Phantom Electricity? How do I get electricity provider to check the meter

ariarnia

hi OP. 

did you manage to book an electrician to look at it this week? i can't really help with electrical advice but i'm really interested in knowing whats happened here so i'm glad you're coming back to update  

obamtl

ariarnia said:

hi OP. 

did you manage to book an electrician to look at it this week? i can't really help with electrical advice but i'm really interested in knowing whats happened here so i'm glad you're coming back to update  

Hi ariarnia, I've contacted the building electrician, and just waiting on him to confirm when he'll come over. Had a cursory look at the wiring to the meter with the building manager, and nothing unusual was immediately obvious.

obamtl

Mystery resolved!

The meters are crossed with the apartment next door. With my power off, I noticed that their meter had stopped reading, whilst mine progressed by 17 kWh over a 21 hour period. The moment my power came back on, their started moving, and when I turned on the boiler, heating and kettle, it moved rapidly.

Now that the issue has been identified, I've emailed my electricity company. 

What resolution am I entitled to? Can I ask that the electricity company reconcile the bills as far back as when I joined them in 2019 and refund the overpayment?

In the meantime what should I be paying? My neighbour says their bill is around £60/70 a month while mine is around £170. Do I keep overpaying until this is resolved?

Mstty

obamtl said:

Mystery resolved!

The meters are crossed with the apartment next door. With my power off, I noticed that their meter had stopped reading, whilst mine progressed by 17 kWh over a 21 hour period. The moment my power came back on, their started moving, and when I turned on the boiler, heating and kettle, it moved rapidly.

Now that the issue has been identified, I've emailed my electricity company. 

What resolution am I entitled to? Can I ask that the electricity company reconcile the bills as far back as when I joined them in 2019 and refund the overpayment?

In the meantime what should I be paying? My neighbour says their bill is around £60/70 a month while mine is around £170. Do I keep overpaying until this is resolved?

You need to take a record of the meter reading of the meter that is yours and keep taking regular readings and photos to show your usage (for winter) it could be said you have to go a whole year to get your estimated annual usage and have this backdated?

ariarnia

obamtl said:

Mystery resolved!

The meters are crossed with the apartment next door. With my power off, I noticed that their meter had stopped reading, whilst mine progressed by 17 kWh over a 21 hour period. The moment my power came back on, their started moving, and when I turned on the boiler, heating and kettle, it moved rapidly.

Now that the issue has been identified, I've emailed my electricity company. 

What resolution am I entitled to? Can I ask that the electricity company reconcile the bills as far back as when I joined them in 2019 and refund the overpayment?

In the meantime what should I be paying? My neighbour says their bill is around £60/70 a month while mine is around £170. Do I keep overpaying until this is resolved?

great news! thanks for the update.

the energy company will probably want to send someone out to verify. do you know if your neighbour is with the same supplier? shouldn't be a problem if not but might take longer if your supplier has to talk to a differnt supplier. 

then it might also need the central databases (2 of them?) updating maybe for you and your neighbour - make sure your supplier does that as part of any agreement  to close your complaint as if you or neighbour change supplier without it being done you'll just have the same problem again (if only one changes then you might end up with both bills or something). 

if your neighbour has a actual reading from what they think is there meter back in 2019 and you have one from when you moved in then it should be easy enough to take readings now and work out the actual use for each property. 

assuming everyone agrees that your right about the problem (but maybe i'd expect them to not send you a christmas card next year!)
 

[Deleted User]

obamtl said:

Mystery resolved!

The meters are crossed with the apartment next door. With my power off, I noticed that their meter had stopped reading, whilst mine progressed by 17 kWh over a 21 hour period. The moment my power came back on, their started moving, and when I turned on the boiler, heating and kettle, it moved rapidly.

Now that the issue has been identified, I've emailed my electricity company. 

What resolution am I entitled to? Can I ask that the electricity company reconcile the bills as far back as when I joined them in 2019 and refund the overpayment?

In the meantime what should I be paying? My neighbour says their bill is around £60/70 a month while mine is around £170. Do I keep overpaying until this is resolved?

I refer to my post 3. Send your supplier a photo of your meter which shows the correct meter serial number. Ask them to transfer the MPAN linked to that meter serial number to your address: the meter will follow! DO NOT break the link between the MPAN and the serial number or you will leave your neighbour stranded.  You should pay for the energy accrued on the correct meter. BackBilling does not apply.

obamtl

[Deleted User] said:

obamtl said:

Mystery resolved!

The meters are crossed with the apartment next door. With my power off, I noticed that their meter had stopped reading, whilst mine progressed by 17 kWh over a 21 hour period. The moment my power came back on, their started moving, and when I turned on the boiler, heating and kettle, it moved rapidly.

Now that the issue has been identified, I've emailed my electricity company. 

What resolution am I entitled to? Can I ask that the electricity company reconcile the bills as far back as when I joined them in 2019 and refund the overpayment?

In the meantime what should I be paying? My neighbour says their bill is around £60/70 a month while mine is around £170. Do I keep overpaying until this is resolved?

I refer to my post 3. Send your supplier a photo of your meter which shows the correct meter serial number. Ask them to transfer the MPAN linked to that meter serial number to your address: the meter will follow! DO NOT break the link between the MPAN and the serial number or you will leave your neighbour stranded.  You should pay for the energy accrued on the correct meter. BackBilling does not apply.

Sorry what does "BackBilling does not apply" mean?

ariarnia

obamtl said:

[Deleted User] said:

obamtl said:

Mystery resolved!

The meters are crossed with the apartment next door. With my power off, I noticed that their meter had stopped reading, whilst mine progressed by 17 kWh over a 21 hour period. The moment my power came back on, their started moving, and when I turned on the boiler, heating and kettle, it moved rapidly.

Now that the issue has been identified, I've emailed my electricity company. 

What resolution am I entitled to? Can I ask that the electricity company reconcile the bills as far back as when I joined them in 2019 and refund the overpayment?

In the meantime what should I be paying? My neighbour says their bill is around £60/70 a month while mine is around £170. Do I keep overpaying until this is resolved?

I refer to my post 3. Send your supplier a photo of your meter which shows the correct meter serial number. Ask them to transfer the MPAN linked to that meter serial number to your address: the meter will follow! DO NOT break the link between the MPAN and the serial number or you will leave your neighbour stranded.  You should pay for the energy accrued on the correct meter. BackBilling does not apply.

Sorry what does "BackBilling does not apply" mean?

theres a law that says in some situations a supplier can't bill you for energy used more than a year ago. 

its really complicated about when it does or doesn't apply. Dolor is knowledgeable in this area so he's just saying he doesn't think it applies in this situation and the supplier can re issue bills for the full period since you moved in.

(which might not matter to you if your right about getting a refund because your use is less than your neighbour)

Gerry1

@obamtl You read it here first !

Feel free to give my post an upvote.

[Deleted User]

Gerry1 said:

@obamtl You read it here first !

Feel free to give my post an upvote.

Sadly the OP wrote:

 It's not a crossed serial number as the number on the meter itself and my bill match up.