Am I owed a full credit for 2 years? - Meter Reading is the same as 2 years ago!!!

FRIDAYKNIGHTS

I rang SSE to advise I am moving out of my rental property. I gave them my electric meter reading and they said its the same as 2 years ago and hasn't moved - clearly the meter is broken.

This equated to a credit of 1,231 GBP.

However, they said I would only be able to close the account and give me a balance based on an estimated usage.

I have been paying c40-45 GBP a month for past 2 years and have obviously been using electricity - not sure how much!

However, could I technically be owed a credit of 1,231 GBP? As (and they have admitted) they haven't reached out to check if the meter is still working or taken a reading in the past 2 years!

Would love some advice here....Thanks!

Norman_Castle

FRIDAYKNIGHTS wrote: »

However, could I technically be owed a credit of 1,231 GBP?

Do you mean, is there a technicality which you can use to avoid paying for the electricity you have used and the standing charge over the last two years? I suspect not.

System

FRIDAYKNIGHTS wrote: »

I rang SSE to advise I am moving out of my rental property. I gave them my electric meter reading and they said its the same as 2 years ago and hasn't moved - clearly the meter is broken.

This equated to a credit of 1,231 GBP.

However, they said I would only be able to close the account and give me a balance based on an estimated usage.

I have been paying c40-45 GBP a month for past 2 years and have obviously been using electricity - not sure how much!

However, could I technically be owed a credit of 1,231 GBP? As (and they have admitted) they haven't reached out to check if the meter is still working or taken a reading in the past 2 years!

Would love some advice here....Thanks!

I hope that there is no evidence of tampering by A N Other or paying an estimated charge may be the least of your problems. Personally, I wouldn’t make too much of a fuss. At the very least, you will have to pay for 2 years of standing charges.

House_Martin

This is an example of how idiotic suppliers are
.I have seen the same thing many times with a meter which has stopped dead where a dual fuel customer receives a normal gas powered central heating monthly bill but a zero usage of electricity, only standing charges get billed.
Its virtually impossible for anyone to achieve zero electric use and a normal gas bill.Just not feasible, but auto billing systems in use now just show how ignorant suppliers are. BG do the same thing as much as the smaller suppliers.
A stopped meter is usually the good old analogue meter the Sangamo Weston which has a bad habit of sticking when it drops a blank on the fifth digit after, usually 2, nines preceding it.
Meter readers are mostly unaware of this trick and record the blank digit as a zero that is IF the supplier actually bothers to send one round to check the meters.
Other than that it could be a broken glass front deliberately or accidently pushed in to stop the rotating ring or even a hole drilled in the side of the meter to jam the ring.
OP you will have to accept an estimate as in your Terms and Conditions of supply you are obliged to report a faulty meter asap.. Two years is far too long not to notice what is going on.
Suppliers know they have messed up so they would err on the side of the customer and keep the estimated loss on the low side

Cardew

Presumably you have been getting bills with estimated meter readings??

Also (presumably) you haven't checked those estimated readings against the actual reading on the meter??