Massive electricity bill!!!!

Flobberdob

Hi all,
Ok, my daughter was renting a one bedroom annex with her boyfriend. They both worked full time so were out mon - fri and the place was empty. They split and left the tenancy after 4 months. It was all electric, storage heaters, cooker, emersion etc
During the time they were there she paid £72/month by dd but my daughter has just received a final bill for approx £1900. So over the 4 month period it’s approximately £2300
Surly that amount of electricity can’t be consumed over 4 months in just evenings and weekends?
Have spoken to Scottish power but they say they just charge what the meter reading say, which I understand (but they admit it’s extremely excessive).
Problem is the landlord did the meter readings, currently trying to figure out if they were read correctly.
My main question is:- is it possible to get through this much electricity in just 4 months given the information given above?
I just can’t see it?
Many thanks

Bertles

No, that amount is just silly for 4 months.

This is likely to be caused by the reads being read incorrectly.

Sometimes, with electricity, some people enter an extra digit, which is not needed, or if it's a dial meter, they just don't know how to read it and just submit any old thing. If she had storage heaters it could have had a 2 rate meter and the reads submitted the wrong way round. Lots of things that can go wrong basically.

The best thing to do would be to get the landlord to send a photo of the meter (including the read and serial number) to your daughter and then she can compare this to what was charged on the bill.

If the read on the bill is incorrect then she can send in the photo as evidence and get it amended.

If the final read is correct, it could be an issue with the initial read submitted when she moved in but let's rule this out first

Also, ask if they can put the account on hold while it's being investigated or they will start chasing payment.

Robin9

Good advice from Bertles.

This is a meter reading issue and seems to happen when the landlord, agent, caretaker gets involved in the readings - the resulting bill can be unreliable.

Have you seen your daughter's bill? Do the letters A,C or E appear against any of the readings ? Do any of the readings look wrong - perhaps the recent is 10 x the previous ?

[Deleted User]

Old electric "dial " type meters are still around and they have always been badly misread by both meter readers and the occupiers.They have 6 small rotating dials.There is a little trick in reading them when some of the pointers align on or very near a border
Digital meters get misread if they are not viewed square to the meter.4 s and 9 s get mixed, also 1 s and 7 s
The latest smart meters are getting misread especially the Secure Liberty meters which have 8 digits and a decimal point which can be hard to see leading some to include the last digit.First 7 digits only for this meter

Biscuit_Tin

Flobberdob wrote: »

Hi all,
Ok, my daughter was renting a one bedroom annex with her boyfriend. They both worked full time so were out mon - fri and the place was empty. They split and left the tenancy after 4 months. It was all electric, storage heaters, cooker, emersion etc
During the time they were there she paid £72/month by dd but my daughter has just received a final bill for approx £1900. So over the 4 month period it’s approximately £2300
Surly that amount of electricity can’t be consumed over 4 months in just evenings and weekends?
Have spoken to Scottish power but they say they just charge what the meter reading say, which I understand (but they admit it’s extremely excessive).
Problem is the landlord did the meter readings, currently trying to figure out if they were read correctly.
My main question is:- is it possible to get through this much electricity in just 4 months given the information given above?
I just can’t see it?
Many thanks

If your daughter was responsible for paying for the electric bill, why did she not read the meter herself?

Even if that didn't happen, the failure to at least include opening and closing meter reads, agreed by the landlord/agent, on the ingoing/outgoing inventory/statement of condition was a serious failure (as well as a poor reflection on the landlord/agent involved)

Lessons learned, hopefully


Welcome to MSE. I can see this issue of your daughter and her boyfriend has been keeping you awake :cool:

grumpycrab

Flobberdob wrote: »

Problem is the landlord did the meter readings, currently trying to figure out if they were read correctly.

Fingers crossed that daughter and/or boyfriend took pics of the meter at start and end of tenancy. Otherwise its going to be hard work.

Biscuit_Tin

grumpycrab wrote: »

Fingers crossed that daughter and/or boyfriend took pics of the meter at start and end of tenancy. Otherwise its going to be hard work.

Photos alone are generally not sufficient, as there is no guarantee what day the photos were taken.

Getting the landlord/agent to agree the meter readings on the ingoing/outgoing inventory/statement of condition is the appropriate method.