Gas meter counter not moving.

phatmedia

We moved from a 1bed flat in London to a 3 bed house in Havering about 6 months ago. Within two months we needed to call out a boiler engineer for some maintenence. During this work the engineer noticed that our outdoor gas meter counter had not moved the whole time he was there.

So I noticed that the reading was still the same as the day we moved in, and it is still the same now. I have heard of people going door to door 'adjusting' these meters but im pretty sure this outdoor meter has not been tampered with. It looks fine to my untrained eye and looked fine to the boiler engineer who actually reckoned to not mention anything and claim ingnorance. The property was owned by an elderly couple before us.

I always manually enter gas & elec readings online and probably wouldn't have noticed that I was entering the same number for gas each time if the engineer hadn't said anything, although the energy website does show the previous reading.

We do not use a lot of gas now as we have a wood / coal fire and recently have installed electric hob & oven.

I wondered if anyone can help advise with this issue and may know the legalities of where I stand with this. Should I tell the energy company or wait until they realise and claim ingnorance? Thanks.

zaax

and your complaining.

I had the same thing, just give it a bang and it will restart.

matelodave

The longer you leave it the bigger will be the estimated bill.
If they don't know what you've been using they will just think of a number and multiply it by the amount of time that they think you've had a problem. Getting it sorted out sooner rather than later could save you a lot of money.
You should have notified them as soon as you noticed there was a problem.

phatmedia

zaax, thanks, I will try this and if I have no luck I will consider reporting it ;(

lstar337

phatmedia wrote: »

zaax, thanks, I will try this.

As to the estimated bill I will no doubt incur, if I were to change energy supplier and then report this on my second reading, could I avoid the previous months estimation?

Don't bang your Gas meter around!

lstar337

zaax wrote: »

I had the same thing, just give it a bang and it will restart.

Yeah, knocking Gas meters around is sound advice. Please don't be foolish!

SailorSam

Have you got a phone number for the old couple who were there before ?
Give them a ring and see what they use to pay.

phatmedia

I was merely going to give it a light slapping so please don't fret Istar337. The previous owners have emmigrated back to St. Vincent!

How about if I changed energy supplier and then reported it on my second meter reading and hope the current supplier do not investigate the unusual billing statistics...?

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

phatmedia wrote: »

I was merely going to give it a light slapping so please don't fret Istar337. The previous owners have emmigrated back to St. Vincent!

How about if I changed energy supplier and then reported it on my second meter reading and hope the current supplier do not investigate the unusual billing statistics...?

Seeing as you know about it now, every day you use something and try not to pay for it it's theft.

Why don't you own up and pay for what you've taken. The people that end up losing out are Joe Public. This isn't "free" in the wider sense, the energy company will treat bad debt as a cost (as any business would) and transfer that cost to it's other customers.

phatmedia

Thanks for all advice. I will be contacting the suppliers to advise.

[Deleted User]

zaax wrote: »

and your complaining.

I had the same thing, just give it a bang and it will restart.

Clouting it works with a stopped Weston Sangamo electric meter. Stopped gas meters are very rare. I cant see it being a tamper although I found one today where the seal on top of gas meter and the screw underneath had been removed leaving the whole index hanging off.This was an attempt to do what was shown on BBC "Inside Out " show this year following Brit Gas revenue protection.. a way to get into the meter and change/tamper with the units used.