Huge electric bill

charliemo_3

We have been renting a property in Scotland for 4 years. Our electric meter is not in the house, but situated on the second floor of a derelict barn accross the garden. When we moved in, our landlord obtained a reading for Sottish Hydro and all was good. We were told under no circumstances were we to enter the derelict building as it was both dangerous and not part of out tenancy. Scottish Hydro visisted our property on several occasions to conduct meter readings but did not read the meter as they too deemed it too dangerous for their staff to read. They then put us on estimated bills based on the first reading. Recently Scottish Hydro have requested that the meter be moved and in the interim period got the landlord to cut a hole in the ceiling of the barn to allow access to the meter. They have now taken an accurate reading which has resulted in a near £3000 bill landing on us. As they haven't read the meter for 4 years and have only estimated our usage, where do we stand? Do we simpley have to pay up or do they have any legal obligation to have read it? Any advice most welcome. Jon

energyworker

I'd be inclined to suggest that you will need to pay the bill. Companies merely have an obligation to send someone to read a meter every two years. It would seem that for whatever reason the meter has been made inaccessible, it is your (or possibly your landlords dependent on your rental contract) responsibility to keep the meter accessible. If the company cannot safely access the meter then they will have option but to bill based on estimates. You should have contacted your DNO to see if they could move the meter or had it done privately.

I would contact the company to try and get a payment plan in place.

Owain_Moneysaver

The reason they haven't read the meter is because they weren't given safe access to it, even though they tried.

I think you're quite lucky actually that they didn't take legal action to gain access to the meters (by an interdict against you to make the property safe) or to disconnect you before now.

Because they tried to read the meters, I don't think you'll have much luck in a Scottish court trying to claim that you aren't liable for the energy costs because they didn't meet any statutory frequency for meter reading.

If you can't afford to pay the £3000 you can ask them if they can reduce it as a gesture of goodwill because they didn't take action to get an accurate meter reading earlier, or arrange a payment plan.