Electric Meter not being read

[Deleted User]

Is the advice given below to a consumer still right ? i thought the onus was on the customer to read a meter but I suppose the meters should be read by the electric board regularly incase the customer reads it incorrctly. What is the currrent requirement for the electricity board to read peoples meters.



'The supplier is bound by their Ofgem licence conditions to read an electricity meter once every 2 years, most will attempt to read every 3-6 months in order to produce accurate bills. If there has been no attempt to read the meter they are in breach of this.

The implications of not reading a meter on the customer will be that when the meter is read, a large catch-up bill is produced, putting you in to a debt situation. In these instances, the billing code applies. This is a code of conduct written by the Energy Retail Association called "Code of Practice for Accurate Bills: Billing Code". Under the terms of the code, the supplier can only back-bill for one year's energy consumption; any historic charges created older than one year must be written-off. The remaining balance should be put onto a payment plan if the customer is unable to pay in full.'

System

BBH123 wrote: »

Is the advice given below to a consumer still right ? i thought the onus was on the customer to read a meter but I suppose the meters should be read by the electric board regularly incase the customer reads it incorrctly. What is the currrent requirement for the electricity board to read peoples meters.



'The supplier is bound by their Ofgem licence conditions to read an electricity meter once every 2 years, most will attempt to read every 3-6 months in order to produce accurate bills. If there has been no attempt to read the meter they are in breach of this.

The implications of not reading a meter on the customer will be that when the meter is read, a large catch-up bill is produced, putting you in to a debt situation. In these instances, the billing code applies. This is a code of conduct written by the Energy Retail Association called "Code of Practice for Accurate Bills: Billing Code". Under the terms of the code, the supplier can only back-bill for one year's energy consumption; any historic charges created older than one year must be written-off. The remaining balance should be put onto a payment plan if the customer is unable to pay in full.'

You are reading an old policy. As of 1 Apr 16, the policy changed to meters have to be read by the supplier at least once every 12 months. The change is not prescriptive; if a consumer has a smart meter then there is no need for a meter reader. You are correct, if you want accurate bills then you have to read the meter/s yourself. Most suppliers now make this very clear in their ts and cs. I am not sure what is so difficult about reading a meter once per month?

As far as Back Billing is concerned, if a consumer does not provide readings then the supplier can use estimates. If the consumer disagrees with the estimate, the first thing the supplier will ask for is a meter reading. The Code exists to protect consumers from unexpectedly large charges when a bill is not produced for over 12 months. There is an onus on a consumer to ask for a bill and all DD payments will be taken into account. It is not a simple write off as far as I know.

System

Hengus wrote: »

You are reading an old policy. As of 1 Apr 16, the policy changed to meters have to be read by the supplier at least once every 12 months. The change is not prescriptive; if a consumer has a smart meter then there is no need for a meter reader. You are correct, if you want accurate bills then you have to read the meter/s yourself. Most suppliers now make this very clear in their ts and cs. I am not sure what is so difficult about reading a meter once per month?

As far as Back Billing is concerned, if a consumer does not provide readings then the supplier can use estimates. If the consumer disagrees with the estimate, the first thing the supplier will ask for is a meter reading. The Code exists to protect consumers from unexpectedly large charges when a bill is not produced for over 12 months. There is an onus on a consumer to ask for a bill and all DD payments will be taken into account. It is not a simple write off as far as I know.

Not sure what OFGEM are playing at if they have gone to one yearly reads. Its not doable.. EDF and Scot Power completely ignore all OFGEMS edicts and do not conduct proper "must inspects in ten years never mind one. They may "attempt " to read the meter , but that is it. .. They do not elevate meters to "must inspect " status and will not take out more than 50 warrants a year in the UK so says my contact in Revenue Protection. Scot Power just stick two fingers up to OFGEM and their silly rules and do it the Spanish way, and so do the French at EDF..Must reads are rarer than RHS with these two suppliers

System

From the Decision Letter:

Some respondents felt that removing the two-yearly meter inspection obligation could lead to inaccurate bills for customers with traditional meters. They suggested this could increase the risk of backbilling, including unexpectedly high bills when their traditional meters are exchanged for smart meters.

Our response

As noted in the November 2015 consultation, we believe that licence conditions 21B.4 and 21B.5 meet the objectives of billing accuracy in a more effective and efficient way than a static meter inspection interval. These conditions go further in requiring a meter read at least once a year, and allow suppliers flexibility in how they choose to obtain the meter readings.

We do not think it is good regulatory practice to retain the meter inspection conditions to provide a backstop in case of non-compliance with other conditions. If we receive evidence of non-compliance with any licence conditions, including SLC 21B, we will take suitable action.
We will not be amending the modification text to exclude traditional meters from the repeal of conditions 12.14 to 12.16.

Note: British Gas' 5 year derogation has also lapsed and it will not be re-newed. Clearly, there is nothing to stop a Supplier reading meters once a week if they are so minded.

System

Many people refuse point blank to allow meter readers to "inspect " the meters.Its worse now than ever when they just say something like "we read our own now " or "I ve submitted online " or they may put a reading on the card in the window.Whatever toothless OFGEM come up with is just hot air and has no bearing on how suppliers manage their business.They ignore OFGEM completely. The only supplier to play it by the book and do it correctly is British Gas.We now have instructions on our handheld computers to inspect the meter with BG and not accept a reading in the window or that the occupier has submitted reads online. This I think is now yearly. If they don t allow me to inspect the meter they have to make an appointment.Only BG do this, none of the others ever bother to do this.Its funny that only British Gas find all the meter fiddling and energy theft and OFGEM know this but refuse to fine EDF and Scot Power,Utility warehouse,Spark energy, Npower, Eon etc etc

spiro

I know BG and possibly other suppliers have a requirement in their T&Cs for the customer to provide readings at least twice a year.

Carrot007

It's all in the wording. I'm pretty sure it only says suppliers should make their best efforts to read the meter.

This is open to interpretation. And for very refusy customers I don't know of any supplier that would go to a warrent for a read.

System

Carrot007 wrote: »

It's all in the wording. I'm pretty sure it only says suppliers should make their best efforts to read the meter.

This is open to interpretation. And for very refusy customers I don't know of any supplier that would go to a warrent for a read.

I m sure you are right. Its not practical for any supplier to get into every property once a year. They can t manage it every two years. Most meter readers pack in work at 4.30 pm and never get into the 8 am to 5 pm average workers property. No supplier will take out any warrant simply to get a reading, even BG don t do that without suspect meter tampering.
I had to laugh today when a fellow meter reader texted me saying he got info from a neighbour who saw the occupier next door switching his outside box gas meter round at night..Turns out he was an ex BG employee sacked for theft. No real problems for him though , he will just have to pay what they think he owes.