At my wits end - SE gas & electric nightmare

enough-is-enough_3

Hello,

I live alone and moved into a rented 1 bed flat 18 months ago, the gas was on a credit meter and the electric on a prepayment meter both with Southern Electric. I'm on a low income and very conscious of energy used and switch off everything that's not essential or not being used.

I have no central heating and the only heating is a 2.3kW gas wall heater which is only used on it's lowest setting (0.8kW). I have a gas cooker which uses approx 20p per day. Water is heated via an electric immersion heater/tank which is only switched on to heat water once a day and then switched off, it's a very small tank and there is never enough water to cover your belly button when you have a bath. The only other appliances are a small under counter fridge, table top freezer, washing machine, pc and a table lamp fitted with a 25w bulb.

From day one my gas and electric bills were very high and I soon got behind on my gas bills. I contacted SE several times as I was very concerned that the usage seemed very high.

To try & cut a long story short they came and fitted a gas prepayment meter which is supposed to take a maximum of £6 per week to repay the outstanding gas bill.

The old gas meter was made of metal and was situated directly 3ft above the gas wall heater. The engineer removed this and fitted the new prepayment meter which is made of plastic. It soon became apparent that this might not be safe as it gets quite warm with the heater on it's lowest setting and exudes an unpleasant smell of hot plastic! I phoned SE and said that I was very concerned about it's safety and after being passed from pillar to post & placed on hold for an hour I was told that yes this was definitely unsafe and that either the meter or the heater would have to be relocated.

I was then told that I would have to pay for it all as it was 'my fault that I had got behind with my gas bill and had to have the prepayment meter'. I challenged this as I felt that legally it was theirs as they had installed it in an unsafe location, they put me on hold again for another 30 mins and then passed me to another department when I threatened to speak to a solicitor. Eventually they agreed that they were liable and said that they would relocate the meter. They said they would phone back, after 3 days of waiting I phoned them and was told that someone would get in touch, no one did so I phoned again, this time I got the guys email address and sent him a photo of the meter's location above the heater. Once again he said he would call back and didn't so after another 3 days I called again and was told that he'd looked at the photo and thought that if I went out and bought some wood to box the meter in a bit more it would 'probably' be safe, but if it wasn't safe then to give him a ring back.

I wasn't very impressed as there is no such thing as probably safe when it comes to gas, it either is or there's a big bang. So I phoned them again and complained but have got nowhere.

In the meantime in a desperate attempt to save money on fuel I've spent the last couple of months camped out in my tiny dining room, and don't use any other rooms in the flat. I barely use the gas heater and have only had it on for 4hrs during the last month, I have no TV and nothing on standby but my gas and electricity costs continue to escalate out of control and for the month of October I paid £160 into the gas and electric meters.

I contacted SE again as I cannot believe that I should be paying this much but they can't seem to grasp the fact that I'm basically paying £160+ per month in fuel to live in a 9ft square room, they also told me that since the gas prepayment meter was fitted my gas used has tripled!! I spend most nights wearing several jumpers and a jacket as I obviously can't afford to use the heater.

Also the gas meter is only supposed to take a maximum of £6 per week for the debt but it takes more for example 2 days ago I had to top up another £6 and it took £4.80 for debt, then overnight it took the rest and left me with emergency credit, I went out and put another £15 on it so that I could cook and it took another £4 and it also takes off another £1.79 everyday at 2am.

Sorry for such a long post, I'm at my wits end, what can I do short of moving (I can no longer afford a deposit on another flat) ?