Help! Meter running backwards, bill for £9,000!

chanz4

If you can prove it was rented, provide the agreements if not your liable.

JimmyTheWig

What does your dad say about what happened with the electricity?

Herongull

This sounds bizarre! You're not winding us up are you?

Why did the builders use a generator? Wasn't the electricity connected then?

Even if it was connected from the start, if the electricity was never in your name (until recently), this means that you didn't have a supply agreement with the electricity company.

If they don't have a reliable estimate due to the meter problems and you never agreed to them supplying you (until recently), it is hard to see why they think you owe this money (unless there is some legislation thing about the homeowner being ultimately responsible even in strange situations like this?)

torbrex

j_m wrote: »

Who was supposed to be paying for that electricity? Who did pay for that electricity? Who took meter readings?

The electricity company tell me that no meter reading had been taken since the date of purchase.
This implies that the supplier were given a meter reading by someone at the time you purchased the house, perhaps the seller informed them that you were the new owner when he gave his final reading

There is gas, but the tenants seemed to have paid for this!
If the tennants were paying the gas bills, that implies that they had informed the suppliers of their tennancy and the bills were being sent to them.

You have still not said when your name became associated with the account and if the supplier has accepted you as the account holder and from what date.

j_m_2

My name was added to the account in July of this year.

This is indeed bizarre, and I promise it isn't a wind-up.

torbrex

If that is the case then you are only liable for usage since July and not for anything estimated in the previous period.

If the old meter had been tampered with in any way then an investigation would have been started by the RPU officer for the company and questions would have been asked about lack of meter readings and who the account holder actually was for this period. It is normal in cases like this to assume guilt rather than innocence as 90% of the time it is the customer 'trying it on' after having been caught tampering with the meter.

You really need to be able to prove it was not you and also be able to give details of who the tennants were, when they moved in (and out) and also a forwarding address for them.

It might even have been the builders that tampered with the original meter and the tennants took advantage of it.

macman

Does not the back billing code not come into play here, if the supplier has not attempted to read the meter in 6 years? Is that the case?
Did your Dad not take any readings between tenants? If not, why not-who did he think was liable for the bills?

j_m_2

What is a back billing code?

I had a bit of a falling out with my Dad regarding the many things that went wrong when he was a landlord, so I'm afraid I don't have much detail about what he did regarding billing, etc.

macman

The back billing code says that the supplier cannot back bill more than one year provided certain conditions apply. Given the vagueness and complexity of your situation, this may or may not be relevant. But clearly the supplier has the right to be paid for the energy used. How much, and by who, is not clear in this case.
Unfortunately you've not helped yourself by failing to monitor how the handovers were carried out in terms of meter reading and billing. As son as you occupy a property, a deemed contract exists with the current supplier, and it's your job to contact them, not vice versa.

danielanthony

Your dad wasn't really the Landlord though was he, he was basically acting as your agent. I'm presuming you didn't have a written contract with him so he wont be liable for any mis-handling of your property. As others have said, you may not be liable for the electricity used as you've only just put your name on the account, but I wonder if they can cut off the supply to the property until the bill is settled? Also, if you still have the tennancy agreements then it should state in there that the tennants are liable for paying utility bills, although you may have to take them to small claims court to get them to pay up.