De-energised electric meter - what is this?!!

Suntastic

I recently moved from a 3 bed detached house where I was paying £200 a month for electric.  I moved to a flat in September and my bill for September was £467.83!!!  I am on my own and out at work 6 days a week, nothing is left on etc.  Anyway I thought I would wait for this months bill and just received it .......£854.15!  This is more than my rent!  I have no heating on and freezing, this can't be right.  I tried to look at a comparison site to see if I could change from British Gas to another supplier but no one will let me and then I noticed one site came up and said, "cannot supply electricity to this property as it has a de-energised electric meter!!!!"   What on earth does this mean?  I have looked at the cupboard where all the meters are (this used to be a hotel but was changed to 6 flats) and everyone else seem to have very low meter readings and mine is the only one with a red light flashing and sky high readings.  I am starting to think that the other people are stealing the electric from me and now I don't know what to do.  

Sorry for waffling on but really need some advice.  I cannot get hold of British Gas at the moment.   

Thanks for reading!

kinger101

Do your neighbours have a lot of strange smelling house plants?

Leon_W

Turn off everything in your flat and check the meter again.  It shouldn't be too hard to work out if someone is using electricity you're paying for.

molerat

This is likely a big meter mix up rather than theft of your energy.

There are a few things you need to do.

Is that meter serial number the same as on your bill ?

You need to do a load check, preferably with a friend if you can, one in the flat and one by the meter  Firstly switch off everything in your flat then switch off the fuse box main switch.  Check in that cupboard to see if any meter is showing no flashing light.

Switch everything back on and fire up as many high use items as you can - oven, heaters etc then check which meter is going nuts.  That will confirm which meter actually supplies your flat.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

have your bills been estimated or are you supplying regular readings/

Robin9

Give us the meter reading you gave us to your supplier when you moved in in September and todays meter reading please plus the readings on your bill and the letters A, C, E, S or our read and read.

Take great care in reading meters -  the old ones with figures in red after the decimal are fairly straightforward, the very old ones with dials going in different directions confuse many in meter readers . The modern ones have a decimal point which is very easy to miss

If this this a E7 meter -  there will be three readings , 1, 2 and total

Alongside your meter there will be a fuse box or switch. Switch it off -  do you loose supply to your flat ? Do any of your neighbours come out to ask what are you up to ?



Edit - photo's would help

theoretica

When you look at the cupboard with the meters, do all the cables coming from the meters go off in similar ways?  And the ones coming in?

Robin9

My guess re "de-energised meter" is the old meter from the hotel days and presumably removed.  Do all of the meters appear to be the same age or does yours look very old.

One possibility is that your supply is still being treated as a commercial supply

macman

Why are you trying to switch? All the SVT prices are essentially the same under the EPG.
Did you supply an opening read? Are you giving monthly reads, is this a smart meter, or is the bill estimated? Please state the billed kWh usage and unit rates, as quoting £££ tells us nothing. Also the name of your tariff.

Robin9

Hopefully OP will be back - not been online since the opening post

Jyana

A de-energised property is one where the fuse has been taken out and the supply registered as not being presently used, but may be again in the near future, which is why the meter/s haven't been physically removed.

At a guess, I'd say this was done when the hotel was repurposed into flats. But crucially, something went very wrong after the flats were finished and either that de-energise status was overlooked by the builders/energy company/whom ever responsible, or they just plain fudged it...going by the OPs description of the meters, I wouldn't be surprised if it was more a case of the latter than the former.

OP, you need to check your meter number against your bill, run the tests suggested above, and get a complaint in to British Gas with your findings, asking them to sort the obviously mistaken de-energise issue. If it really was de-energised, you would have no power at all, and that isn't the case so it needs to be sorted out now.