New electricity meter excessive use / neighbours connected

Jmoo

So here's the deal.

I've got a new Economy 7 meter for my flat with SSE. At the moment I'm average £15 a week in a studio flat, which someone unhelpful at SSE claimed was a decent amount to spend, even though I daren't even switch on the heating (storage heaters or a portable heater but neither have been included in that total yet!). Even when I'm away weekends I'm spending £8 and that's only with a fridge on, a television on standby, a phone charger on, and a hot water heater under the sink. It seems very excessive - SSE simply said it could be a faulty fridge or something clocking stuff up.

The other complication is the set up could suggest my neighbours are connected in some way to my electricity. One complained when the electricity on my flat was disconnected for my new meter the other week even though it wouldn't have touched anyone else's setup, and he has no meter when all of the others in this block of flats does. SSE confirms he's not on the grid, but pulling the switch again on the fusebox hasn't noticeably had any effect on any flats from what I can see. (Difficulty is I don't know which one is his flat, and he seems to be there at odd times). When I turn all my electricity off in my flat some days the meter suggests no electricity being used, other days there's the occasional flicker to suggest there is. It's a bit odd.

What leverage do I have with the letting agent/landlord/SSE? SSE don't really want to know, but I need to keep pushing it as I think I'll be owed money. Clearly my last bill of £80 is too high for the limited amount I use. My landlord isn't really rushing to investigate but did say he'd send "his own" electrician to investigate. Presumably the only answer will be for him to install another meter at his expense. Presumably though if correct and the neighbour is kind of stealing my electricity I have some rights to getting urgent action?

Robin9

Is this the same problem as your earlier post re flats 71 and 87 ?

AndyPK

Some pictures would help.

It sounds like the problem is with the landlord.

I would start looking for another place.

Robin9

Rubbish help from SSE

Do you really expect to be only paying £15 a week in winter for a studio flat for all your heating, lighting, cooking and power. For the winter period £25/30 would be nearer the mark and falling to £10/15 in the summer months.

What was your initial meter reading and what is it now ? What tariff ?

What was your last bill of £80 for - were the meter readings ACTUAL or ESTIMATED

Wait for your landlord to send his electrician and see what the outcome is of that investigation.

macman

£80 bill tells us nothing. Post the actual kWh usage on each rate from your last bill for meaningful advice.
Next time you go away for the weekend, switch off the supply at the CU-you'll soon then know if it's feeding another property, as the neighbour will be in the cold and dark. Is this an older property divided up into flats?
PS; if you have storage heaters, then use them. Your portable heater will use peak rate power at 3 times the cost of cheap rate E7 power.
Have you possibly got an immersion heater left on 24/7-one is usually supplied with E7 and NSH's?

macman

If the meter is faulty or someone is stealing from the supply, it's nothing to do with the landlord. It's up to you to report it and the supplier to resolve it. If there is a fault in the property wiring, that is down to the LL.

[Deleted User]

macman wrote: »

If the meter is faulty or someone is stealing from the supply, it's nothing to do with the landlord. It's up to you to report it and the supplier to resolve it. If there is a fault in the property wiring, that is down to the LL.

This subject came up on yesterdays BBC Housing Enforcers , 9.30 am where a landlord had re- let a flat which had been bypassed on both electric and gas meters. It seems it is something to do with the landlord as the council investigator made clear to the landlord. The L/L had in effect let a property which had dangerous wiring and gas supply and would be prosecuted for doing that. I ve seen this often where L/L just feign ignorance about what their tenants get up to. They are as bad as the tenants, so long as they re getting their rent they re not bothered about checking the meters.

Robin9

Is OP's way forward to speak to SSE's Fraud section ?

[Deleted User]

Robin9 wrote: »

Is OP's way forward to speak to SSE's Fraud section ?

.They do have one , I ve sent plenty of fiddled meters into SSEs RPU but never heard anything back and no idea if they took any action..EDF dont take action very much and I suspect SSE are the same.

Jmoo

Blimey lots of questions.

The heating isn't on at all. I daren't let the storage heaters charge up as I wanted to find out what *could* be causing the huge bill in the flat. So I've neither used the portable heater or the storage heater so this alone would be the use of television, lights, oven, fan heater in the bathroom, mobile phone and laptop charge, microwave, and shower. That's all I use and I'm only here during the week 6pm to 8am.

I've not actually had a bill yet but when I gave my actual readings over the phone they said based on actual readings on my old meter on a standard tarriff it was the equivalent of £85 for the first 40 days. They then proceeded to increase the direct debit from £23 a month to £40. At the time we thought it was the storage heater and fan, not anything more suspicious or concerning.

I've now had an Economy 7 meter and tarriff a week and already that is suggesting I've used 120kWh within 7 days. The usage seems to vary throughout the week, some days I used the oven more and found it used less kWh in a day than if I just used the microwave!

My only concern with turning off the electricity for a whole weekend, or even a day, is my fridge and freezer box which I guess won't be in a good state when I return!

I suppose I could go down the fraud route but I assume all they'd do is pull out any suspicious wiring leaving other tenants without electricity (potentially). I don't actually believe it to be their fault.

Everything about this flat otherwise is pretty decent.

macman

So your 'high usage' is purely based on a DD estimate? So that is meaningless.
120kWh a week is not at all high, that's 6,257 kWh a year, which would be incredibly low for an all-electric property. Please forget about mobile and laptop chargers, it's trivial. What matters is heating and hot water-and you've forgotten about hot water in your list-this is the second biggest usage.
Even if the bill was £80 over 40 days, that would be entirely reasonable in a winter quarter, so I think the problem here is that your perception of typical fuel costs is way under.
Next time you go away for the weekend, read the meter at start and end and see exactly what is being used.