Electricity meter - no access by Landlord and previous tenant gave fake final reading

sleekitwan

The title largely gives the game away about my daughter’s first move into an apartment in the Yorkshire area.

Her bills seemed low at first, but a wobbly start to bills in summer is not a warning sign.

Now she has signed up with SSE for energy - the massive converted Mill only has electric no gas - the troubles begin.

situation: no access personally to the meters which are all in one big cupboard.  My concern, these are probably not in a neat row, beautifully labelled.  This is not against the law as i understand it.

I asked my daughter get a photograph of the meter.  She said she’d asked and the Landlord said they do send a pic if asked.  I said that’s a lorra pics (I make it over 200 meters are in there).  I expressed surprise the Landlord was so amenable.

Next, I am sent a copy of this meter reading photograph by my daughter.  First, it is of a hand-filled table of meter readings, not her actual physical meter, rendering pointless the whole photographing of the meter!

Other next there are two dozen other readings from other tenants in full view…anyway…

So the Landlord seems to miss out one digit…great.  Daughter to and fro’s to get the missing digit…feeling weary of this yet?!  I am!

Today, there is now emerged a bill of several hundred pounds is at stake.  It’s been a very mild autumn mostly and they only moved into the place in summer.  No way.

The SSE lady has raised a dispute now with the previous supplier, alleges the initial reading or the final one by the last tenant was wrong.

The likely scenario is the old tenant was shrewd enough to know how to avoid paying final bills and giving a low reading is what he did.  

If there is a question here, it is this: the Landlord gives no access to the electricity meters to ANYBODY.  Not the tenant not the energy suppliers, nobody.

If I can safely take it, no ‘watchdog’ can get access without Landlord say-so as well, this is why this mess arises.

Why is a perfectly innocent tenant, left mopping-up after some juvenile debtor, who wants to play games with his final meter readings?  The young tenants involved ( my daughter and her man) both work and can pay their bills.

This system of secret meters is an abomination.  It cries out to be abused, and good people starting out, can be brow-beaten into paying bills they do not owe.

Let’s be clear…that’s what every party here would prefer except my daughter.  There is no dispute between providers then, the Landlord does not have to allow access to meters or change the meters to smart ones (! That’s an ironic name for a method of being able to disconnect properties at a keystroke).  The previous tenant gets away with it.

What do the regulators do all day?  London must have these arrangements coming out it’s ears.

Any ideas for what else my daughter can do?

thanks and keep well
irm/rg

MaryNB

I'm not sure how the previous tenant is to blame if the landlord is refusing access to all tenants. I would presume the landlord made a mess of their final reading as well.

I'm a little confused at the timeline of events.

Did she get the landlord to give her an opening meter reading as well? How long was she living there before you asked her to the landlord to take a reading?

Did she sign up with SSE as they were the existing supplier, or did she chose to switch to  them after she was living there a while?

Can she get him to take a photo of the actual meter and see if it has a serial number that matches her bill (MPAN not always written on the meter but meter ID might be included on the bill and the meter)? If not can she get the landlord to check if it's correct (see if the meter reacts to her turning big appliances on and off).

sleekitwan

Thanks for interest - so daughter moves in.  We discuss the energy supply, there is only electricity, I advise to get a pic of meter.  It takes a couple of weeks for this to happen.  The pic actually took a couple of months, and was not what was requested - the pic I advised daughter to get, was of the ACTUAL meter, obviously.  I thought this was wateright.  But what comes back is apic of a list of tenant flats on the left of a piece of A4 paper, and the readings of their meters, hand-written on the right.

Well, that ruined the entire point of that, so yes, you are right to be confused, I am.

Then the energy people are in communication with daughter for two weeks, nothing really happens but it is very stressful for daughter.  Then energy company says they will open a case with previous supplier - yes, you are correct, this implies the final meter reading is not correct, but that of itself, does not mean the former tenant is at fault.

But, I concluded that the former tenant had supplied a wrong figure, because that way there is a motive.  The only other possibility is the former tenant conveyed the final meter reading correctly, and the mistake is with the Landlord, who has no reason to get it wrong but plainly operates a system that is as fragile as can be.

I suggested to daughter, she give the contact details of the Landlord direct to the energy supplier that daughter just switched to a month or so after arriving.  Because there is no useful role my daughter can have, not having access to the meters now, nor knowing what the readings were before, nor indeed, being able to VERIFY what they are now, having to take the Landlord’s word for it.

Yes, a mess.  And the common factor is the cupboard full of meters, probably not labelled-up neatly, that ONLY the Landlord has access to.  So I thank you for your forensic analysis, is what I am saying.  Only one party can defintiely be said to be at the nexus of the entire thing.  Take care.

[Deleted User]

sleekitwan said:

If there is a question here, it is this: the Landlord gives no access to the electricity meters to ANYBODY.  Not the tenant not the energy suppliers, nobody.

Hi,

if need be the supplier, if refused access, will eventually gain a warrant of entry, and force entry.

worrywart_3

The landlord if he takes the meter readings will know what he supplied as the final reading and whether it rallies with the precious tenants. The landlord
needs to get in board, I don’t think it’s helpful in this senario to be throwing blame. The landlord could just have easily misread the meter or provided a reading from one of the other meters in error. Sounds like the energy company agree the usage sounds too high and have put it in to dispute.

wild666

The bills will have a serial & MPAN number ask the landlord for a photo of the meter showing these. If the meter is analogue, or Smart, she should have being given an opening reading for the meter by the landlord or letting agent, these should have being checked on the day the tenancy started before the keys are handed over. The readings can be a problem when the landlord has the property on the market for a long time as they don't want to be paying a fuel bill whilst the property is empty, unscrupulous landlords might give the final readings of the last tenant. They then expect the new tenant to go through the hassle of sorting the mess out.

In 2008 I rented a flat and the letting agent agreement said the figures for gas and electric were one figure so before I moved in I phoned the company up, BG, and gave them readings which were greatly superior to the figures on the agreement. The letting agent wasn't happy when I dropped in the bill for readings up to the date I moved in.