Advice for asking energy company to install smart meters or submeters for building with 5 flats

Farrella

Our old building has one meter for 5 flats and the bills have always been abnormally high...now they are even higher!  We suspect one of the shops or other flats next door might be using the same meter, and perhaps the only way to find out for sure and protect ourselves is by having a submeter (or pre-paid meter, that'd be even better) for each flat instead of one meter shared by everyone.   At the moment the bill is monthly reading off main meter divided by 5.

Is it the energy company's duty to investigate what this main meter is actually reading?  Is it fine to tell them the readings look wrong and they need to install submeters before we pay more so we know the readings are fair?  We can pay for installing our own submeters for the 5 flats ourselves, but we've been quoted £2k for the job...

QrizB

Are you the landlord, or one of the tenants?

If you're the landlord, would something like this work for you? One per flat, and your own electrician can (probably) do the work.

https://www.topupmeters.co.uk/

Farrella

I'm acting for the landlord.  There are 2 issues:

1)  The main electric meter's readings are abnormally high for 5 flats (£200 a month per 1 bed flat at 20p per unit), and we'd ideally like the energy company to solve this as there are other shops, flats, carparks all connected to this building

2)  We'd like the 5 flats to all have their own sub or prepay meters, as that would stop tenants arguing that the readings are wrong and also limit their use

 

Farrella

QrizB said:

Are you the landlord, or one of the tenants?

If you're the landlord, would something like this work for you? One per flat, and your own electrician can (probably) do the work.

https://www.topupmeters.co.uk/

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/your-energy-meter/getting-a-smart-meter-installed/

I read here that the supplier can install new meters at their cost, but not sure if that means they can add for each flat when currently there's one for 5 flats. 

Here's a line from Citizen's Advice:

"You won’t have to pay upfront to have a smart meter installed - smart meters will be paid for through everyone’s energy bills, just as old-style meters are."

QrizB

Farrella said:

I'm acting for the landlord.  There are 2 issues ...

A bank of smart pre-pay sub-meters like the ones at that link would go a long way towards addressing both those issues. At the very least it will identify which flat is to blame for the high bill, and every tenant will be paying for their own electricity.

MWT

Farrella said:

I'm acting for the landlord.  There are 2 issues:

1)  The main electric meter's readings are abnormally high for 5 flats (£200 a month per 1 bed flat at 20p per unit), and we'd ideally like the energy company to solve this as there are other shops, flats, carparks all connected to this building

 

As the landlord, the wiring on the consumption side of the meter is your responsibility, not the suppliers, so if there is a problem with other units being supplied from that side of the meter it is yours to resolve at your own cost.

Farrella said:

2)  We'd like the 5 flats to all have their own sub or prepay meters, as that would stop tenants arguing that the readings are wrong and also limit their use.

 

If you want that to happen, as the landlord, you can install your own sub-meters at your cost as QrizB already suggested, or you can talk to your DNO about the cost, which would be for you to pay, to separate the one supply into separate supplies for each flat and then arrange with a supplier to have new individual meters installed and each tenant would then need their own account with the supplier.

As the landlord you would also probably need to retain your own supply for common areas like the entrance, stairs etc.

There is no solution here that doesn't involve you paying for work to be done to properly sort out what should have been done when you originally divided the property into flats...

theoretica

Five meters would mean five standing charges...

Tracing where the electricity is going on your side of the meter would probably be for your electrician, not the power company.  Getting all five homes on board and switching the power off for a while and looking to see if anything else goes off would be a starting point.

Robin9

Farrella said:

QrizB said:

Are you the landlord, or one of the tenants?

If you're the landlord, would something like this work for you? One per flat, and your own electrician can (probably) do the work.

https://www.topupmeters.co.uk/

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/your-energy-meter/getting-a-smart-meter-installed/

I read here that the supplier can install new meters at their cost, but not sure if that means they can add for each flat when currently there's one for 5 flats. 

Here's a line from Citizen's Advice:

"You won’t have to pay upfront to have a smart meter installed - smart meters will be paid for through everyone’s energy bills, just as old-style meters are."

I think you misunderstand this  -  this is for properties that already have a meter  -  then there is no cost.

You need to do two things 

1)  Get a quote from your electrician for the cost of altering all the wiring -  may not be too great, perhaps a few hundred (each) -  could be lots if like topsy the installation has just grown
2) Get a quote from your district network operator  for the cost of establishing the 5 new meters (your landlord will still want one for lights in corridors etc). Expect to have to pay to get the quote in the first place and then a few hundred (each)

theoretica

Does each property have its own consumer unit?  That would make it easier to turn each off for investigation, and be a clue the wiring might already be separate enough to allow separate meters without rewiring.

Farrella

theoretica said:

Does each property have its own consumer unit?  That would make it easier to turn each off for investigation, and be a clue the wiring might already be separate enough to allow separate meters without rewiring.

No, these 5 flats do not have their own consumer units sadly.  They have their own fuse box.

Need to find an economical to investigate the issue and then install, but the energy provider can't help.

Would this Metro meter be a good idea?

https://www.anymeters.co.uk/products/metro-single-phase-prepay-meter

BobT36

Are the tenants all currently paying for the common areas, too?