Old electric meter mistakenly discarded. What could be the cost charge??

leoguy555

Okay, so this is really daft.

At work months and months and months ago, (last year) a guy came and disconnected two old mechanical electrical meters from my works electric cupboard which is located in the bin bay of all places. He replaced them with a single smart meter.

At the time he was there, he took away one of the meters but left the other one in the bin bay. 

Many weeks turned to several months and he never came back for the meter.  And because he'd never taken the other meter away at the time he had been there, and seemingly showed no signs of coming back for it, I assumed it surely was for the bin. 

Being in the bin bay with other stuff that had accumulated, I cleared all this rubbish out and also went out with the rubbish was the old meter. 

Fast forward about another 5 weeks or so and guess what? The guy came to say that he was to take the old meter away and I had to admit to my boss that I'd mistakenly thrown it out with a whole bunch of other rubbish that i got fed up of accumulating in there. 

Needless to say, my boss was really really annoyed with me. The electrical guy said that it didn't matter a huge amount as it would likely be scrapped anyway, and that he'd just put down on his notes that the meter was "mistakenly discarded by a third-party worker." 
He did say that possibility the power company (British gas lite) may charge my employer for the discarded meter. I told my boss that if they charge for the old meter, I'd pay for it as it was my mistake. I was told not to worry about it, and my suggestion to pay was kinda disregarded a bit but in a nice way. 

I felt and still feel awfully guilty, bit I genuinely thought that that old meter was for the bin as it'd lain there for all those many months and months and he never took it away at the time.

This was weeks ago this happened and my boss has cooled down about it now.

Today now British gas sent a final bill to my employer relating to that old meter and something about the letter said that they'd collected the old meter  and that the account for that power company was to close.  But since the meter wasn't collected but chucked out, my boss phoned the power company up to tell them that the old meter was mistakenly thrown out. 

They got back to the boss and said that they can't close the old account unless they get the old meter back or if not , instead they may have to charge for the old discarded meter. 

Anyone know How much could this charge be? A few hundred pounds? I still told my boss I'd pay for the charge but I'm.literally worried as to how much it could be?  But I feel as it's my mistake I should pay for it, and I don't feel it'd be fair on my employer.to pay out for my mistake . I'm not sure my boss will let me pay even if I offer to, but can anyone kinda put a value on how much they'd charge for an old mechanical, probably-to-be-scrapped meter?

Gerry1

Tell British Gas Lite that the charge for storage of their meter for several months will be twice the cost of the amount they want to charge for the loss of their abandoned property ! 

Mstty

This sort of thing?

leoguy555

That's funny, but I have no Idea why they didn't take it away back then and leave just it for many months. I think my boss said it could be a few hundred pounds but I'd like to get a good idea of what they might charge for an old scrapped meter

leoguy555

Mstty said:

This sort of thing?

No it was an old black electric mechanical meter. The ones with the spinning disc and the numbers that count forward

jimjames

Value of an obsolete meter like that would be peanuts unless it's got historic value to a collector. It's not something they could reuse.

Mstty

https://www.tester.co.uk/electrical-electronic/electricity-meters-and-metering-systems/reconditioned-single-three-phase-meters

Maybe one of these

leoguy555

No, but very similar. I guess what you're saying is the actual value of the meter is peanuts ? That Doesn't mean to say that the power company won't try to charge some stupid exorbitant price however and that's what I'm somewhat worried about

Zandoni

I think you and your boss should tell British Gas to stick their bill where the sun don’t shine.

Mstty

leoguy555 said:

No, but very similar. I guess what you're saying is the actual value of the meter is peanuts ? That Doesn't mean to say that the power company won't try to charge some stupid exorbitant price however and that's what I'm somewhat worried about

Just buy a similar one and send it to them registered post lol

leoguy555

Mstty said:

leoguy555 said:

No, but very similar. I guess what you're saying is the actual value of the meter is peanuts ? That Doesn't mean to say that the power company won't try to charge some stupid exorbitant price however and that's what I'm somewhat worried about

Just buy a similar one and send it to them registered post lol

Well apparently they needed the old meter to get the very last reading of it to than close the account and issue the final bill, which seemingly they did. My boss actually took a photo of the old meter and its final reading anyway but apparently they still wanted the old meter as a.photo didn't seem to be "enough proof"   so just buying any old meter and posting it to them isn't enough because it wouldn't have the final correct reading. There isn't much any thing anyone can do now that the old meter is long long long gone, apart from possibly charge my boss for the "value" of an old scrapped meter.