HELP Electricity Meter Black Hole!

mousical

Hi,


I just moved into my first owned property (hooray finally on the ladder) - on moving in I diligently went about setting up all my bills but on phoning Thames Water they had no record of my property of or my adjacent neighbors paying. I'm in the basement flat 9B - there is also a 9A and 9C. This was the first red flag but as my property had been unoccupied for a while (I bought from a developer, who had bought at auction) it wasn't totally unsurprising.


I then went to set up Electricity as I found a meter in my property (the flat is electric only) but had no idea of the supplier so called UK power networks. they had no record of the address or the meter serial number. I wish at that point I had put the phone down and done a free electricity dance. However, I had a nagging feeling this would come back to bite me and as I will possibly want to rent the property out in the future I decided to tackle it. UK Power Network said it needed to be set up as a new connection as it had somehow fallen off the database (not uncommon they said) - they gave me a code and told me to pick my supplier. I chose SSE as via comparison for a small one bed flat they seemed to offered the best rates. SSE said it would take a month to set up so they wont start charging me until 10th March. All seemed fine.


Then I read up a little on immersion heaters and came across many conflicting threads saying leave on / don't so decided to do a test on how much electricity it was using if I left it on one day vs switched it off so did some meter readings. It was during this test that I realized something clearly wasn't right as my readings were coming out at 27KWH a day on average for days that I had no heating on and immersion on for 20 mins max. This lead me to think hmmm maybe this meter is also serving the other flats. I did a test where I switched everything off and the meter still ticked up.


I then phoned SSE to report it but they say they cant look at it until they take over my account on 10th (from seemingly nobody) - which is fair enough but what they did do was check the national database and confirm that 9A and C don't have accounts. I think they realized we were under the radar and never bothered to sort it out....who wouldn't want free lecky!


I spoke to one Neighbor who is a tenant and said she didn't know where her meter was and her landlord deals with it (I think that's a fib)


So after that long description (sorry but you needed the background) I am at a loss as what do, I feel like now I am in the 'system' I really do need to sort it out. I have had advice to call SSE and cancel them setting up my account but that concerns me that one day I will end up with a MEGA BILL. but at the same time I am also concerned that if there has been mis-wiring I am going to have to pay a huge amount to sort that out as its on my property/ get into a debate with the other leaseholders about who pays what etc to sort this mess out.


Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

WestonDave

First thing I'd do is flick that big switch next to "your" meter to the off position and see which of the other tenants howls! That'll soon see who is getting a free ride. If it is all feeding off the one meter in your flat then I'd start by suggesting that costs of getting it sorted and any back billing are shared otherwise you are getting your bit rewired to cut them off and leaving them to sort it!


You could do it the nicer way and speak to the other two saying that you think that something other than your flat is feeding from your meter, and that you plan to turn it off for a while - which if its their flat may result in their freezer etc not working - and invite them to work with you to find a shared solution. But ultimately if the meter is in your flat then I see little to stop you firstly just turning their supply off and in time ensuring that the only thing it feeds is your flat with their supply left connected to nothing but fresh air.