Complex crossed gas meter situation

PlsProvideAName

My gas supply was erroneously transferred to another supplier by my neighbour in June (in his name) 2022, and I have not been able to get it back yet.  I believe this is technically a crossed meter.  Here is a timeline of the situation together with other relevant details:

I live in a building with 2 flats (first floor and ground floor) at the same street address / building.  I am on the first floor. The national gas data base has ambiguous addresses for our supplies (according to findmysupplier.energy), and I suspect this ambiguity has allowed for the mix up to occur in the first place.  Prior to mid-June 2022, I was supplied by E.ON Next, and my downstairs neighbour by SSE.

Timeline:

- In mid June new neighbours move in downstairs, switch to Scottish Power and they accidentally provide my gas meter serial number to them.
- I stop getting billed for gas as of mid June, though didn't realise this (my fault in part - though AFAIK E.ON did not send any correspondence directly saying there had been a change of supply, they just stopped billing from that time) until August.
- I contact E.ON Next in August and request transfer of supply back to them (at this time I realised what had happened, and discussed with neighbour who acknowledged the mistake)
- Transfer request is rejected, I reply challenging the rejection.  No reply after that.
- I dropped the matter for a couple of months (convinced myself it has been fixed), then realised it had still not been fixed.  I send another e-mail to E.ON requesting transfer back.
- Transfer request rejected again. E.ON explain that SP are rejecting the request due to "a valid contract".
- I check findmysupplier.energy.  Scottish Power is registered as supplier at my address, SSE (now OVO) for downstairs.
- I ask my neighbour to correct his meter details with SP (E.ON Next had recommended contacting SP).  He manages to do this around the end of December.  
- 3rd transfer request sent to E.ON, rejected again.
- I contact E.ON by phone. It turns out that SP kept the same MPRN + address for my neighbour, and overwrote the meter number in the database with his rather than just switching the MPRN/ address for his account.  Now 2 addresses have his meter registered (and 2 companies - SSE (now OVO) and SP), and no one has my meter registered. E.ON told me they would attempt to restore my meter, though I'm not clear it has actually happened.  They have e-mailed me telling me to contact SP again.
- Throughout this, my downstairs neighbour has been receiving bills from SSE (now OVO) addressed to "The Occupier".  I have not been able to pay for my gas.

My current plan is to tell my neighbour to ask SP to swap which address + MPRN they are supplying, release my supply back to E.ON Next, and restore my gas meter (if it has not been) to my address.  Does anyone have any idea if there is something I can do on my end?  SP don't seem to have clear options for contacting them when I'm not the account holder, so I'm reliant on my neighbour doing this correctly.  Also, I wanted to file a complaint with the ombudsman but again, the complaint seems to require being the account holder.

I have just spotted this discussion which seems relevant:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6427365/gas-supply-switched-without-permission/p1

I may ring up Cadent.  In addition I can try e-mailing SP on my own explaining clearly that this is a supply address/MPRN mix up (also attaching an old bill) rather than a "meter is wrong in the database" problem, though I did e-mail them in November and it didn't go very well (e.g. being repeatedly asked to use web chat even though it didn't seem applicable).

Thanks in advance!

[Deleted User]

The only thing that I can add is that no supplier should change the meter serial number on a database without checking that there has been a meter exchange. All properties have an address and a MPRN/MPAN. When meters are installed, the meter serial numbers are tagged to the MPRN and MPAN. If anyone breaks this link, then it leaves a party shipperless. 

Can you with 100% certainty confirm the meter serial numbers that are linked to your property? If you can then speak to any supplier and apprise them of the fact that you have been left with a shipperless supply. If you provide it with a copy of an old bill showing the MPRN/ MPAN and linked serial numbers along with a photo of the ‘missing’ meter showing the meter serial number, it should be able to correct the database error and start supplying you with energy.

PlsProvideAName

Thanks for your reply Dolor.  I phoned E.ON Next a couple of days ago and they told me that my meter was back on the network now, so it looks like that has been sorted. 

I may have muddied the waters a bit with my neighbour by overemphasizing that SP had the wrong meter for his account, when that was just a consquence of them having the wrong supply address/MPRN. So I think in December when called them he accidentally convinced them to modify the meter registered to his account's MPRN, rather than swapping the address/MRPN supplied in his account with the correct one (I don't think I explained this well in my original post - it was at this point that I think the meter was incorrectly removed from the database).

Anyway, I'm wary of reaching out to SP myself as I didn't have the best experience when I e-mailed them a few months ago, and I may create additional confusion. For now I've asked my neighbour to contact them again, and explain this time that they have had the wrong address/MPRN for him, and that they must take over the supply at the other property, while releasing mine back to E.ON Next.  Hopefully that will finally sort it out, though if not I will contact SP as a last resort.