Meter readings and high billing

blackie_jones

Hello, I bought and moved into a new property and failed to note down the meter readings when I moved in (I know, I know, I was under extreme stress at the time not the least my partner going into labor and all the covid 19 stuff!) until I switched suppliers after about 5 weeks. When I switched suppliers I gave a meter reading to the new suppliers who obviously passed on that information to the previous suppliers for me to have a final bill from them. The previous suppliers have sent me a bill for around £600 pounds for a 5 week period because the have used estimated opening readings of when I moved in against the readings I gave my new supplier. Obviously that is a very high figure for such a short period and I have offered to give them weekly , time stamped readings so they can work out an average figure for me for a more accurate bill. They so far refuse to entertain this idea as they would have to adjust the final bill for the previous account holders and are insisting on

• Time stamped photo of the meter reading on the moving in date.
• Inventory Report (Check In/Check Out Report).
• Headed (official) letter of confirmation from the letting or estate agents.
• Confirmation letter signed by both parties in agreement.

I can't provide any of the above and have phoned the consumer advice line who suggested something similar to my offer of doing weekly readings to get a more accurate bill which have fallen on deaf ears so far. I'm wondering if I have any other course of action available? the energy company will not say whether they had a final reading from previous owners when they moved out or if they have received any smart meter readings. Help!

burntwood

blackie_jones said:

Hello, I bought and moved into a new property and failed to note down the meter readings when I moved in (I know, I know, I was under extreme stress at the time not the least my partner going into labor and all the covid 19 stuff!) until I switched suppliers after about 5 weeks. When I switched suppliers I gave a meter reading to the new suppliers who obviously passed on that information to the previous suppliers for me to have a final bill from them. The previous suppliers have sent me a bill for around £600 pounds for a 5 week period because the have used estimated opening readings of when I moved in against the readings I gave my new supplier. Obviously that is a very high figure for such a short period and I have offered to give them weekly , time stamped readings so they can work out an average figure for me for a more accurate bill. They so far refuse to entertain this idea as they would have to adjust the final bill for the previous account holders and are insisting on

• Time stamped photo of the meter reading on the moving in date.
• Inventory Report (Check In/Check Out Report).
• Headed (official) letter of confirmation from the letting or estate agents.
• Confirmation letter signed by both parties in agreement.

I can't provide any of the above and have phoned the consumer advice line who suggested something similar to my offer of doing weekly readings to get a more accurate bill which have fallen on deaf ears so far. I'm wondering if I have any other course of action available? the energy company will not say whether they had a final reading from previous owners when they moved out or if they have received any smart meter readings. Help!

If you didn;t provide a meter reading, they would have used the one used for the previous account holder, actual or estimated.
If actual, no guarantee the previous account holder gave a correct actual reading.

But someone has to pay for the energy used, and you can't prove it wasn't you.

blackie_jones

burntwood said:

blackie_jones said:

Hello, I bought and moved into a new property and failed to note down the meter readings when I moved in (I know, I know, I was under extreme stress at the time not the least my partner going into labor and all the covid 19 stuff!) until I switched suppliers after about 5 weeks. When I switched suppliers I gave a meter reading to the new suppliers who obviously passed on that information to the previous suppliers for me to have a final bill from them. The previous suppliers have sent me a bill for around £600 pounds for a 5 week period because the have used estimated opening readings of when I moved in against the readings I gave my new supplier. Obviously that is a very high figure for such a short period and I have offered to give them weekly , time stamped readings so they can work out an average figure for me for a more accurate bill. They so far refuse to entertain this idea as they would have to adjust the final bill for the previous account holders and are insisting on

• Time stamped photo of the meter reading on the moving in date.
• Inventory Report (Check In/Check Out Report).
• Headed (official) letter of confirmation from the letting or estate agents.
• Confirmation letter signed by both parties in agreement.

I can't provide any of the above and have phoned the consumer advice line who suggested something similar to my offer of doing weekly readings to get a more accurate bill which have fallen on deaf ears so far. I'm wondering if I have any other course of action available? the energy company will not say whether they had a final reading from previous owners when they moved out or if they have received any smart meter readings. Help!

If you didn;t provide a meter reading, they would have used the one used for the previous account holder, actual or estimated.
If actual, no guarantee the previous account holder gave a correct actual reading.

But someone has to pay for the energy used, and you can't prove it wasn't you.

So I don't have any leg to stand on? :-(

matelodave

In a nutshell yes. Unless the energy company relent then you may well end up having to pay for this mistake.

It may have seemed trivial at the time but it is the subject of many, many posts on this forum. You cannot trust others to read the meter or give the correct readings when they move out, whether it's done by omission or even deliberately. the problem is that the next customer ends up paying the lot unless they send in an updated reading on the day they take over.

Not reading your meter when you move in, not giving regular readings whilst you are there and not reading it when you leave has cost a lot of people a lot of money and there's not a lot you can do about it.