Electric Coin Meters in bedsit

YoungRogue

Hi,

I recently moved into a bedsit and it use one of those really old coin operated meters. I am shocked at how many £1 coins have gone in such a short space of time. I have had the electric heater on sometimes but not often, the hot water boiler stays allmost allways off and I only have a fridge to use other power. it's taken about £30 over a period of 1 week. :eek:

not sure what I can do with this...

Wywth

Move?

Unfortunately you can't do anything about it as the meter is owned by the Landlord, and you must buy your energy through him.

[Deleted User]

Yes, I bet the landlord is making a nice profit on that coin meter.

You should have checked what sort of meter was in before you took the flat.

dogshome

Landlords are not allowed to make a 'profit' when distributing Gas & Elec to tenants, only a small Service Charge for maintaining the meter

If you can, post a clear photo of the meter for comment as to just how much you are paying per Kwh

[Deleted User]

dogshome wrote: »

Landlords are not allowed to make a 'profit' when distributing Gas & Elec to tenants, only a small Service Charge for maintaining the meter

If you can, post a clear photo of the meter for comment as to just how much you are paying per Kwh

Just because they are not allowed doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Why would a landlord need to maintain a meter? The electricity distribution company maintains mine.

dominicr

Depends on how the property is wired, the landlord may have no choice but to submeter. Basically your cost should match what you would pay if you were getting the electric direct from the electric company.

dogshome

Wrong ! The Distribution Co. maintains their meter,

In young rogues instance, his landlord has the Distribution Co's meter, and has elected to put his own meter in between that and yr's electricity supply.

dominicr

@dogshome: yes of course the landlord is paying the electric co for their meter, but probably this electric co meter runs more than one flat, so then the landlord has to have his own meters to work out the consumption for each flat. And he has to maintain those meters.

NXV839

Could you be paying off a debt from the last tenant? It may be worth double checking that.

Also, there's no harm in asking your landlord if it possible to change the meter. He'll probably say no, but you don't lose out on anything by just asking.

MAYAN65

utility_csa wrote: »

Wrong.

The appointed meter operator maintains any primary billing meter.



With it being a coin operated meter i would assume its pre-pay..!

A coin meter will be a private sub meter this has nothing to do with the supplier or distribution. it is the landlords responsibility to set/maintain/empty.

PasturesNew

As I understand it:
1] You can see from the old-fashioned meter how much you're paying per unit. If you can photograph it we can look.
2] LLs are not allowed to make up the amount; there is a maximum rate set in law - and that law's been around years/decades.