High electricity one bedroom flat

Blotto17

But as it stands we are living in a flat whose meter is connected to the flat down the hall. By staying in this flat the old provider is continuing to charge us for that flat down the hall. By moving and having a new address how can they possibly continue charging us for that flat when we won’t even live at this address. Could they still charge us if we left the country?  It will be the problem of the new tenant. Our building knows there’s this issue with so many flats here yet they are leaving the tenants to discover it and sort it out for themselves.
 And that other flat is an air BnB. that’s why the guests are so reckless with the energy use. And our building is continuing to rent it out as that. Knowing that we are being sent the bill for the energy use. 

_Sam_

Blotto17 said:

But as it stands we are living in a flat whose meter is connected to the flat down the hall. By staying in this flat the old provider is continuing to charge us for that flat down the hall. By moving and having a new address how can they possibly continue charging us for that flat when we won’t even live at this address. Could they still charge us if we left the country?  It will be the problem of the new tenant. Our building knows there’s this issue with so many flats here yet they are leaving the tenants to discover it and sort it out for themselves.
 And that other flat is an air BnB. that’s why the guests are so reckless with the energy use. And our building is continuing to rent it out as that. Knowing that we are being sent the bill for the energy use. 

I think once you had switched suppliers, you would have given the new supplier the opening meter reading. Plus they know which meter is the correct one, so from that day you could probably return any new bills from the old supplier as wrongly addressed?

But keep pressuring them to re-calculate the old billing and to reimburse you. Hopefully Ombudsman will help, as this is not so uncommon problem in the flats and new builds suffer from this too.

In general maybe more attention needs to be drawn to this, so that people don't find themselves in a situation of paying their neighbours' bills for years until they realise something might be wrong. As in a warning (including from energy suppliers, don't they have a duty of care?) along the lines of "whenever you move in to your new home, take opening meter reading AND do the meter sanity check to ensure it is the correct meter". 

Blotto17

Like I said, the bills are addressed to the occupier. 

I would be surprised if there was a new tenant as this flat will probably become an air bnb when we go anyway. As that seems to be the way the building is going. 

Blotto17

You are absolutely right Sam. That is the first thing I will do whenever I move into a new place. Go straight to the meter and make sure we are properly connected to it when we start our account with an energy provider. 

In some ways I don’t want to engage with the old energy provider as so far they just have us down as “the occupier”. I think they think we moved out when we switched providers and they are dealing with a new client. By communicating with them they would have our names again and I feel like there is more of a chance of this problem following us if that is the case. 

markin

They can very easily get your name to send debt collectors after you at the new address, Even If the letting agency, landlord or New tenant don't give your name.

In every thread where the person has moved it has just made it far more complicated and almost impossible to prove it was a crossed meter.

Mstty

What I would do us sit down and right down key dates and when the cross meter was found. Include key details like moans and also give the address the bills for the crossed meter should be going to.

Advise them you dispute the bill as you are being billed for a meter that us not yours and I don't understand the ombudsman queue do you mean it's waiting their checks?

Blotto17

markin said:

They can very easily get your name to send debt collectors after you at the new address, Even If the letting agency, landlord or New tenant don't give your name.

In every thread where the person has moved it has just made it far more complicated and almost impossible to prove it was a crossed meter.

But as I said before. Maybe they will force us to pay the bills after we leave. It would be horrible but if it meant putting an end to it all we would begrudgingly give them the money. They couldn’t bill us anymore after that as we would be living somewhere else. How could we be accused of being connected to their meter when we are out of the area in a completely different location? The thought of being free from it all and not having to enter into long discussions by phone and email, showing them all the overwhelming evidence that we have again and again only for them just to send us bills a few weeks later is too tempting. 

Blotto17

Hi, with regard to the above story - is anyone able to translate this? 

“ Of course, your meter operator is (new energy provider). The other meter involved will have lost its smart functionality if your meter was commissioned to their Comms Hub. They wouldn't likely have commissioned their meter to your Comms Hub too so it won't be able to pick up your readings unless they were installed at the same time and both were commissioned incorrectly from the start”

I’m just a bit unsure as to what it means exactly.