Not allowed to access my electricity meter, is this right?

PurplePow

Unfortunately it's quite a newish lock. They refuse access because people in other buildings wwere storing items in their cupboards a long time ago. Luckily our gas meter is outside and freely accessible, it's just the electricity meter!

Racquie

I was wondering if you got this sorted out. I hope you did. You certainly have a legal right to access the reading on the meter. This is something that will get far more important in the coming months and years when Smart or Time of Use meters are rolled out. This is because your previous and current meter readings will NOT be displayed on your bill. Unless you can read your own meter on a regular basis, you have no way of checking what you are paying for. With a ZERO previous/current meter reading, and the electricity company refusing to tell you what they based their figures on, there is surely going to be an awful lot of calls to the Ombudsman or Office of Fair Trading. That's what is currently happening here in Sydney anyway.:(

OhReally_2

Racquie wrote: »

I was wondering if you got this sorted out. I hope you did. You certainly have a legal right to access the reading on the meter. This is something that will get far more important in the coming months and years when Smart or Time of Use meters are rolled out. This is because your previous and current meter readings will NOT be displayed on your bill. Unless you can read your own meter on a regular basis, you have no way of checking what you are paying for. With a ZERO previous/current meter reading, and the electricity company refusing to tell you what they based their figures on, there is surely going to be an awful lot of calls to the Ombudsman or Office of Fair Trading. That's what is currently happening here in Sydney anyway.:(

Good morning to you Down Under.

I hope it has been sorted out; this was first posted 16 months ago! :eek:

Terrylw1

Racquie wrote: »

I was wondering if you got this sorted out. I hope you did. You certainly have a legal right to access the reading on the meter. This is something that will get far more important in the coming months and years when Smart or Time of Use meters are rolled out. This is because your previous and current meter readings will NOT be displayed on your bill. Unless you can read your own meter on a regular basis, you have no way of checking what you are paying for. With a ZERO previous/current meter reading, and the electricity company refusing to tell you what they based their figures on, there is surely going to be an awful lot of calls to the Ombudsman or Office of Fair Trading. That's what is currently happening here in Sydney anyway.:(

Time of Use metering has been in the UK for many years.

Suppliers still have to issue bills on smart meters so you can see what its based on. The SLC's also contain clauses which force the supplier to base the DD on accurate data with an additional clause giving the customer a right to see how it has been calculated.

The markets are different between countries which in this case seems to be shown in the regulation side...unless Ofgem plan on reducing them to take customer protections away because they think smart meters will resolve all the industry's problems (they won't!)

NonGeographicalMan

I am a long leaseholder and have had this issue for a long time now of a resident's management company who has denied me access to my gas meter and electricity meter and my primary gas isolation handle for the last 10+ years. So I am a little surprised that nobody who frequents this forum seems to actually be properly familiar with the law in this area.

Specifically

The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1994 and the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998

See See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1...lation/13/made and http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1...51/part/C/made

Section 13 of these regulations has this to say:-

Meter housings.

13(3) No person shall install a meter in a meter box provided with a lock, unless the consumer has been provided with a suitably labelled key to that lock.

13(4) No person shall install a meter within a meter compound which is capable of being secured unless the consumer has been provided with a suitably labelled key for that compound.

For those living in flats converted somewhat earlier than this then the first edition of these safety regulations implemented in 1984 as the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1984 may still give you the right to access as follows:-

Meter Boxes

12(3) No person shall install a meter in a meter box provided with a lock, unless the consumer has been provided with a key to the lock clearly labelled "Gas Meter Box" in black capital leters on a yellow ground.

See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1...9841358_en.pdf

All of this was pointed out to me by the people at the Gas Safe Register Helpline on 0800 408 5577. They will provide explanations on al technical aspects of gas safety covered by the Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure - Edition 6 as found at http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/pdf...n%20V1%201.pdf

I am told by the Gas Safe Register people that if your landlord will not provide you with a key granting you 24/7 access to your gas meter and gas isolation handle that this matter can be reported to the Health and Safety Executive. However the danger is that the HSE is likely to condemn the continued use of your gas supply until the danger of not being able to access and control your own regulator has been eliminated.

Of course in this case the danger ought to be able to be eliminated by the supply of a key but were you to meet a very obstinate landlord then you might end up having to physically relocate the meter in to your flat and who picks up the cost on that could depend on what it says in your lease about such responsibilities. So I would be careful about running off to the HSE but use the existence of these reglations to pressurise your landlord/resident's management company to give you access to the box or compound (aka room) in which the meter is located.

