Broken Electric Meter for 4 Years..HELP

mrsmeah

Hi Guys this is my first post but I need some help and advise.

I've been with EON since I moved in to my house on 28th February 2011, I called the day I moved in to give all my details and set up my direct debit and give a meter reading, They estimated my usage for Gas and Electric would be £55 a month.

My meter has been read every 6 months by there technicians that come around, Never had an issue.

I had a bill in September and was £89 in credit, I called to ask that the money be put back in to my account, They needed an up to date meter reading as the last one was done in March 2015, I gave them the reading and the last went on to tell me that the reading hadn't moved for the last 4 1/2 years.

Since then I've had a new meter installed on 12th October and had to ring on the 19th October to give a weeks worth of readings.

Since then I haven't spoken to anyone within the company I have tried calling but no one is yet to call me back.

I haven't a clue as to what the procedure is and getting close to Christmas with 2 kids i'm worried i'm going to be facing huge bill.

Please could anyone answer the few questions I have?

1 - Am I liable to pay the whole 4 & 1/2 years

2 - Do I have to pay the full amount in one go?

3 - Can I claim the service charges back for the meter which are £6.48 a month for when the meter didn't work?

Thank you so much in advance in anyone can help with this! Thank Amy

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.


Have you had regular bills for both gas and electricity over the past 4.5years?

macman

You don't pay meter 'service charges'. Do you mean standing charges?
Have you not read the meter yourself in over 4 years, nor checked that your bills were based on actual readings, not estimated? Assuming you have been receiving bills, as above.

[Deleted User]

I see many many people who sit back with broken meters for years on end and they all know they re broken and they all know they re either paying nothing or a super low direct debit. I ve even had one bloke calling me an effing jobsworth for spotting his stopped electric meter . Some have even told me they re switching the gas central heating off and heating electric.All this farce comes about because here at G4S ( reading meters for BG ,EDF, Scot Power , Eon ) our computers dont let the suppliers know that the meter is stopped, blank / busted or even tampered and fiddled . A lot of the time I m not going to know if the meter has stopped anyway unless its a digital type gone blank or a Sangamo Weston analogue which has a blank on the last single kwhr digit. We record the details in the "notes " section but no one ever looks at it with the automated billing systems.The info is just sat there doing nothing. I always tell the customers to phone up the supplier to report it themselves, as they are obliged to do in the terms and conditions of supply that they have agreed to do. Some customers can t see why its their problem and effectively say "get stuffed " you see to it, its not my problem.
OP you will have to pay it back but in the past the suppliers knock a huge chunk off when you tell them its your fault, your men are reading the meter. I think 50% off is possible

LewisHamilton

OP - in this scenario E.ON will have to estimate your past usage based on your average consumption going forwards on the new meter. I guess as the past usage has been previously unbilled it can only go back 12 months as E.ON are ultimately at fault for failing to bill to that usage and failing to recognise that there meter had stopped recording usage - it should have identified this issue through the meter readers sending the readings. I'd say a fair outcome would be for E.ON to estimate your past usage going back 12 months and only ask you to pay this amount, not the full 4 and a half years. You will be offered a payment plan too.

[Deleted User]

LewisHamilton wrote: »

OP - in this scenario E.ON will have to estimate your past usage based on your average consumption going forwards on the new meter. I guess as the past usage has been previously unbilled it can only go back 12 months as E.ON are ultimately at fault for failing to bill to that usage and failing to recognise that there meter had stopped recording usage - it should have identified this issue through the meter readers sending the readings. I'd say a fair outcome would be for E.ON to estimate your past usage going back 12 months and only ask you to pay this amount, not the full 4 and a half years. You will be offered a payment plan too.

Under the terms and conditions of supply the OP was obliged to report any faults on the meters as soon as possible.the Op would have ticked a box , albeit without reading it , to agree to these T/C s, as soon as a fault was discovered on the meters ,they should have been reporting it to the supplier.If its taken 4 years they have obviously not been in a hurry to pick up the phone..Just putting the onus on outside meter readers to discover the fault is ridiculous.Most of the time the people with dodgy meters wont allow access once they know they have faulty meters.

