Meter Reading

Andy07777

I moved into a flat in December 2021. I got told that we would be paying bills. After 4 months we have not been paying bills. We continuously asked them to give us bills monthly (we are 22 and cannot afford a large backlog of bills at once). They said we had no meter set up and so we could not pay bills. We badger them enough they tell us "we do not expect you to pay any bills since you joined to now as you have had no meter". They also sent out an electrician the next day to have a look at the system. Turns out after 4 months we do have a meter but it was labelled under the wrong flat. Now it looks like we are getting a back-pay for the last 4 months. If we knew the cost of our bills in the first month we could have cut back, but they essentially hid it from us meaning we had no idea. Obviously with the rising cost of electricity we have to pay back this 4/5 months of electricity. 

Is this fair? Is there nothing me and my partner can do about this?

Thank you for any help

Robin9

Who is "them" ?  \Who sent the electrician ?

if you have the wrong meter -  then someone (perhaps more than one !) also has the wrong meter.

Talk to your landlord but you will have a bill to pay - hopefully you've been putting at something aside  -  quite possibly £100 a month

Andy07777

The agency provided the electrician. Looking at it on western power "who is my supplier?" the meter is registered to another flat. It appears to be a shared smart meter. Not sure how that works. I have been putting money beside however, this is not our fault. Is there nothing we can do?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

you say it's a shared meter, so if the other flat has been paying for the two flats, it's the occupier you owe the money to.

Speak to them and come to some arrangement, they'll be happy to have their bill reduced.

Get the meter situation sorted, separate meter for each flat,  a shared meter doesn't work, you don't know if one is using more or less than the other.

Ectophile

Electricity companies are allowed to back-bill up to one year if there's a problem with the billing.

MWT

Ectophile said:

Electricity companies are allowed to back-bill up to one year if there's a problem with the billing.

There is a lot more to it than that, but in this case it doesn't come into play as they are not even close to the 12 month limit.