Electricity meter removed still paying standing charge

annakd12

Hoping for some advice!

2 years ago we moved into a house that had previously been split into 2 flats and therefore had 2 gas and 2 electricity meters. We have renovated to convert back to one house.
Last year when we had the boiler replaced we contacted the utility company (utility warehouse at the time) to ask what to do with the spare meter as we had moved the whole house onto one supply and the advised us to contact SGN who come to remove the meter and supply - for this we paid £1600 approx.
Earlier this year when it came to having an electricity meter removed we again contacted utility warehouse and they advised us they would sort it and charged us £60 for doing so. Someone came on 30th January and removed the meter and we assumed this was the end of the matter.
In March we changed utility company to Npower but utility warehouse were still billing us.
Having spoken to them it appears they are still charging us a standing charge for the supply they removed the meter on because the feed is still there. THe only way to get rid of the standing charge is to pay to have the feed removed - this is now under a path we have just paid £1600 to have laid. This was not advised at the time of speaking to them to ask for the supply to be removed - they just said they would deal with it and we assumed that was the end of that.

SO - we now have an unmetered supply at the side of the house which utility warehouse are charging us a standing charge for. We cant change to a utility company who offer tariffs with no standing charge because there is no meter number to give them :mad: so we feel like were stuck and dont really know where to go from here.
SSE who are the electricity board say it's nothing to do with them too.
Utility warehouse have admitted that they have advised us incorrectly in getting the meter removed, but are only offering us £40 compensation and say that we have to pay to have the cable dug out which itself will only cost about £200 but then the path repairs we dont know how much that will cost. Paying for the cable to be removed is no problem as we'd have had to pay for this in the beginning if they'd advised us correncly but the path is another issue and we dont feel like £40 cuts the mustard.
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly received.

Thanks

EachPenny

annakd12 wrote: »

...that we have to pay to have the cable dug out which itself will only cost about £200 but then the path repairs we dont know how much that will cost.

Are they really saying that the path needs to be dug up to remove the whole length of the cable? I know copper prices are good, but is it really worth digging it all out?

I would expect them to need to excavate where your supply is tapped from the main in the street, which is most likely under the road or footpath, and make a disconnection there. It would be good practice for the ends of the remaining part of your supply to be capped in some way, but removing the whole length of cable seems like hard work, especially if it is under a newly laid path.

Can you get the responsible company to do a site visit and explain what needs to be done - and perhaps negotiate with them to find a way of avoiding digging up the path?

annakd12

The supply is split by the side of the house as far as we know - so originally there was one feed from the road then when the previous owners split into 2 flats that supply was split.
What they say they want to do is dug up from the side of the house to the connection.

Its the principle of this that bothers me most - they have advised me incorrectly and then aren't willing to compensate me for the damage digging up the cable will do. I have no issue paying for the labour to dig up the cable.

I'll speak to a contractor and see what they advise the cost will be and see if they can perhaps offer a good suggestion. THank you for the idea!

Other than this I'm not sure we have any other options other than continuing to pay the standing charge if we don't want the path interfered with?

EachPenny

annakd12 wrote: »

The supply is split by the side of the house as far as we know - so originally there was one feed from the road then when the previous owners split into 2 flats that supply was split. What they say they want to do is dug up from the side of the house to the connection.

Ok, that makes a little more sense regarding the path, but not much sense in terms of doing the work at least cost.

Do the two cables go to separate meters, and are these in cabinets/boxes outside?

annakd12

Yes, there were 2 separate cabinets on in the outside wall, one now has the meter for the power to the whole house and the other is empty since the meter was removed. It still has the cable coming into the box from the ground.
The box that supplies the house has a separate cable going into it from the ground. How exactly the feed is split we don't know.

EachPenny

I'm sure they will have a very good reason why it cannot be done, but I would try and argue that rather than digging up the path to disconnect the underground cable, it would make more sense to either leave things as they are, or cap the cable in the meter box - and obviously them stop charging for a supply which is no longer in use.

If they say 'no' then I would seriously consider making a complaint to the ombudsman before you spend any more money and agree to have the path dug up. You've already had a failure in service to deal with, and they should be willing to agree to the lowest-cost safe solution to the problem.

Leaving the cable safely terminated in the unused meter box doesn't seem to be an unreasonable approach to take in the circumstances. You might not want the 'spare' meter box left on the wall - but you'll need to consider the cost implications of getting rid of it completely.

nPower

annakd12 wrote: »

Hoping for some advice!

2 years ago we moved into a house that had previously been split into 2 flats and therefore had 2 gas and 2 electricity meters. We have renovated to convert back to one house.
Last year when we had the boiler replaced we contacted the utility company (utility warehouse at the time) to ask what to do with the spare meter as we had moved the whole house onto one supply and the advised us to contact SGN who come to remove the meter and supply - for this we paid £1600 approx.
Earlier this year when it came to having an electricity meter removed we again contacted utility warehouse and they advised us they would sort it and charged us £60 for doing so. Someone came on 30th January and removed the meter and we assumed this was the end of the matter.
In March we changed utility company to Npower but utility warehouse were still billing us.
Having spoken to them it appears they are still charging us a standing charge for the supply they removed the meter on because the feed is still there. THe only way to get rid of the standing charge is to pay to have the feed removed - this is now under a path we have just paid £1600 to have laid. This was not advised at the time of speaking to them to ask for the supply to be removed - they just said they would deal with it and we assumed that was the end of that.

SO - we now have an unmetered supply at the side of the house which utility warehouse are charging us a standing charge for. We cant change to a utility company who offer tariffs with no standing charge because there is no meter number to give them :mad: so we feel like were stuck and dont really know where to go from here.
SSE who are the electricity board say it's nothing to do with them too.
Utility warehouse have admitted that they have advised us incorrectly in getting the meter removed, but are only offering us £40 compensation and say that we have to pay to have the cable dug out which itself will only cost about £200 but then the path repairs we dont know how much that will cost. Paying for the cable to be removed is no problem as we'd have had to pay for this in the beginning if they'd advised us correncly but the path is another issue and we dont feel like £40 cuts the mustard.
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly received.

Thanks

Hi annakd12,

I'm sorry to learn of the issues you're having with your meter. If you need our help please contact us using the details on our profile page.

Thanks

Jen