meter confusion!

watchingmymoney

Hi could really use some advice:
When I moved into my flat 3.5 years ago the landlord told me that since it was a conversion (from 1 big flat to 2 smaller flats) that my flat didn't have an electricity meter yet as my supply still hooked into the office downstairs (the supplier was EDF) and he would arrange the meter to be put in (I have this in a letter from him). He told me that the meter that was there (in an inaccessible cupboard) was for the flat upstairs. I got a letter a couple months later from EDF telling me that the electric would be off in my flat on a particular date as they were fixing the meters in the shop below and I would be affected since our supplies were hooked together. I thought they were going to separate the supplies and give me a meter. Seems they didn't. So despite my giving my details to EDF I've never gotten an electric bill. A couple years later a new meter was installed again in that inaccessible (it is way up near the ceiling) cupboard so I thought, fine EDF is installing a meter and going to bill me. Ok fair enough. Turns out THAT meter was for the communal lights. Over the past 6 months or so there have been building works as the landlord decided to change the office below my flat into an office and another flat which means new electricity meters which I finally got today. Only problem is now the landlord is telling me that the old meter, the one that had been in the cupboard, was not for flat upstairs as he (and EDF) had told me when I first moved in. He said it turns out that it was the flat upstairs that was hooked into the office supply, not my flat. He said NPower (whom I've never spoken to at all as I had thought the supplier was EDF) had a "way" to determine that the old meter was actually hooked into my flat. So what do I do now if (and I am sure they will) NPower comes knocking on my door demanding money from all this time? I dont' know what the initial meter reading was when I moved in, I don't know what tariff it is supposed to be on, and I never knew, before today that my landlord (and his builders who did the conversion) as well as EDF, got it all wrong. Help please!!

dogshome

Hi watchingmymoney - A long post and some paragraphs would help to digest it, but from my reading it appears that, that original meter that you were told was not yours, was and still is.

The first thing to do is check that it really is yours - Turn off everything in the flat and over a period of an hour when you know the office/other flat are occupied, check the meter for any movement - If does move, check that you really have turned off everything. If continues to move the chances are that it's not just supplying your flat
If it stays stationary keep everything off, and then while you watch the meter have a mate with a mobile phone switch your kettle On & Off - The meter should react in synch. with the kettle switching