Who installs electricity meters?

Uptown_Girl

Hi,

I've recently moved into a flat above a shop I bought that is running on one electricity meter based in the shop.

I thought this would be OK but I'm on a business electricity tariff and the first bill has just come in at over £200!!! :eek:

Who/where/how can I find out about getting a seperate meter installed into the flat?

My energy supplier - no names mentioned but begins with N and ends in POWER - really don't want to help me - been calling them for weeks!

Please help!

filmnoir

Do you own the shop and or flat? Who uses the shop? Why are they not paying the bill with you paying a percentage of the invoice? Why are you paying it all? Is the shop empty? What happens if someone moves in and the supply becomes Business and Domestic useage, who will pay? Are you paying 15% VAT? If its 100% domestic use have you signed a VAT declartation form with npower?

If you are not the owner of the flat or shop, you would need to approach your landlord to answer the above questions and then lastly think about installing a supply to the flat and new meter, which technically wouldn't be npower you'd go to. It would be the Local Distributor for your region or Distributor of your choice as there is competion now in service installations.

You or your landlord, (all depends) would then be charged for the new service, then it would be registered with a supplier of your or landlords choice. PS new service installations can be costly.

Uptown_Girl

Thanks for your reply filmnoir,

I own both the flat and the shop - the shop really uses usual electricity amount for a shop - lighting, till, card machine but nothing major.

As I said I live in the flat too knowing I only had the 1 meter and been trying to sort out as obviously don't want to pay business rates for domestic use.

Have got sort of somewhere today - a really nice & helpfull call centre person put me onto a company that deals with re-routing electricity supplies in multi use buildings - bad news it's going to cost a bit and I have to do a lot of the leg work with building plan etc!

Thanks again

MothballsWallet

When I had mine changed from Economy 7 (dual rate) to Standard (single rate), it was E-on who did it as they own Powergen, who in turn owned East Midlands Electric.

I booked it through my supplier (Ebico/Scottish & Southern), and they booked it with E-on for me. So you'd need to talk to your supplier: if they're not helping, try Energywatch or Ofgem and report npower to them.

I sympathise about npower; when I switched to them from Powergen, there was a problem setting up my new electric account in npower: gas went through fine, leccy not fine. Took months to sort it out, even after escalating the issue through someone senior.

filmnoir

Uptown_Girl wrote: »

Thanks for your reply filmnoir,

I own both the flat and the shop - the shop really uses usual electricity amount for a shop - lighting, till, card machine but nothing major.

As I said I live in the flat too knowing I only had the 1 meter and been trying to sort out as obviously don't want to pay business rates for domestic use.

Have got sort of somewhere today - a really nice & helpfull call centre person put me onto a company that deals with re-routing electricity supplies in multi use buildings - bad news it's going to cost a bit and I have to do a lot of the leg work with building plan etc!

Thanks again

Meanwhile while you are looking into that and a possible second supply, ensure that as you own both Shop and Flat that you have declared it for CCL and VAT purposes via a declaration form.

You will have to declare how much of the property is used for domestic purposes so you can be charged at 5% VAT on your domestic usage. However you'll probably find if the shop isnt using that much that it may only be incurring the 5% VAT anyway.

Out of interest you say Business Rates but what is the rate in kWh your paying? You need to look at this in long term or short term. Are you going to be in the property long term? If so what are the benefits of forking out for a second supply and meter against the cost?

filmnoir

MothballsWallet wrote: »

I booked it through my supplier (Ebico/Scottish & Southern), and they booked it with E-on for me. So you'd need to talk to your supplier: if they're not helping, try Energywatch or Ofgem and report npower to them.

It will at the end of the day been done through the distributor as they own the service cable. Although the supplier is involved getting the meter operator to install the meter, some suppliers charge extra to 'handle' the whole thing, especially in Gas and youll never know as the quote will come through the supplier.

TrickyNiki

I'm with EDF energy, but EON came this morning to fit a new meter. I suppose its down to who owns the meter rather than who you pay the bill to. Your energy supplier will be able to tell you who manages your meters in your area.

robin_banks

The distributer owns the meter.

robin_banks

In the Nottingham area the distributer will be E-on, said the former E-on employee.