Being stopped from checking electricity meter!!

gemgemgemgem

Any help/advice would be appreciated,

I have recently moved into a rented flat, it has an npower smart top up card for electricity, so obviously I need to top up every so often, especially now it's getting cold!
Anyways, the lady in charge of the block of flat's 'residence committee' thing has the key for the electric cupboard and wont let me make a copy of the key! So whenever I need to top up my card or check how much credit I have left, I have to go knock on her door, she's not always in!!! She wont let me touch the key, comes with me to the meter, then locks it back up again. The landlord says this is an ongoing problem and has been trying and is actively trying to sort this issue out, but she is refusing to budge......

anyone know what my rights are?
I'm not planning on staying in this flat long term, so don't want to set up a direct debit.

Thanks!

Premier_2

Knock her up at say 3am in the morning asking to gain access to top up your meter - that might give her a hint

Why not raise the issue with the "residence committee" and try to understand why they have implemented this rule? Aren't "residence committees" a democratic organisation?

As you are not planning on staying long, probably not worth wasting too much time & effort over.

kippen_noedel

Premier wrote: »

Knock her up at say 3am in the morning asking to gain access to top up your meter - that might give her a hint

simplez :beer:

Plushchris

I'd concur on the 3am top-up. Then maybe 4am the following night... repeat until you get a key

If prepayment meters run out its always at the most inconveniant times isnt it??

Plushchris

Actually, coming from experience from when I used to live in a small block of flats these caretaker/wardens/officers (whatever they like to call themselves) are generally little hitlers on power trips, if you dont intend staying long in the flat I would have a bit of fun with it personally, the 3am top-ups are one way of really winding them up (if you have the bottle) and you are perfectly within your rights to do so. When you knock on the door be perfectly polite and nice as this always winds them up even more. Say that unfortunatley you dont have the money to top up large amounts at a time and its better for you to budget on a daily basis - blame the credit crunch! lol

I had an issue over what the warden in our flat called "her parking space" despite me being told by the landlord and the letting agent that the parking spaces were not allocated. So guess where I parked every time I could??

Cardew

Plushchris wrote: »

I had an issue over what the warden in our flat called "her parking space" despite me being told by the landlord and the letting agent that the parking spaces were not allocated. So guess where I parked every time I could??

How did you get the scratches out of the car;)

Haarlem

Is the comsumer unit (The main switch for your supply and fuses/cutouts) adjacent to the meter or in your flat?

If its adjacent to the meter, then you should have access to it at all times to isolate your supply in case of an emergency or work on your circuits.

Plushchris

Cardew wrote: »

How did you get the scratches out of the car;)

Its funny you should say that as thats one of things I used to wind her up, she used to say it was her space because the CCTV had a really good picture of it (and it did) so I said with a wink "Oh so if my car has any damage it'll be caught on camera!"