Electricity Prepayment meter help required pls

pesky2

Hi Can anyone help me out here pls

Had some tenants in my flat on a short term lease initially for three months but said they wd be renewing however they decided they were moving on. In the meantime without me knowing they changed the electricity meter to a prepayment one and hadn't mentioned it.

I rang Npower about it and they said the tenant had switched to someone else but they didn't know who.

They left the key for the meter but i haven't a clue what to do despite reading afew threads i am totally confused with it all

Basically what i need to know is :-

My electricity isn't working , meter says £1.51 i think

How do you put the key thing in the meter or dont you

How do you find out who supply is with ?

How do you go about changing it back to where it was before with a normal meter and will i be charged

Lesson learnt write in tenancy agreement no prepayment meters what an absolute faff about , flat freezing cold and dark

Pls can someone help so i can sort something out tomorrow

SwanJon

You can phone your local MPAS number (Link)to find out who the supplier is, call them and arrange to get the account in your name, that way you are only paying for what you use.
You could ask them about their policy for changing the meters (different supliers have different rules)
I work for BG, and we would run a credit check first, and if that wasn't successful ask for a security deposit which would be returned after 12 months (or when you are no longer a credit risk)

stokefan

what colour is your electric key???

pesky2

THANKS FOR THE answers, problem is the flat is going to be empty for a while needs some work doing on it, i dont want prepayment in as dont they take money off the key thing daily ?

Key is Blue in a black casing

spiro

What you are charged on a ppm varies in the same way it does for a credit meter, some suppliers have a standing charge some dont. As its is a rental property a ppm can avoid tenants moving out and leaving large bills which can impact future tenants. Based on threads here Ebico offer about the best rates for ppm.

wornoutmumoftwo

I have an orange and blue key and with BG. Does the key have a logo on it?

mattcanary

Blue with black cover is not Southern, I can confirm that. Their key is green. NPower's are blue with a red cover so not them either.

jamesb1239

Ebico is Blue and Red, also I dont think that you can put anything in the tenancy agreement preventing a tennent from changing the meter, I would assume that it falls under the same thing as not being able to change suppliers without landlords consent, It was deemed an unfair/unenforceable clause but i'm sure the nice people on the "House Buying, Renting and Selling" board will be able to advise better.

Usually pre-payment meters are fitted for a reason such as struggling with bills etc and usually there is a charge to have them switched.

markharding557

from a landlords point of view i would have thought pp meters would be preferable
also unless all the emergency credit is used up it should be working.
my key is blue and black,i'm on edf
the page below will assist in identifying your supplier
http://www.ukenergy.co.uk/pages/area.html

tori.k

my moneys on EDF if memory serves correct that was a blue top black key.. you will have to post back as we are all wondering

Premier_2

pesky2 wrote: »

...Had some tenants in my flat on a short term lease initially for three months

...

Lesson learnt write in tenancy agreement ...

If you'd have had one of those correctly drawn up in the first place, you wouldn't have been able to let your flat for an initial period of 3 months

If you don't live by the rules, don't expect others to either.