Prepayment meter removal help me

devilchef

Hello to all you MSE's. I am a customer with scottish power for both gas and electic. We are moving and need to have our gas meter removed (we added the gas prepayment meter at our request when we moved in to pay previous bill off). I have phoned scottish power just a couple of days ago and was told it would cost me the nice sum of £150! I was shocked really, we have been with them for years, are in credit and want to charge us. Anyway i thought i would phone again just today. Suprise suprise, i was told something even more wierd and completely different from the first call "its against scottish power policy to remove the meter whilst we were still there". They refuse to remove the meter whilst we are living there. I explained that we are moving and that our landlord is going to sell the place, but they still wont remove it until we are gone. Is there any way to find out official policy of scottish power removing meters? How much would it cost and if not who can rip them out? cheers and help we move next week.

Vestra

Why are you bothered if your moving out?

tori.k

Im gonna assume your landlord want you to make good the meter before you move, have you a few months before you go? i inherited a prepayment meter in the house we now live and powergen wanted £150 to replace it with a normal meter, even tho i had always paid by DD. i moved to EDF as they would replaced it for free , could you not try the same

Cardew

The problem is that Scottish Power have no proof that you are moving.

Whilst I am certain it is not the case, to get a credit meter you could say you were moving out and then 'change your mind';)

The point is that it does cost a lot of money to change meters, and as you requested a pre-pay meter(which cost SP money) and did not pay for the change, it is quite reasonable that they should charge to have the meter changed back.

DVardysShadow

Cardew wrote: »

The point is that it does cost a lot of money to change meters, and as you requested a pre-pay meter(which cost SP money) and did not pay for the change, it is quite reasonable that they should charge to have the meter changed back.

If you could get a solicitor to do it, you would have change from £150.

Cardew

DVardysShadow wrote: »

If you could get a solicitor to do it, you would have change from £150.

Presumably you are questioning the level of charge rather than the principle??

I have no idea what constitutes a reasonable charge.

Any tradesman visit seems to cost £50 min these days.

Presumably they have to refurbish the meters? Change the tariff details on the computer etc.

I suspect the level is also set to deter people(who were put onto a pre-pay meter) from changing back to a credit meter.

Vestra

DVardysShadow wrote: »

If you could get a solicitor to do it, you would have change from £150.

What has a solicitor got to do with this? Solicitor's can't change gas meters.

devilchef

i unfortunately have to move out cos our l/lord wants to sell. FINE. However the reason we got the meter in the first place was to payoff an outstanding debt from our previous property. So i phoned S/P and originally they told me it would cost £150 to remove which i thought was expensive, and that was only a couple of days ago, now they told me that they cant take it out until after i leave? Which means that i wont have the keys etc and i wont be responsible for the house but would still be liable for the meter. So i dont know what to do. This wasnt told to be when we first got the meter and i am worried that when we move, we will get a nice fat bill for something that we are trying to fix now. i couldnt find any official policy from S/P, i couldnt even find their T's and C's online either.???????

Vestra

If the landlord want to sell surely it's his problem what the meter is, unless were you not meant to change it?

Cardew

devilchef wrote: »

i unfortunately have to move out cos our l/lord wants to sell. FINE. However the reason we got the meter in the first place was to payoff an outstanding debt from our previous property. So i phoned S/P and originally they told me it would cost £150 to remove which i thought was expensive, and that was only a couple of days ago, now they told me that they cant take it out until after i leave? Which means that i wont have the keys etc and i wont be responsible for the house but would still be liable for the meter. So i dont know what to do. This wasnt told to be when we first got the meter and i am worried that when we move, we will get a nice fat bill for something that we are trying to fix now. i couldnt find any official policy from S/P, i couldnt even find their T's and C's online either.???????

How will you run up a 'nice fat bill' on a pre-payment meter?

devilchef

Now we've been told its gonna cost £200 to remove. The landlord wants to have it removed before we leave and he has every right to ask for it to be removed by us and i dont have a problem with that (in the tenancy agreement!), just been told by S/p that the landlord has to have an account so they can do something, even though we lived in the property.!!!!!!? honestly, why cant they just take the bloody thing out? they charge far too much and give too little, its just another example of a large company sponging off us to line their fat, greedy pockets. ADVICE....USE SOMEONE ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!