Prepayment meter high up on kitchen ceiling.

Johnnymc1337

Hi all

I've just bought a house with both utilities on prepayment. The electric prepayment meter (and consumer unit) is placed high up toward the ceiling above the kitchen cupboards. Obviously this is not good so I was wondering if they can be moved without expense as it would appear to be a health and safety issue having to climb onto a worktop. Added to this is the possible danger of it being in a moist environment from cooking? I'm baffled why they thought this was a suitable location in the first place. Any advice?

misterbarlow

your supplier will normally only send its meter operator to resite a meter for free anywhere on the existing board, so if it could be moved lower on the same board they will do that usually free!

If it needs moving further than that, ie a new board mounted elsewhere, then the network company would need to be involved and they would charge for this (quite a bit too), unless you are disabled then they sometimes do it for free...

Wywth

Johnnymc1337 wrote: »

Hi all

I've just bought a house with both utilities on prepayment. The electric prepayment meter (and consumer unit) is placed high up toward the ceiling above the kitchen cupboards. Obviously this is not good so I was wondering if they can be moved without expense as it would appear to be a health and safety issue having to climb onto a worktop. Added to this is the possible danger of it being in a moist environment from cooking? I'm baffled why they thought this was a suitable location in the first place. Any advice?

I'm baffled as to why you didn't check all this out before you purchased the property and then you could have had a good reason to ask for a reduction in the price equivilent to the cost of any remedial actions.

Terrylw1

There is a maximum height now but installations prior to this won't qualify.

The supplier will move it free if you are on the Priority Services Register. If not, they can charge you if they wish, but they never did over the years but they are getting smarter at charging for non essential work.

The move is generally 6-12 inches but it can be more if the service cable will reach, Mr Barlow will know about this I reckon.

Any further and like he said, you are talking a chargeable service relocation project. The supplier may be required to refit the meter, distribution engineers are not always qualified to do more complex metering, so again can charge if they wish.

I know someone who had a Smartpower card meter just like this and when it was recerted to a key meter, the engineer saw no issue with it.

However, if you book a job to change from credit to a PPM, the maximum height kicks in and they abort, warrant or not.

[Deleted User]

Hi, it would have been a credit meter in the past where it would nt have been needed to be accessed much, best remedy is to get it changed back to a credit meter, saving you some money by getting a cheaper rate and no hassle messing about refreshing the key and constantly having to see how much credits left.
Its very common to see electric meters mounted high up in kitchens and halls, no chance of them resiting it for free. A move outside in a box would prob be in excess of £500