High electricity one bedroom flat

CasualMFW

Thanks for the update,  hope you get it resolved quickly. 

sparky0138

Thanks for the update. It sounds like your neighbours are going to be in for a big shock!

Blotto17

The thing is, we don’t actually know if that apartment has people living in there permanently or if it’s air BnB. As this building is doing both 

bagand96

Blotto17 said:

So we have changed energy company and the problem still persists. However the customer service with this energy company seems to be a lot more helpful. We have found that the MPAN number that we have on our account is not the MPAN number that is on our meter. And guess what?  the MPAN number that is on “that other flats” meter is the one on our account. So the energy companies have obviously been getting our energy usage from them. Our new provider admits to this now and they are completely open to fixing the problem. They said they need to do a “decommission recommission” and it may be up to 3 weeks before this is done! They don’t know yet if it can be done remotely or physically. But yes we have been getting way overcharged for our usage. The “other flat” has more bedrooms and people than us and are obviously burning through their usage as I bet it’s hardly costing them anything. We are in talks with the previous energy provider and looks like we will get reimbursed for what we have overpaid. But obviously it’s not over yet. And I won’t be able to breathe a sigh of relief until it is. Be careful out there people, those of you who are living in a block of apartments. Make sure your MPAN number and meter reading are all accurate. I did not even know there was such a thing as an MPAN number before all this.

This could have been proven 2 weeks ago when users here were suggesting cross referencing MPAN and meter numbers, and the famous meter sanity test! 

That said glad you're getting it sorted and making some progress. 

Blotto17

Hey everyone. Just to give an update on our continuing issue. It’s still not resolved. Things are going ok with our new provider. We are currently sending them manual meter readings and they are charging us based on that. They are still trying to connect us to our own meter directly. 

However we have received some bills from the other provider that we were with previously. They are the company that installed the meters into our building and that most people in the building seem to be with. These bills are extortionate, about eight times the amount we are being charged by our own new provider. They are addressed to “the occupier” which at the moment we are. They are obviously charging us for that other flats electricity again. We have phoned/ emailed them explaining the situation but we seem to be bashing our heads against a wall. We have not paid these bills. It’s come to the point where we’ve had enough and just want to get out and live in a house and just pay from our own meter and not be part of this mix up which is completely not our fault. Yet we are using so much time and energy trying to sort everything out. 

My question is can we just get out and move away and ignore those bills without any repercussions. We have been paying the bills our own provider has been sending us based on the meter that an engineer has proved to be ours a few weeks ago. But try explaining all this. We have had more than enough and are sick of these nasty bills coming through the door. 

markin

It helps to name the providers, Has the new provider asked for photos of both meters, After that is done it should speed things up.

Blotto17

I don’t think the new provider asked but we sent them anyway. They sent an engineer out and he confirmed what we were saying. 

The problem is the old provider still thinking we should be paying them for that other flat. They have the right serial number for our meter but the wrong MPAN number. But they don’t want to know anything about MPAN numbers. They’re basically saying if it’s our serial number it’s our bill to pay. 

victor2

Blotto17 said:

Hey everyone. Just to give an update on our continuing issue. It’s still not resolved. Things are going ok with our new provider. We are currently sending them manual meter readings and they are charging us based on that. They are still trying to connect us to our own meter directly. 

However we have received some bills from the other provider that we were with previously. They are the company that installed the meters into our building and that most people in the building seem to be with. These bills are extortionate, about eight times the amount we are being charged by our own new provider. They are addressed to “the occupier” which at the moment we are. They are obviously charging us for that other flats electricity again. We have phoned/ emailed them explaining the situation but we seem to be bashing our heads against a wall. We have not paid these bills. It’s come to the point where we’ve had enough and just want to get out and live in a house and just pay from our own meter and not be part of this mix up which is completely not our fault. Yet we are using so much time and energy trying to sort everything out. 

My question is can we just get out and move away and ignore those bills without any repercussions. We have been paying the bills our own provider has been sending us based on the meter that an engineer has proved to be ours a few weeks ago. But try explaining all this. We have had more than enough and are sick of these nasty bills coming through the door. 

Could be worth getting some legal advice. Does your home insurance provide legal cover? If not, Citizens Advice might be able to help.
It sounds like you are now being billed for the correct meter, and if the supplier addressing you as the occupant can't find out the real address for the meter, it shouldn't be your problem. Even if they change the meter to a prepayment one, it won't affect your flat. 
However, you obviously don't want your address associated with that problem, hence my suggestion.

Blotto17

Thanks for your comments. No we don’t have home insurance and I’ve never had to have a solicitor in my life. Are they expensive? We’d just be bringing another party in. We are just being bounced around between old provider, new provider and company that runs our building - emails/phone calls/photographs for weeks now and we’re still get bills through the door for crazy sums of money that we know we don’t owe. It’s just very intimidating. We’re the type of people who just get a bill and pay it straight away so the thought of just ignoring them is quite frightening and we don’t want that to follow us after we leave this flat. 

We kinda feel defeated and feel the only way to solve this is to move out asap even though we’d be breaking our contract and we wouldn’t get our deposit back. The problem is so simple in principle yet we continue to get these bills

pochase

Did you raise a formal complaint with the old supplier in December when you found that you are billed for the wrong meter? Than you can take it now to the Ombudsman.

Even a formal complaint with the new supplier will be helpful, They also have not sorted the wrong meter.