Defunct Electricity Meter

SarahOhora

Does anyone know who is responsible for replacing a defective electricity meter? Mine has not registered any usage for over a year, but cannot be replaced with a smart meter because there isn't enough room on the board. The trouble is the supplier handed the problem to the technical team, who say they only fit smart meters and I will have to get the power supply moved at my expense. I am not willing to pay for this because I think it's their responsibility to provide a working meter, which they could put by the side of the board if they wanted too, it would just need longer cables. Or I am sure they could fit an original style meter. A smart meter is irrelevant anyway as it is a holiday home, and I don't think holiday makers are going to be watching their usage overly much. Any thoughts?

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

Who is your supplier?

There is a legal obligation on your supplier to provide accurate metering. Have you followed their complaints process?

SarahOhora

The supplier is Utility Warehouse. They just passed me on to their technical team, who seem to keep missing the point that the meter doesn't work, and assume I am just asking for a smart meter. I haven't gone through any complaints procedures yet, but will be doing that very soon! They seem to be quite happy to supply the meter, but not to make the adjustments to physically fit it in, as the current meter is tight between the ceiling and the Western Power supply point. I guess the issue is who is responsible for making space for the meter. 

QrizB

Utility Warehouse don't have the best reputation for their back-office team. A complaint is probably your best bet.

How are they billing you? Are they estimating your bill, or have you not paid for electricity for all this time?

MWT

SarahOhora said:

Does anyone know who is responsible for replacing a defective electricity meter? Mine has not registered any usage for over a year, but cannot be replaced with a smart meter because there isn't enough room on the board. The trouble is the supplier handed the problem to the technical team, who say they only fit smart meters and I will have to get the power supply moved at my expense. I am not willing to pay for this because I think it's their responsibility to provide a working meter, which they could put by the side of the board if they wanted too, it would just need longer cables. Or I am sure they could fit an original style meter. A smart meter is irrelevant anyway as it is a holiday home, and I don't think holiday makers are going to be watching their usage overly much. Any thoughts?

A photo would be great to give some context, but not sure if you have enough posts yet to be able to do that...

The responsibilities usually break down like this, you are responsible for providing and maintaining an adequate location for the backboard to which the main fuse and the meter are fixed..

Your DNO is responsible for the backboard and the main fuse, your supplier is responsible for the meter.

If the suppliers engineers consider that they cannot safely fix the new meter to the existing backboard then you may need to talk to your DNO about replacing or moving the existing backboard, depending upon which DNO it is, that can be a free or paid service...

SAC2334

As a meter reader I used to have a lot of contact with British Gas Revenue Protection Officers and I was surprised to hear that they said it was legal for occupiers to arrange to fit their own meters, gas and electric, themselves using suitably qualified Gas Safe /Electricians .

 Once fitted they have to be correctly registered. 
I was constantly seeing meters for sale on Ebay , mostly gas meters but sometimes cheap digital electric meters which prompted me to enquire with my RPU contacts the legality of buying and fitting meters to ones own property