or equipment to make this determination. 

I hope you now realize that everyone in this case has acted just as they should have. There is no blame to attach to anyone that I can see. What did your MIL have to pay for the testing carried out by SSEN?

As an afterthought, what did the ratcatcher say? Was he not able to tell that this backboard didn’t in fact contain asbestos?