old electricity bill. who pays please?

tom883

hi all, looking for any advice please on our situation:

• moved into our rented property almost a year ago

• my housemate contacted an energy company to set us up to start paying our bills (electric only, no gas)

• she was told they couldn't set us up as we weren't connected (despite the lights being on etc). contacted a couple more companies and was told the same. we live in a rambling warehouse conversion where meters are hidden/shared/don't appear to exist - some tenants no utilities, some just elect or just gas even if they have both as an apparent result of the mess

• so eventually we gave up. the lights were on which was what we were after!

• today i opened a letter from british gas to what we think is the last tenant. the letter says he owes them nearly £500 & they are about to get the debt collectors involved. this is the 1st british gas letter i've seen since living here

what should we do here please?

we'd obviously love to continue paying nothing but i fear this may come back to haunt us, despite our trying our best with multiple companies to get connected

if/when a company demands money from us, what are we obliged to pay considering the meter is in an unknown location & no readings were taken when we moved in?

elsien

Did  you checked which company were supplying the property  when you moved in and did you take a meter reading?  What actions did you take to try to find details of your meter from your landlord or anyone else? 

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/finding-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator

You would set up an account with the existing supplier when you start the tenancy, then arrange to move to someone else if they’ll have you.
You will owe any charges from the date your tenancy started. If there are no readings then they will use estimates.
You need to find your meter. It must be there somewhere. 

tom883

hey, thanks for responding!

we repeatedly asked our landlord for info on the current supplier but he ignored all our enquiries

we do not know exactly where our meter is. our flat & the one next door were heavily refurbed before/as we moved in. we now have a shared central hallway that contains one meter - my best guess is that this covers both separate flats, ours & next doors

could you suggest next steps maybe?

elsien

Look at the link I posted. Find the existing supplier and the MPAN number using that link. Go round looking at meters till you find the one with that number. Turn your electric off at the mains and if the meter stops moving it’s probably the correct one. If your neighbour also comes shooting out to see why their electric has gone off as well then you have a problem for your landlord to resolve. 

The landlord may not know who the supplier is if the previous tenant changed supplier but they should know where the meter is. Have you put the question formally in writing? 

QrizB

tom883 said:

we do not know exactly where our meter is. our flat & the one next door were heavily refurbed before/as we moved in. we now have a shared central hallway that contains one meter - my best guess is that this covers both separate flats, ours & next doors

Check the serial number on the meter. See if it matches the serial number on the bill.

Then try Gerry1's meter sanity test to see if that meter serves your flat:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78850409/#Comment_78850409

Mr.Generous

elsien said:

Look at the link I posted. Find the existing supplier and the MPAN number using that link. Go round looking at meters till you find the one with that number. Turn your electric off at the mains and if the meter stops moving it’s probably the correct one. If your neighbour also comes shooting out to see why their electric has gone off as well then you have a problem for your landlord to resolve. 

Although your mains switch could supply a sub meter but in this situation the landlord usually gets the bills and then charges back to the relevant tenant - plus of course some kind of mark up!!

DE_612183

what does your contract with landlord say about utilities?

FreeBear

Mr.Generous said:

elsien said:

Look at the link I posted. Find the existing supplier and the MPAN number using that link. Go round looking at meters till you find the one with that number. Turn your electric off at the mains and if the meter stops moving it’s probably the correct one. If your neighbour also comes shooting out to see why their electric has gone off as well then you have a problem for your landlord to resolve. 

Although your mains switch could supply a sub meter but in this situation the landlord usually gets the bills and then charges back to the relevant tenant - plus of course some kind of mark up!!

The LL can only charge for energy at cost. He can not go adding on a mark up.