Electricity

SGlas

Hello. I live in a building divided into 6 flats. It is supported housing. The electricity meters are situated outside my flat, in a cupboard. In the last year I have noticed that there are only 5 and not 6 electricity meters. A number of the electricity companies' meter readers when they come to read the meters have knocked on my door telling me that my meter is the meter that is not in the cupboard and stating that my meter must be in my flat. I keep telling that I have not seen any meter in my flat.
So for the last 4 years I have received estimated meter readings. The company has asked me to provide actual readings and it even states in their billing letters that my meter is not easily accessible. Because they misled me into believing that my meter was not one of the 5 in the cupboard and because I cannot see a meter to read from I have been paying the estimates.
In September the company rebilled me for a higher amount. I accepted the offer of the electricity company sending round an engineer to locate my meter. This week an engineer came and found that my meter was one of the meters in the cupboard. The electricity company now want to back bill me for the 4 years. I would like to know whether I can claim under the back billing code not to be billed for more than 1 year.
Also there is an issue with an actual reading from 4 years ago. On my bill it looks as though a reading was taken from one meter and then I was switched to another meter with a different serial number. However on the bill it looks as if they have carried forward the meter reading from the first meter onto the current meter so the opening actual meter reading for this meter, I believe, is not accurate.

naedanger

SGlas wrote: »

Hello. I live in a building divided into 6 flats. It is supported housing. The electricity meters are situated outside my flat, in a cupboard. In the last year I have noticed that there are only 5 and not 6 electricity meters. A number of the electricity companies' meter readers when they come to read the meters have knocked on my door telling me that my meter is the meter that is not in the cupboard and stating that my meter must be in my flat. I keep telling that I have not seen any meter in my flat.
So for the last 4 years I have received estimated meter readings. The company has asked me to provide actual readings and it even states in their billing letters that my meter is not easily accessible. Because they misled me into believing that my meter was not one of the 5 in the cupboard and because I cannot see a meter to read from I have been paying the estimates.
In September the company rebilled me for a higher amount. I accepted the offer of the electricity company sending round an engineer to locate my meter. This week an engineer came and found that my meter was one of the meters in the cupboard. The electricity company now want to back bill me for the 4 years. I would like to know whether I can claim under the back billing code not to be billed for more than 1 year.
Also there is an issue with an actual reading from 4 years ago. On my bill it looks as though a reading was taken from one meter and then I was switched to another meter with a different serial number. However on the bill it looks as if they have carried forward the meter reading from the first meter onto the current meter so the opening actual meter reading for this meter, I believe, is not accurate.

The back billing code is here:

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/files/docs/Industry%20codes/Code%20of%20Practice%20for%20accurate%20bills/code_of_practice_for_accurate_bills_-_back_billing_for_domestic_customers.pdf

I suspect your electricity supplier will argue it was your responsibility to know where you meter was, and that your case is therefore not covered by the code.

You could of course argue otherwise through their formal complaint process. However my view is you will not win unless you have good evidence you made all reasonable efforts to get accurate readings. (But I may well be wrong.)