For those with flats converted before 1984 the fact that the current regulations can be complied with by the simple act of providing a key still lets you put strong moral pressure on your landlord to give you a key on the basis that if a gas accident happens that could have been stopped if you have been able to access your own gas meter isolation handle then the landlord may be considered to be negligent.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for that post Nongeoman, I will pass that info on at every opportunity. I come across many flat dwellers who are inconveniencedby landlords stopping them access to their own meters. I have always told them they have a right to see their own meters if and when they choose to

spacey2012

If it is a key pad, wipe it with some sparse olive oil, wait for them to open it and a bit of cornflour will soon reveal the 4 digits, you just need the order then.

Wail

What about the rules for electric meters? I understand that the OP's Gas Meters were already located outside.

ValHaller

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

I am a long leaseholder and have had this issue for a long time now of a resident's management company who has denied me access to my gas meter and electricity meter and my primary gas isolation handle for the last 10+ years. So I am a little surprised that nobody who frequents this forum seems to actually be properly familiar with the law in this area.

Specifically

The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1994 and the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998

See See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1...lation/13/made and http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1...51/part/C/made

Thanks for this! The information is very much needed on this forum.

I assume you won this fight with your management co - can you tell us how you went about it.?

NonGeographicalMan

ValHaller wrote: »

Thanks for this! The information is very much needed on this forum.

I assume you won this fight with your management co - can you tell us how you went about it.?

Thanks for your reply.

In fact I still don't have access to my gas or electricity meter after 10 years of being denied access (I had access for the first five years here before Col Blimp and co took over the management company) and the matter is only coming to a head with the resident's management company (aka landlord as this company also owns the freehold and I have a share in the management company) at the moment. As part of that I spoke to the Gas Safe Register people (who seem to have replaced CORGI) on their 0800 helpline and they pointed me to these regulations as a way to force a landlord to give you access and/or to take the matter to the Health and Safety Executive if they don't

The issue is coming to a head because the management company changed buildings insurer a few months ago from Aviva to some fly by night small Lloyds syndicate insurer who has 101 get out clauses on not paying out. This includes not paying out if they can prove boilers are not being serviced regularly or electrical appliances not being served regularly (whatever that actually means as who has a dishwasher or washing machine serviced unless it fails). Since not having a boiler serviced annually is not a legal reqirement for a non tenanted property this was a stupid thing of them to do.

So now they demand a CORGI/Gas Safe compliant servicing certificate for the last 12 months to cover their back on something that is not a legal requirement and meanwhile I still do not have access to my gas and electricity meters or my primary gas isolation handle. So they are forcing it all to come to a head. Regarding the boiler it is a very simply 20 year old fan boiler where almost nothing is done during servicing (a paint brush is used to brush calcium off the fins on the heat exchanger to improve energy efficiency but nothing else gets done other than a carbon monoxide level check) and I have a high spec carbon monoxide detector right next to it that consistently reads zero.

If the fan motor failed or if the sparking coil that lights the gas was failing it would be pretty blindingly obvious to me as the boiler is on the wall in the kitchen and if it is not running normally I notice that fact straight away. I know that some people have boilers hidden away in cupboards where they might not be aware if they were not operating normally but I am not one of them.

When something actually fails like my main gas regulator failing at my meter 10 years ago in a full open position (it was one of a faulty batch British Gas used as it was only 10 years old and a normal regulator has a 50 years life and is replaced by Transco or whoever it now is before the failure life is reached) it was blindingly obvious and the gas company came that night to fix it. They were threatening to break in to the locked meter room until we finally managed to find get a director of the management company out of bed at 1am to let them in.

Whilst these directors hold keys for the room there is no guaranteed tat any of them will be here at a time when access is actually required. Moreover it turned out that the directors knew about the faulty regulators but had not told those of us who had not them fail yet about the problem so we could chase up Transco about replacing them proactively before they failed.

The main risk with a boiler is carbon monoxide which I have monitoring against in the room it is in. Of course water pipes on the system can burst or whatever but to be honest that is a rand and totally unpredictable scenario not covered by servicing. Whenever I am away from home for any length of time I shut my boiler off completely in the summer and run it a low 15C room thermostat setting in the winter months (meaning it has to do very little work when I am not here).

All the insurance claims have been with tenants who just let baths overflow or manage to set light to stuff in their kitchen while cooking. I always go out of my way to leave everything in my apartment in a safe condition when I go away since I do not wish the oppressive directors of the management company to have any reason to need or require access to my property when I am not here.