Gas meter and supply number mix up

Savernotspender

Hello,

I'm hoping someone will be able to help explain where I stand with regards to the mix up that's happened with my gas meter. I'm afraid it's a pretty long story.

We moved in to our property last July, we are part of a block of 4 houses. All four gas meters are out in front of our gate, not each property.

We transferred our gas supplier Southern Electric from our old flat. I gave them the meter number that I took off the meter that matched the meter number on previous bills (a large bill from old supplier arrived addressed to The Occupier). All was completed fine, no problems.

I was pretty unhappy when we received our first bill as I wasn't expecting it to be so big, I phoned the gas company and they said it wasn't unusual and since we'd moved from a 1 bed flat to a 3 bed house I just thought that it was much more expensive. We turned our heating down and put on lots more jumpers!

Fast forward to about April this year, we get a new neighbour and after having a gas meter reading man round to do a burns test realises that our gas meter's are mixed up. I was actually very happy about this as I couldn't work out how our bills could be so expensive (our old neighbour used to walk round with his top off all winter - he probably couldn't believe how cheap gas was )

So I phoned the gas company and they said it wasn't a problem, I got a phone call about every week/two weeks telling me about the progress/lack of and I was quite happy with that. After 8 weeks I was rang to be told the £950 we owed had now turned into a £90 refund.

But then the lady I've been speaking to rang me back that afternoon to say actually no, it's not all sorted, they now needed to send someone round to do a burns test and check that my "new" meter was definitely mine. I thought this was pointless as I'd done it, I was also pretty angry that it hadn't been done 8 weeks ago.

So Friday, after about 3 further weeks someone comes round for 2 mins to confirm what I'd told them.

Then today I get a phone call from SE and I'm told that the supply number has been muddled with the plot numbers and that actually SE have never supplied us with the gas and we're getting a full refund of all that we've paid them. This is obviously great.

But what now? I need to work out our correct supply number and who is actually supplying us gas, and then what happens to the gas we've used? I'm guessing we need to pay someone for that? But we only have meter readings for our neighbours meter (that we thought was ours) our neighbour who might of taken our meter readings has moved and we're not in contact.

Just looking for advice really - I plan to complain to SE and to move it to the ombudsman but I kind of need help more than retribution!

Sorry for the length, I probably wouldn't need the help if it was a short story!

Thanks in advance

eurmalian

Do you know where the meter that you originally thought was your neighbours (and know think is yours) is? If you take the serial number from it and call any supplier then you can find out who supplies that meter. If you then contact them you can let them know that you actually livein the property supplied by that meter and ask for an account to be made in your name and backdated. You can also ask them to sort out the address problems.

I'm not entirely sure what you expect SE to do here. If they supply the other meter than admittedly, they should be setting that one up for you and sending you a bill for it. If they don't, however, then they can't do a thing about it. They will presumably be trying to sort the data on the industry systems, but they can't change the details that another company has on their systems. Unfortunately you'll need to go through them direct for that...

Savernotspender

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes the meter's are right next to each other so that's not a problem. Is the serial number different to the meter number? Maybe I should have a look and take down all the number's.

The lady from SE said that even with the correct supply number they wouldn't be able to tell me who is supplying us as it's against the law(?) she said she would be able to give me the details of some register where I'd be able to find it out myself. She said it's something to do with stopping companies taking over people's supplies when they're not supposed to?

I don't expect SE to do anything really, once they've given the refund - we've essentially never been their customer! just trying to work out where to go from here.

thanks.

eurmalian

They can't give you details of just any old supplys, but if you ask about your own then they can look it up for you. It's more often used for people just moving into a property with no idea of who the supplier is, but this is fairly similar to that.

I'd immagine that the meter number and serial number are the same thing. Technically it's called the Meter Serial Number, but I guess different people shorten it in different ways...

elliesmemory1

Im just having a simalar problem, I have lived in property for 3 years an hd a problem when I moved in a te preivious occupant had never been billed for or paid for any gas.
After a lot of phoncalls it was sorted out.
However the last twice I have had meter read its been way out wih my readings.
It seems that Eon have mine and my neighbours meters mixed up. the meter Im reading is mine but they have it down as my neighbours.
Im hoping my bill is correct as I am in credit but not sure how it will work out for the neighbour.

chanz4

Its not actually the suppliers fault, but national grid / IGT who provide the incorrect numbers.

lemontart

chanz4 wrote: »

Its not actually the suppliers fault, but national grid / IGT who provide the incorrect numbers.

Nope it is not the fault of the gas transporter the number been referred to by op is the serial number off the meter which is the suppliers responsibly not the network. The serial number identifies the meter that is being used to bill the customer with,

The number you appear to be referring to is the Meter Point Reference number which identifies the property NOT the meter.

With regards to the meter a trace and label is required to be done by the supplier to ensure correct meter details for the property and to record them against the property.

I sounds like this mix up is historical i.e. happened before the op took over the property.

This is nothing to do with National Grid or IGT.

chanz4

think you will find that the grid pass the information of a connection / meter via a flow

lemontart

chanz4 wrote: »

think you will find that the grid pass the information of a connection / meter via a flow

Meters are installed by the meter asset management company working on behalf of the gas supplier be it national grid metering or other company, the gas supplier then puts that information on to xoserves data base.

The mprn is supplied when a new supply is installed however sometimes for various reasons a new mprn needs to be generated usually arranged via xoserve by the gas supplier when there are no records on the database as the property has not been listed as having a registered supply.

wild666

(a large bill from old supplier arrived addressed to The Occupier).

You DO NOT have to pay a bill addressed to the occupier the company are just pushing their luck, I had the same happen when I moved and searched on-line and found.
DO NOT put them back in the post marked return to sender, keep them for reference.
DO NOT give them your name
KEEP all correspondence in writing, Never use the phone

USE SECTION 2.8a of this document in email/letter to them as a complaint about receiving demands addressed to the occupier

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

Examples of unfair practices are as follows:

a. sending demands for payment to an individual when it is uncertain that
they are the debtor in question, for example, threatening debt recovery
action to 'the occupier' or sending a payment demand to all people sharing
the same name/date of birth as a debtor in the hope that contact with the
correct debtor will be made.

eurmalian

I really think you should go back and re-read the OPs post, as you appear to have completely mis-understood what it was about and are making yourself look like a bit of a RANTY FOOL!

Oh, and if you don't want suppliers sending out bills to 'The Occupier', what do you think they should do instead if someone moves in and doesn't call to register? Skip letters completely and just go straight to the debt rep coming to your door?

As long as you call the supplier and let them know when you moved in, you're only responsible for usage since that point. Everything before that is nothing to do with you, even if a bill for the occupier is being sent out. The basic reason for that is that before they can pass it to a debt agency to track the person down, the supplier has to send out certain letters to give the person a chance to come froward.