Gas meter mix up in whole building block. Advice appreciated

ojoniskyp

Hello, I will try to make this as simple as possible but I would ask that you bear with me and give me some advice on the situation.

• Moved into rented property, contract states that both gas and electricity will be supplied by provider X on move in date. This was not the case with the gas, breach of contract here? What can I do with it? This is just a secondary thought, moving on to the main problem.
• I moved in 2 months after my tenancy started due to personal reasons. I opened the letter box to find a stack of letters from Scottish Power from an account in debt and a blocked switch(?) on my tenancy commencement date from 2 months ago due to said account being in debt. I phone them to explain that I am a new tenant, unbeknown to me of the mess that was happening backstage. They create a new account for me, all is well so far.
• Couple of days later they ask me for a meter reading. I go to the gas meter room of my building block (2 separate building blocks in total) where every gas meter for the flats of the block are located and find the one labelled with my flat number, I do not bother checking the serial number because who would have thought right? I send them that number, next day the bill arrives asking for 300 pounds to my surprise. I check the gas meter serial number charged, it was the wrong number. 
• My signed inventory check states which gas meter serial number I am liable to pay the bills for and it is the one labelled as my flat in the gas meter room. I carried out multiple burn tests to ensure this and it does indeed supply my flat, so these people tried to charge me for the wrong gas meter.
• I phone Scottish Power and explain the situation and tell them that meter 1 they charged me for, is not supplying my property and meter 2 is the correct one, they tell me that meter 2 is supplied by Opus energy registered on a different flat, they remove my name from the account but they did not deem it void.
• I call Opus and explain the situation, their reply: "We have an account created for this meter - GDPR blah blah can't give you any more details". 
• I knock on the door of the flat that is incorrectly supplied by Opus and explain the situation to the tenant. Worth noting that this flat was in the OTHER building block which has its own room with gas meters but anyway, moving on. They phone Opus and explain the situation as the "account holder", they remove that person's name from the account and replace it with mine along with the readings and dates I gave them, they said they would update the national database to point to my flat. Fast forward 1 and a half months(today), I check the findmysupplier website and the database still shows Scottish Power as the supply of my flat and Opus as the supply of the other flat, I am yet to receive any letter from Opus as well, but they have my name and an account on that meter for me now.
• I help the other tenant find their correct gas meter from the gas meter room, guess what... Their meter was wrongly registered as well, the whole block is mixed up, moving on.
• I called them again 3 weeks after the initial conversation and told them the change hadn't happened yet, they said by the end of October the latest, again, it didn't happen.
• Scottish power keeps sending me letters addressed to the owner/occupier about debts for the gas meter that does not supply my property.
• Letting agency say they can't do anything, they've given me the gas meter serial number I am liable to pay for, any other gas meter charge I can just ignore, not mine to pay, their words.
• The building block's property management hasn't done anything after I contacted them, and explaining that the whole block is paying wrong bills, saying that it is each tenant's responsibility to deal with the suppliers.
• I have filed a complaint with both suppliers, SP on October 13th and Opus 2 days ago with mostly the same demands. Remove gas meter 1 from my flat and add correct gas meter 2 in its place. And also to Scottish Power to have the account I created deemed void because it was unknowingly created for the flat the gas meter does not supply and the actual meter reading provided was from the correct gas meter of the flat.
• Scottish Power complaint has been raised since the 9th of October and my "designated complaint handler" is still to make contact. I contacted live chat support last week on Tuesday to demand a reply, they said the handler would be in contact the latest in 5 days, they never contacted me.

After all of the above, some main questions I would like answered

• Since the meter mix up is not just between 2 flats, and I can't (won't) know where the meter I am being charged for incorrectly is pointing to, is it any of my concern? They just need to un-register it from my property right? It is entirely their concern and not mine to know where their meter should be pointing to and given all the evidence I have provided to them they should remove the meter from my property and they can then deal with where it should be pointing to. A call with ombudsman and Xoserve confirmed that indeed it is none of my business where their meter should be pointing to as long as I can prove its not supplying my flat. I have sent both suppliers a picture of my correct meter along with the signed inventory check and an email confirmation deeming me liable for my correct meter from my lettings agent.
• It is also not my concern that the other flat will have their "false" meter un-registered and have it placed correctly on my flat since it was not supplying their flat in the first place.
• What are the next steps? I just want this resolved as soon as possible so I can be at peace at the property and pay my correct bills and be able to switch supplier correctly. Can I take them to court and be done with it? Threaten legal action through a solicitor? Take it to the Ombudsman and have it dragged for more months and hope that they will solve it? Just leave the property(last resort), which is also an option and let Opus know which period to charge me for and let this be someone else's problem? Sit back and let it solve itself since I know I am on the right and any debtors showing up for the wrongly charged meter I just hand them the evidence and tell them to !!!!!!?
• I suppose there is no other authority to contact directly with the supporting evidence so they can directly update the database?
• Can I hope that any of the 2 suppliers will be able to resolve this before 8 weeks?

