Crossed Meter Advice

Stitch99

Can anyone give me advice on the process for sorting out a crossed meter.
I learnt this week that I have been paying for gas going through my neighbours meter not mine for the last 2 years.

In July 2020 my then supplier, EON, came to fit smart meters.  Being mid pandemic I was instructed to stay in my property (my gas meter is outside) and never thought to check the work after they left.
Since then and 2 supplier changes since, my bills have been created using the info supplied by the smart meters.

3 weeks ago my current supplier Shell emailed me to say they had lost contact with my gas meter so I would need to submit a reading myself.  This had coincided with my smart display device also not connecting.  When I went to read my gas meter outside, the reading was completely different to the previous.  
After calling Shell for advice and sending photos they informed me I had sent them a picture of a "dumb" meter so it couldn't be mine... looking into my neighbours meter cabinet next to mine I find a digital EON labelled smart meter - complete with installation date identical to when I had mine.  The engineer has replaced the wrong meter!

Shell have told me they will freeze my account during their investigation and will be in contact within 21 days. 
What happens next??

I have been with Shell since Sept 2021 after my previous supplier Green went bust.  They have therefore inherited info that Green had and so means they have never had a true meter reading for my property.

Do I need to contact EON to try to find out my last meter reading - will they have kept that data 2 years later?

With energy prices as they are, I have been as frugal as I can in usage but am now worried a bill of an unknown amount could be suddenly presented. 
I have read that suppliers can only back bill for 12 months - is that correct or will EON/Green also come looking?
Of course it's possible that my neighbour uses more gas than me and my payments on his usage will have been enough to cover but I just cannot fathom how this will be sorted.

Thank you, 

Chez

Brie

If you have your account info from EON I would certainly start with them for a final reading at the install date.  If they say they don't have anything then I would suggest you submit a subject access request to get everything they have as they will have needed to retain it for at least some time.  If nothing comes of that I would then suggest complaining to the regulatory.

anniecave

So is your physical old gas meter still in place and in use (going up in meter readings)? Or did they decomission your old meter (or physically remove it)?  

Stitch99

anniecave said:

So is your physical old gas meter still in place and in use (going up in meter readings)? Or did they decomission your old meter (or physically remove it)?  

My meter is in place and doing its thing recording my usage but bizarrely and presumably no-one has noticed that no payment has been made on that meter usage!  I guess the supply must be coming from EON still, but they haven't chased me for it because they believed my property was being supplied by the new meter they had installed.  

My neighbour has also been paying his bills to British Gas, sending meter readings off the EON meter attached to his supply.  He said he noticed the meter change but just presumed our housing association had come out and made upgrades.  Like me, he'd never looked in the neighbouring cabinet to compare them. 

What confuses me is as my neighbour's supply is with British Gas, how did the other conpanies not know they weren't supplying the meter they were using for readings.

Stitch99

Brie said:

If you have your account info from EON I would certainly start with them for a final reading at the install date.  If they say they don't have anything then I would suggest you submit a subject access request to get everything they have as they will have needed to retain it for at least some time.  If nothing comes of that I would then suggest complaining to the regulatory.

Thanks.  I don't think I have anything regarding EON anymore but I will have a good look through my archived bills and emails.
Good idea regarding the SAR. Ofgem is also on my radar, should this all turn financially catastrophic for me.

MWT

Stitch99 said:

Ofgem is also on my radar, should this all turn financially catastrophic for me.

It will be the Ombudsman, not Ofgem as they do not generally get involved with individual complaints.

I would certainly try to get a handle on the actual usage through your meter as that will tell you if you are chasing money owed to you, or looking at an additional bill heading your way.

The back-billing rules will not be much help with Shell as you've only been with them for 12 months anyway, I'd be surprised if E.ON got involved at this stage but once you know if you've been over or under billed you will know the scale of the problem and potentially your need to reclaim money from E.ON...

What has your neighbour been doing all this time? ... there can only be one supplier attached to a smart meter, so have they just been sending in manual readings and just didn't think anything was odd when the new meter appeared?

Stitch99

Thanks all.

Yes my neighbour has been submitting manual meter readings to his supplier British Gas, throughout all this, so I think he is unaffected.

I called EON today and managed to find out my last actual reading from May 2020.  Using this with what the Meyer shows now it works out as an average of 23 units per month.  On this rough basis I have been overcharged by EON for 9 months, Green for 7 months and now Shell for 12 months.

If I'm honest the headache and stress this has caused already, I'd be happy for everyone to say "oh well, let's start over".  I've not got the brain power to work out how much out of pocket I might be, I'd just like it over.with.

I did lodge a formal complaint with EON however as it was one of their engineers which caused this.

I'll keep you posted on any updates, in case it helps others.

C x

Chrysalis

I think (but not 100% on this) if you are been under billed, then anything over 12 months should be written off as its not your fault.

alleycat`

Doesn't make sense about your neighbour.

A meter getting replaced would go back to zero.

If the BG system didn't know that it'd treat his meter as if it had gone around the clock (unless it just happened to be close to doing that).

The usage value would be hugely "out" I'd have thought.

jbuchanangb

Does this affect your electricity bills too? A gas smart meter relies on on a communications hub attached to the electricity smart meter in order to send data to the registered supplier. You need to check that Shell are billing you for the proper meter for electricity also.

I hope that Shell will acknowledge your desire for peace of mind, take down the proper details including meter serial numbers and readings for both your meters, and start billing you on those meters from now on.

There will be problems to be sorted out regarding which meters are allocated to which property on the national database, but those problems are for Shell to sort out, not you. Your neighbour's energy billing will have to be sorted out as well, but that is between him and British Gas.

SAC2334

alleycat` said:

Doesn't make sense about your neighbour.

A meter getting replaced would go back to zero.

If the BG system didn't know that it'd treat his meter as if it had gone around the clock (unless it just happened to be close to doing that).

The usage value would be hugely "out" I'd have thought.

Does nt make sense also  that the fitter would have had to have gone inside the OP s property to purge the gas via the hob .

This is an important  standard procedure meter fitters have to do after turning control valve off and removing the meter . They continued working during the pandemic on the understanding that they would have to enter properties wearing masks .

100 % correct in that the new meter would be starting  back to zero (99998 /99999 actually to allow for the gas purge ) and would totally mess up the neighbours BG billing completely leading to none stop estimates until its resolved.

The exchange details of the old meter are on the new Eon smart meter on the yellow sticky label showing meter serial number , start meter reading /old meter reading and date of the exchange .They would not be matching the OP s meter serial number .

I can believe that Shell, the old terrible FU , First Utility , one of the most sloppily run suppliers I have ever dealt with would mess up all this and fail to investigate this stupid meter fitters mistake but BG are better run , or at least they were when I was on the job , and they would  had sent someone out to investigate the neighbours mis reads