Confusing Meter Reading

Mark_84

Moved into a property at the end of November 2006 which has been mainly vacant until the beginning of Jan 07. I recieved my electricity bill today which is estimated. The bill is for around £200 which is rather odd since my Mum pays less than this for a bigger property which isn't vacant. The previous meter reading on the bill is higher than the current reading on the meter. When we moved into the property i did provide a reading at the time but this has obviously not been input onto Npowers systems. The only reading they seem to have is the higher one that was given by the previous occupier. After hearing about my lower reading Npower are requesting that someone comes out to verify it and then they will re estimate it. The problem is there estimate will not take into account that the property has been vacant for refurbishment. Anyone had any experience of anything similar ?

Cardew

Mark_84 wrote:

The previous meter reading on the bill is higher than the current reading on the meter. When we moved into the property i did provide a reading at the time but this has obviously not been input onto Npowers systems. The only reading they seem to have is the higher one that was given by the previous occupier. After hearing about my lower reading Npower are requesting that someone comes out to verify it and then they will re estimate it. The problem is there estimate will not take into account that the property has been vacant for refurbishment. Anyone had any experience of anything similar ?

If the "previous meter reading on the bill is higher than the current reading on the meter" That means that the previous occupants had overpaid and you have been using the electricity they paid for.

If you 'allow' NPower to use a lower reading they will be paid twice for the electricity.

You are in a strong position in that you should be able to dictate what the reading was when you moved in.

Obviously in retrospect you shouldn't have contacted NPower but paid the bill as it would be like 'money in the bank'

anniecave

With due respect cardew, I don't like the suggestion that someone should not submit a reading if it seems wrong and the error could be in the person's favour.
That's like dishonesty to me.
For a start the previous reading could have been an incorrect estimate that they are chasing the previous occupier for.

Mark_84 - You could take weekly readings for the next month and calculate what you think an estimate might have been of when you moved in and ask them to use that as an opening reading?

It sounds like their previous readings are wrong anyway so this sort of data is good to give you (and them) an idea of how much you are using.