Electric Meter Broken?

03jatkin

Hi guys,
i've been in my property 6 months, i rent.

we don't have access to our electric meter and the landlord took an initial reading for me when we first entered the property.

it has been difficult for him to give me another reading since then, when he finally did give me a reading last month there was no reading on the meter, i have had british gas engineers out to sort out the problem (took a month for the callout) and they have fitted a replacement meter, however they cannot get a reading from the old meter and i am now effectively back at zero.

for how i pay my bill i pay £75 a month on my electric in an effort to overpay and save for winter, i work from 8am till 8-9pm at night and dont use a huge amount of electric, the flat is so warm i've never had the heating on, and i have been away on holiday twice in those 6 months and also been on quite a few business trips where i've been away for anywhere between 2 days to 5 days at a time.

Also my other half has now moved in with me and our usage is MUCH higher than previously as she is in the house using electric all day pretty much.

How am i going to settle the bill????

macman

It will normally be estimated based on your ongoing consumption. So you need to give regular reads, at least every quarter-not once in 6 months.
Your LL cannot deny you reasonable access to your meter, so enforce your rights.
In situations where previous consumption has to be estimated, the customer invariably comes out ahead.