Help! Been paying neighbours electric bill for 14 years!

sonypc100

Hi

We live in what was once a Manor House, now four flats, built over 300 years ago and converted in the 60’s, everything’s a bit quirky and complex!

Down the lane at the side of the house there are what was once the stables and now our garages. 

The mains feed for our garage and our electric meter is in one of the other garages, the fuse box is a Bakelite one and was probably installed in the 60’s. 

Let’s call us Garage 1 and our neighbours garage where our meter is Garage 2. 

For 14 years if we’ve seen Garage 2 open we have had a quick look at the meter reading and submitted it to our supplier and have been billed as per the reading. 

We’ve always presumed that there was a second meter in Garage 2, wired up to the supply for Garage 2 and that Garage 2 was also submitting and paying a bill for their usage. 

However we’ve just found out they are not! There is no meter for Garage 2 and their cables/feeds etc go through our fuse box and meter. 

Garage 2 and it’s Flat are tenanted and the renter didn’t know either. 

It’s only come to light as we have had a survey for an EV charger. 

So, a few questions…

1, how can we find out why 2 meters were never installed?

2, if we now want to split the supplies for Garage 1 and 2 and have them on their own meters who would pay for this?

3. How do we go about deciding how much Garage 2 owes us, we can’t just guesstimate usage for 14 years. 

4. What if garage 2 decides they don’t want our meter and supply in their garage anymore?

Thanks!

bryanb

Could you agree to swap garages? Don’t know what to do about the past

sonypc100

bryanb said:

Could you agree to swap garages? Don’t know what to do about the past

sadly not, ours is a large double and there’s is a single but that would just flip the problem and make the issue still exist but the other way round 

anniecave

Has the tenant for property 2 paid anyone for their electricity? Does their tenancy say they are responsible for paying? 

QrizB

sonypc100 said:

So, a few questions…

1, how can we find out why 2 meters were never installed?
2, if we now want to split the supplies for Garage 1 and 2 and have them on their own meters who would pay for this?
3. How do we go about deciding how much Garage 2 owes us, we can’t just guesstimate usage for 14 years. 
4. What if garage 2 decides they don’t want our meter and supply in their garage anymore?

1. Unless there's something in your deeds / lease, you can't.

2. There's two ways of doing this. You could add a pair of sub-meters to the current supply (and then split the bill with the owner of Garage 2 based on metered consumption), or you could get a separate supply installed to serve your garage. Adding a pair of sub-meters shouldn't cost more than £300-£500, but you'll also need to make an agreement (formally, in writing) with the owner of Garage 2 regarding how the bill is split etc.  Getting a new supply installed to your garage will cost whatever your DNO charges (there's a guide for SSEN here). A separate supply will mean playing the whole standing charge, not splitting it with Garage 2.

3. You can only guesstimate, and (at least in law) you can only go back 6 years (5 in Scotland). You might like to write it off, unless your on generally good terms with the owners of Garage 2.

4. That will be covered by the written agreement, if you stick with a shared supply. If you get your own, separate, supply then it won't matter what Garage 2 thinks.

sonypc100

anniecave said:

Has the tenant for property 2 paid anyone for their electricity? Does their tenancy say they are responsible for paying? 

Yes the tenant pays the electric bill for the flat but not the garage owned by the flat as there has never been a bill generated for it as it doesn’t have a meter 

Netexporter

What electrical equipment is in the tenant's garage?

ArbitraryRandom

One point I need to check - is the meter measuring the properties AND the garages... or just the garages? At first I thought you meant the whole house, but your more recent post makes me think we're talking significantly lower amounts of money. 

If it is just the garages/hundreds rather than thousands a year, then I'd probably suggest your neighbour pays the cost of having sub meters installed and you call it even. 

Alnat1

Does the owner of the small garage actually use any power in there other than occasionally putting a light on? I'm thinking if I was that owner and someone suddenly asked me to start paying for a power supply I didn't really use, I wouldn't be happy, in fact I might ask for the supply to be removed as I didn't need it. I'm sure I could manage with a torch if I did need to go in there after dark. Would this be a problem for you or could you also use a torch?

If the owner does use the supply, maybe they have a freezer in there etc. then they should expect to pay towards the cost. If it's mostly you who needs and uses power in your garage then perhaps you should accept paying the charges and offer your neighbour a suitable LED bulb to keep your costs down.

Brie

So your neighbour has allowed you to pay for their electricity for 14 years without any question??  I think you just need to tell the supplies that it's not your property and let the neighbour pay for the next 14 years.

Reed_Richards

Let me get this straight: you own garage 1.  You have been sneaking into garage 2 to read the only visible meter there and supplying those readings as if it was your own meter.  You assumed that garage 2 had some other meter in there, even though you could not see one.  And the meter that you have been reading only covers what must surely have been the minimal amount of energy that has been used in the garages?