Gas meter not moving for past 2 years!

barney731

Hi
If anyone has any advice we would appreciate it.....

We had our gas meter fixed a few years ago as it was sticking and thought it was working again. However,over the past two years it has been moving very slowly, we keep ending up in credit on the account and claiming it back. It was great for a while but had to be sorted out eventually.

I rang the supplier today and they have decided to put in a new meter in a couple of weeks, I was told not to spend too much as they may be claiming money back for the past year because that is as far as thier policy allows them. I asked how they would know what to charge us as there is no record of our usage and was told that they will work it out based on what we will use over a period of time.

Does anyone know where we stand on this? They could send a huge bill thats not accurate, would we have to pay it?

Can we change supplier or are we stuck with them untill this is sorted out?
And if we do change how will they ever know what we have used!!!

I have kept them informed of meter readings all along and I asked for them to fix the meter the first time.

Not sure what to do.

Thanks

BargainGalore

Yes they can estimate and claim it back

spiro

How many units has the meter recorded over the last say 3 months? Is it metric or imperial? This may help estimate how inaccurate it is compared to others.

Once they swap the meter keep you useage a low as possible because thy will use you ongoing consumption to estimate backwards.

Have they read the meter since the new one was installed because if they have and it was recording very little consumption then their own systems should have flagged some sort of 'low useage' which can be a sign of a faulty meter or theft of gas.

barney731

To be fair it hasnt moved at in the past 2 years, BUT they have read the meter and I have given them regular readings in the past 2 years.

That was my plan too, when they change the meter we will keep it really low, hopefully it will be summer months too.
I also considered changing supplier so they cant estimate, is that very bad!!

KimYeovil

barney731 wrote: »

I also considered changing supplier so they cant estimate, is that very bad!!

Feel free to do so if you like but a) they know you are effectively in arrears so you will not be allowed to switch and b) if you do manage to switch then they will simply estimate the estimate rather than base it on a sample useage - so would be even higher.

barney731

Thats very true, There must be a way in which you can appeal against the estimate if it is too high, it is very likely we will not be able to afford it, and as far as I am concerned we have done nothing wrong, infact I have informed them twice now of a faulty meter.....

markharding557

It appears you have not made much effort to sort this problem out over the two year period and it has now caught up with you.
You will be liable for whatever they work the bill out at,if you are lucky you might get the time your bill was accrued over for repaying it back.
Of course that will be on top of your ongoing consumption,back to reality i'm afraid

JasX

BargainGalore wrote: »

Yes they can estimate and claim it back

after changing the meter it would be a good time to make strenuous efforts to use as little gas as possible so they base their estimate on numbers as low as possible

barney731

Oh well, we will see what happens. They cant have what we havent got Im sure we will sort it out.
Thanks for your replies

markharding557

barney731 wrote: »

Oh well, we will see what happens. They cant have what we havent got Im sure we will sort it out.
Thanks for your replies

They will put you on prepay if you do not maintain payments on any repayment agreement so they will get it one way or the other

savemoney

True but they can install a pre payment meter so you not only pay more for your energy but also it will take a large chunk of your money when you use it to pay off the debt

Try and avoid paying that when possible by offering when you get a bill of paying by DD and over paying

barney731 wrote: »

Oh well, we will see what happens. They cant have what we havent got Im sure we will sort it out.
Thanks for your replies