Energy meter reader trespass??

Terrylw1

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

T&C's are not, and never have been above the law.

OFGEM do not write the law. They are the ombudsman service, who are financed by the industry.

What you have to remember (as I have said previously), is that it is private property. And the only people allowed to enter private property if the householder refuses permission, without a warrant are the police and fire service.

Nope, Ofgem regulate the industry, the ombudsman service is seperate.

Ofgem actually introduce, amend, etc the SLC's which form part of the Utilities Act...part of the law then...

T&c's are not above this and I have not stated this. I have merely stated that you signed a contract to give access so they assume they can make routine visits. This doesn't imply they can access it at all costs, just reasonable attempts.

Terrylw1

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Because OFGEM are financed by the power industries. It's as simple as that.

So they have no responsibility to higher authorities?

Terrylw1

Inspectorman wrote: »

As far as I'm aware the only reader on the board is Sasc, who from other threads appears to be a stand up character who cares a great deal about his job and putting an end to some of the practices that occur both on the customer side of things and the company side of things. Terry and chanz work elsewhere in metering and know a great deal about the business.

I don't think I've read anywhere in the thread about people thinking meter readers should have carte blanche at a property when it comes to meter access (then again it's pretty big thread with some long posts). As mentioned before, if a gate was just latched I would go through it if the meter was visibly the other side or if I knew from previous visits it was there (if it was the first time at a site or the customer was new I would always knock). I certainly wouldn't go clambering over gates or un-doing locks - I didn't get paid enough :rotfl:

If the few of you who are suffering from these continual rogue readers, I do feel sorry for you - I worked in a regional team of 20 people and each one of them acted professionally in their job. Maybe it's a G4S thing? Although they do take on a few that get the full benefits (car, decent wage, etc...) most of the job adverts for them state pretty low pay and you must provide own vehicle - which in turn can lead to pretty desperate measures to top up your pay.

My advice to help avoid this is to go with a company that reads it's own meters in your supply area.

Thankfully I fit meters these days so when I turn up I'm at least expected!

I would just like to add that Sasc has raised threads regarding practices that are putting consumers at risk, namely tampers that are ignored by suppliers and one supplier asking oap's to climb on chairs to read meters.

I know he is following these up with Ofgem, I remember posting the whistleblowers link for him.

Terrylw1

Inspectorman wrote: »

Not sure about a list - I know in the midlands area Eon, Npower and SSE all read there own meters. SSE has a national metering business so read all there meters and I thought the same of Eon until this thread

I'd reckon this is something Terry might know the answer to.

I'll have to do some digging on this to see if I can turn up a list submitted to Elexon or Ofgem.

In the case of Npower, in their old host regions they use their in-house agents for all services. So, Northern & Yorkshire boards but Midlands remained as the old host companies created from the MEB.

They also moved the East Midlands & Norweb into to in-house for metering services but I can't remember offhand if they did the same for meter reading.

They moved their old Midlands region into their own agents last year.

The rest of the regions tend to be Lowri Beck.

They also still have some old metering companies in place for areas in Scotland and the readers will be the same as they don't have as much business up there so I think they were addressing these last.

The Western Power region is in-house for metering. Not sure about the meter readers though.

The tricky thing is, whilst they use their in-house Data Collector, they then contract on the meter reading to companies such as Lowri Beck.

I'll see what I can turn up.

What I can say is that from a service point of view, sometimes the old host region ones beat the in-house ones. Sadly, in-house companies are sometimes harder to resolve issues with than external ex regional ones...crazy eh?

chanz4

God what would you guys do if a parcel delivery company was to come, tell them not to leave it as you don't want them in your gate. Sure they wouldn't and just throw it over

Toxteth_OGrady

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf3le4BdL7E

Jamie_Carter

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

In what circumstances are the police allowed to enter without permission or warrant? I am interested because I understand that, bizarrely, if bailiffs have been allowed in once, then they can force entry on subsequent visits.

I'm not sure of the exact wording, but it's basically to prevent a crime being commited, to investigate a crime where any delay could impede the investigation. Or to arrest someone who has commited a crime, and they good reason to believe that they are on the property.

And with the fire brigade they can enter a property to fight a fire, to gain access to a property where there is a fire, to prevent spred of a fire, or for a water supply (like a swimming pool). I also presume this applies to other rescues.

However both the above do have warrant cards, but they won't need a warrant from a magistrate.

Jamie_Carter

Terrylw1 wrote: »

I have no affiliation to meter readers as I told UK1 earlier.

It is important to understand when it happened. Why? Because it tells us whether this is a later revenue driven scheme or whether it has always been the standard. If its always been there, it tells us that the governing bodies are also to blame in setting up a privatised industry using previous national standards which are unfair.

You need to know this because you need to know who you are challenging. If you are fighting an in tire industry, you need to know because you will have to ensure you go very high to get anywhere.

You would be fighting the meter reader's employer and the meter reader.

Jamie_Carter

chanz4 wrote: »

God what would you guys do if a parcel delivery company was to come, tell them not to leave it as you don't want them in your gate. Sure they wouldn't and just throw it over

Nobody is complaining about the meter reader going through the front gate, that allows access to the front door. Because that gate wouldn't be there to prevent intruders. A high gate to the back garden would.

uk1

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Nobody is complaining about the meter reader going through the front gate, that allows access to the front door. Because that gate wouldn't be there to prevent intruders. A high gate to the back garden would.

You will need to do him a drawing.

Label each bit ie. "road" "house" "side gate" etc then colours for public, private with permission, and private NOT needing permission ie "path to front door". It may however still prove too complex a subject for him.

Give up if I were you.