LewisHamilton

sacsquacco wrote: »

Under the terms and conditions of supply the OP was obliged to report any faults on the meters as soon as possible.the Op would have ticked a box , albeit without reading it , to agree to these T/C s, as soon as a fault was discovered on the meters ,they should have been reporting it to the supplier.If its taken 4 years they have obviously not been in a hurry to pick up the phone..Just putting the onus on outside meter readers to discover the fault is ridiculous.Most of the time the people with dodgy meters wont allow access once they know they have faulty meters.

I can guarantee that E.ON will only ask OP to pay 12 months worth of unbilled electricity charges. I can guarantee that it will also estimate those 12 months worth of charges based on the consumption on the new meter. That is a fact. There is no evidence of OP being unwilling to pay or unwilling to allow meter readers to read the meters. If OP has been paying their bills and allowing the meter readers to read the meter, then E.ON, as the billing company, is at fault for failing to bill to the past usage and failing to spot the meter had stopped.

OP - ensure that E.ON offers this as resolution, if not, go to the Ombudsman. People will try to put the blame on you but based on what you are saying, I see no evidence of you being at fault. There is an argument you could have spotted the meter readings being the same, but E.ON should have to. Thats why E.ON will only go back 12 months, not the full 4 and a half years.

[Deleted User]

Well done Lewis, you personally can guarantee it all can you ? you sound as gung ho as the real Lewis Hamilton. The OP has withheld the faulty meter for over four long years..thats FOUR years !. There is no defence to that..its too long. Why havent they picked up the phone and reported it ? If there was a problem which was costing the OP they would have been onto the supplier immediately . Suppliers only have to access meters every two years to inspect them. It is down to to the customer to report faults

naedanger

mrsmeah wrote: »

Please could anyone answer the few questions I have?

1 - Am I liable to pay the whole 4 & 1/2 years

2 - Do I have to pay the full amount in one go?

3 - Can I claim the service charges back for the meter which are £6.48 a month for when the meter didn't work?

Thank you so much in advance in anyone can help with this! Thank Amy

In my view the answers are as follows:

1 - You should only be held liable for the last 12 months of underbilled energy, since the underbilling is due to your supplier's failure to notice (on many occasions) that the meter was not increasing. In other words the back billing principle should be applied to your case:

Back-billing principle
If your supplier is at fault, it will not seek additional payment for unbilled energy used more than 12 months prior to the error being detected and a corrected bill being issued.

More info on back billing is here:
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/64010/back-billing-leaflet-2012.pdf

https://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication.html?task=file.download&id=5220

2. You will not be required to pay the amount in one go. You will probably be able to get the repayment spread over at least as long a period as it accrued. So if you are billed for 12 months of previously unbilled fuel you are likely to be permitted to repay it over 12 months. You may be offered longer if you can demonstrate you have financial difficulties making the payments.

3. You will presumably have paid your service or standing charges anyway. You will not be entitled to have them refunded as they cover much more than just the meter.

naedanger

mrsmeah wrote: »

Hi Guys this is my first post but I need some help and advise.

I've been with EON since I moved in to my house on 28th February 2011, I called the day I moved in to give all my details and set up my direct debit and give a meter reading, They estimated my usage for Gas and Electric would be £55 a month.

My meter has been read every 6 months by there technicians that come around, Never had an issue.

I had a bill in September and was £89 in credit, I called to ask that the money be put back in to my account, ...

There are some aspect of your case that are difficult for me to understand, and so I wonder if you have the facts fully right.

Your usage was originally estimated at £55 per month. After 4.5 years you thought you had accrued £89 credit.

If seems to me that if you had not been billed for one fuel for the whole of this period you would expect your reported credit to be much more than £89. Therefore I wonder if either:

a) your meter has not actually been stopped for the whole of this period, or

b) if one of the meters has been stopped for the whole period, whether the supplier has nevertheless been charging you for this fuel based on estimates.

In any event I can see why you would not notice anything particularly strange as the amount of credit you have accrued over 4.5 years does not seem that high to me.

System

I still don't understand how some people can not read or notice these things and then expect to get a large portion of the bill wiped clean.

Yes maybe the energy company could/should of spotted earlier, but i think it's up to the occupier/tennent or home owner to notice these things.