Thank you in advance for any helpful information and apologies for the long post.

ojoniskyp

Something, I forgot to mention.
Scottish Power said they would update the information but it would take up to 30 days, and that response wasn't from my complaint handler. I have email confirmation from the stating the following: "I can confirm that we will update meter 2(correct meter) as the supply of "my flat" as soon as possible but keep in mind it can take up to 30 days" . Not sure if I should take this with a grain of salt, about 20 days have passed and obviously it hasn't been done yet, can I be confident that by day 30 they will fix it? Can they even move the other meter which they are not supplying from the wrong flat to mine? Or can they only remove their wrong meter from my flat?

Gerry1

Bung a brief note through the letterbox of every resident summarising the problem and suggesting they do a burn test to check whether the meter shown on their bill is really the one that is supplying them.  With luck that will put pressure on the lettings agent to start helping to sort things out.

macman

I wonder who labelled the meters: block management or meter installers? This has presumably been going on since the block was built (or remetered): do the meters have install dates on them? 

ojoniskyp

Gerry1 said:

Bung a brief note through the letterbox of every resident summarising the problem and suggesting they do a burn test to check whether the meter shown on their bill is really the one that is supplying them.  With luck that will put pressure on the lettings agent to start helping to sort things out.

My lettings agent is just for my flat, no idea if the rest of the flats are bought/rented etc..
I will put that note though, we are talking about 25+ flats just in this building block, and there are 2 blocks.

macman said:

I wonder who labelled the meters: block management or meter installers? This has presumably been going on since the block was built (or remetered): do the meters have install dates on them? 

Property management said the buildings were handed over from the developers and mete registration was done beforehand. Meters have stickers with the date 4/2018

[Deleted User]

When I moved into a new build a couple of years ago, the plot numbers had been registered as the postal address for all the properties on our small development. It proved easier to deal with the DNO (for electricity) and the independent gas transporter than individual suppliers. The DNO sent out a lady with a clipboard and she checked all the meter serial numbers etc. The DNO then updated the National Database and advised all the suppliers of the change. The IGT did the same by mail. 

[Deleted User]

You're just getting the standard timescales. This is one of the more tricky ones. Sometimes a supplier needs to know where the other meter actually supplies as you are not supposed to have the same meter serial number on the national database., so could cause delays if not known. There's no harm in sending them a message every few weeks just to check for any updates. There may be backlogs so may need patience!

ojoniskyp

Deleted User said:

You're just getting the standard timescales. This is one of the more tricky ones. Sometimes a supplier needs to know where the other meter actually supplies as you are not supposed to have the same meter serial number on the national database., so could cause delays if not known. There's no harm in sending them a message every few weeks just to check for any updates. There may be backlogs so may need patience!

I understand they need to know where the other supply belong to but that is not my problem right? Get mine registered correctly and you can then figure out where yours belongs to?

[Deleted User]

ojoniskyp said:

Deleted User said:

You're just getting the standard timescales. This is one of the more tricky ones. Sometimes a supplier needs to know where the other meter actually supplies as you are not supposed to have the same meter serial number on the national database., so could cause delays if not known. There's no harm in sending them a message every few weeks just to check for any updates. There may be backlogs so may need patience!

I understand they need to know where the other supply belong to but that is not my problem right? Get mine registered correctly and you can then figure out where yours belongs to?

It is not as simple as you would like it to be. I live on a small development of 14 properties numbered from 2 to 15. My property address is 14 but I live in plot 6. Plot 14 is No 5 and so on. The risk of sorting out your meter problem in isolation doesn't mean that you won't have further problems. For example, the MPRN and meter serial number are linked together at the time that the meter was installed. What is needed then is a change of address on the Database for the misplaced MPRN. However, your address will still be linked to the old MPRN so unless the problem is sorted out across the development you could end up with 2 statements for 2 MPRNs linked to your property. This is why the original gas transporter needs to be involved as they installed your gas meter.

hozza94

It will be a big job for the gas transporter to basically remap all the meters to the correct property and update. 

ojoniskyp

If my correct supplier issues the change, doesn't that mean the correct gas meter along with its associated MPRN will be moved over to my address and the currently registered wrong one along with its MPRN will be removed?