faulty wiring to meter who is responsible?

Chrysalis

So I did some tests in my property by turning everything off, even the dip switches for the power feed to the property, left it for 6 hours and the meter registered 3 units used.

I reported it to my electricity provider who said they will check the meter and fix it if found at fault, but they said if its not the meter itself and due to bad wiring between the flats there is nothing they can do, I asked about the electricity usage I been paying for and they said if the meter is proven to be fine I am liable.

Contacted the landlord who said if I want it fixing I need to pay for it myself. O_o

How to proceed with this?

EachPenny

If everything on the consumer unit (CU) (fuse box) is switched off, including the switch which is usually labeled 'Main Switch', then the meter shouldn't be recording any use.

If the meter is in your home, or on a wall outside, then any fault in the wiring on the supply side of the meter is not going to cause the meter to record any consumption as it cannot 'see' it.

How far from your meter is the CU located? Can you see the whole length of the wires from the meter to the CU?

One possibility might be you have more than one consumer unit fed from the one meter?

0.5 units per hour is quite a lot of energy to be 'leaking' as a result of 'faulty' wiring.

If you can rule out a second CU, and a neighbour isn't tapping your supply between the meter and your CU, then you should really get an electrician to come in and test your wiring rather than paying to have the meter tested. It should be really easy to identify the fault if it is between the meter and the CU or it could even be a faultily wired CU (i.e. a circuit connected to the main switch input). A wiring fault could have serious consequences, so eliminating that would be my priority.

macman

Is there perhaps some communal lighting that the LL should be paying for (stairwell, hall etc)? Sounds like the usual bodged conversion-and your LL sounds like an idiot.

dogshome

500W is a lot of power, (12Kwh a day - £600 odd a year), which is enough to cover the use of a family home and way beyond that needed for lighting in corridors & stairways.

I know it will cost, but worth getting an Electrician in to examine the wiring on the 'output' side of the meter to check for wires feeding something other than your Consumer Unit .

Also worth doing your 'All-Off ' check at different times to see if the mystery 500W varies during the day.
If it varies this is an indication, not proof positive, that your meter is supplying another flat.
If its stable at 500W, this is an indication of a serious and dangerous wiring fault

House_Martin

Chrysalis wrote: »

So I did some tests in my property by turning everything off, even the dip switches for the power feed to the property, left it for 6 hours and the meter registered 3 units used.

I reported it to my electricity provider who said they will check the meter and fix it if found at fault, but they said if its not the meter itself and due to bad wiring between the flats there is nothing they can do, I asked about the electricity usage I been paying for and they said if the meter is proven to be fine I am liable.

Contacted the landlord who said if I want it fixing I need to pay for it myself. O_o

How to proceed with this?

Your landlord sounds very suspicious, as if he really knows what the problem is.If it was my property /i would be very nervous about my property burning down with a fault like that.. I have a very suspicious mind and I would be sniffing around that flat for the unique smell of growing cannabis which stinks at the end of the twelve week growing period..A typical cannabis crop takes 12 weeks and costs approx £800 in energy for all the strong lights /heat needed and every cannabis grower bypasses the meters for free dope/skunk

AndyPK

is it an old spinning meter or digital display ?

Chrysalis

To answer the questions.

It is digital
The meter is in a shared small space round the back of the building next to the other 2 meters for the other 2 flats.
The dipswitches I mentioned are in my kitchen, when they all turned off, nothing works, no lights, no power sockets, no cooker, no heating etc.
The main on/off switch is near the meter, but I didnt touch that as its labeled as dangerous to use.
There is no communal area, each flat has its own front door.
My flat is ground floor at front of building, meters are at back of building, the positioning of the meters all next to each other presumably makes it easy for one meter to be connected to the wrong place.

Please let me know if you need any more info and if you feel its ok for me to turn off the main switch next to the meter.

Eachpenny yeah what is in my kitchen is a fusebox Glad you recognised what it is. It is not close to the meter. My kitchen is about halfway to back of building, between the meter and my kitchen is the front door and stairs for the above flat, and the meters are right next to the front door of the 3rd flat at the back.

molerat

Are you sure the meter you are looking at is your meter as they are all together ?

Chrysalis

It has a sticker of flat 1 above it (my flat) and the meter number matches what I been given.

I suppose the proper test would be to flip the on/off for it and see if it turns my flat off, but it is labeled as dangerous.

molerat

Turn your fuse box main switch off and see if any of the meters stop. Do a load test, get someone in the house to turn on a high load appliance whilst you are watching the meter - electric fire, kettle, oven etc - and see which meter starts flashing quicker, turn load off and flashing slows, turn load on again and flashing speeds up.

Just because it has a sticker on and matches what you have been told means nothing. Many stories here of complete mess ups with meter marking.

EachPenny

Chrysalis wrote: »

It has a sticker of flat 1 above it (my flat) and the meter number matches what I been given.

I suppose the proper test would be to flip the on/off for it and see if it turns my flat off, but it is labeled as dangerous.

First off, don't touch that switch if it is marked as dangerous :eek: It may also turn off the power to the whole building which may make you very unpopular.

The main switch I was talking about should be on the consumer unit/fusebox. Could you post a picture of it so we can see and identify where it is for you?

If the meter is that remote from your consumer unit there is plenty of scope for something 'odd' to be happening inbetween!

molerat makes a good point that you may be looking at the wrong meter. The obvious thing would be to repeat your switching off method and see if one of the other meters stops. The fact your bill and the number on the meter match doesn't mean your supply is actually coming from that meter.