Help! Been paying neighbours electric bill for 14 years!

Reed_Richards

sonypc100 said:

Someone woke up grumpy lol 

Possibly, but I'm trying to put things in perspective.  The amount of power your neighbour will have most likely used in just their garage is very small, hardly worth worrying about.

Electricity (and gas) meters don't belong to you, they belong to the District Network Operator for your region so you cannot rip one out, even if you wanted to.  If you wanted a meter to be moved you would have to get them to do that for you.

I (and everybody else) remain unclear if this meter measures your entire electricity use or just the electricity being used in both garages.  Can you tell us please, because at the moment there's a 50:50 split between one interpretation and the other.     

sonypc100

ArbitraryRandom said:

DullGreyGuy said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

Alnat1 said:

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.

The bigger issue I would think would be the standing charge - which could quite reasonably eclipse the actual use.

Having the meter removed would cost a few hundred pounds (and it might be the neighbour can't decide unilaterally to do so if it's a shared supply - depending what's in the deeds) so if the way forward is sub-meters then the few hundred pound installation would cost should reasonably (to my mind) balance 50% of the standing charge for the 6 years you could get back via the courts (and would save everyone the bother and acrimony of taking a neighbour to court). 

I am assuming both OP and neighbour only have 1 meter each and so both are paying a full service charge already so nothing to be shared. What the OP has been unwittingly paying is the usage of the garage of the neighbour which doesn't sound as if it's too high anyway. 

I'm not sure what you mean? Every meter which is not a sub-meter attracts a standing charge. 

The issue is the two garages share a meter (which is separate from the household meters) - so the OP and neighbour have each been paying for usage and standing charges for their homes AND the OP has been paying the usage and standing charge for the meter which serves both garages when it should reasonably have been split 50/50. 

That’s correct!

sonypc100

Reed_Richards said:

sonypc100 said:

Someone woke up grumpy lol 

Possibly, but I'm trying to put things in perspective.  The amount of power your neighbour will have most likely used in just their garage is very small, hardly worth worrying about.

Electricity (and gas) meters don't belong to you, they belong to the District Network Operator for your region so you cannot rip one out, even if you wanted to.  If you wanted a meter to be moved you would have to get them to do that for you.

I (and everybody else) remain unclear if this meter measures your entire electricity use or just the electricity being used in both garages.  Can you tell us please, because at the moment there's a 50:50 split between one interpretation and the other.     

That’s good news that a feed and meter cannot be ripped out. 

This is purely the electricity consumed by both garages not the flats 

DullGreyGuy

ArbitraryRandom said:

DullGreyGuy said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

Alnat1 said:

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.

The bigger issue I would think would be the standing charge - which could quite reasonably eclipse the actual use.

Having the meter removed would cost a few hundred pounds (and it might be the neighbour can't decide unilaterally to do so if it's a shared supply - depending what's in the deeds) so if the way forward is sub-meters then the few hundred pound installation would cost should reasonably (to my mind) balance 50% of the standing charge for the 6 years you could get back via the courts (and would save everyone the bother and acrimony of taking a neighbour to court). 

I am assuming both OP and neighbour only have 1 meter each and so both are paying a full service charge already so nothing to be shared. What the OP has been unwittingly paying is the usage of the garage of the neighbour which doesn't sound as if it's too high anyway. 

I'm not sure what you mean? Every meter which is not a sub-meter attracts a standing charge. 

The issue is the two garages share a meter (which is separate from the household meters) - so the OP and neighbour have each been paying for usage and standing charges for their homes AND the OP has been paying the usage and standing charge for the meter which serves both garages when it should reasonably have been split 50/50. 

That was part of my assumption/question... is the meter in the garage just for the garage or is it for the OPs home as well as the garage? In my childhood home the meter was in the garage but covered all the buildings in our dwelling. 

sonypc100

Aside of usage and I’ve no idea how much the standing charge has increased over the years but in today’s money at 0.52 a day over 14 years we are around £2.5k 

Netexporter

sonypc100 said:

Aside of usage and I’ve no idea how much the standing charge has increased over the years but in today’s money at 0.52 a day over 14 years we are around £2.5k 

But you'd be paying that, anyway.

sonypc100

Netexporter said:

sonypc100 said:

Aside of usage and I’ve no idea how much the standing charge has increased over the years but in today’s money at 0.52 a day over 14 years we are around £2.5k 

But you'd be paying that, anyway.

Well, yes but Garage 2 should have also paid the same instead of piggybacking on mine!

ArbitraryRandom

Netexporter said:

sonypc100 said:

Aside of usage and I’ve no idea how much the standing charge has increased over the years but in today’s money at 0.52 a day over 14 years we are around £2.5k 

But you'd be paying that, anyway.

Potentially half that if there's a sub-meter arrangement going forward. 

sonypc100 said:

Aside of usage and I’ve no idea how much the standing charge has increased over the years but in today’s money at 0.52 a day over 14 years we are around £2.5k 

It's already been pointed out you can't legally pursue a debt from longer than 6 years ago - trying would probably just alienate your neighbour and result in a dispute that you would have to declare if/when you want to sell.

As for the amount - It depends on the fix you were on, but back in 2021 I was paying 14.42p per day (which would be £52.63 per year) and in 2022 it was 23.74p (£86.65).

So I'd think the highest you could 'reasonably' estimate would be £600 for the standing charges - and you should have paid half, meaning the neighbour probably owes you around £300ish... hence saying the cost of installing sub meters probably balances it out if there's no reason to think more than very minimal use for lighting. 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

the standing charge has only increased rapidly the last couple of years.

Don't suppose you have any old bills from 14 years ago in a box in the attic.

sonypc100

ArbitraryRandom said:

Netexporter said:

sonypc100 said:

Aside of usage and I’ve no idea how much the standing charge has increased over the years but in today’s money at 0.52 a day over 14 years we are around £2.5k 

But you'd be paying that, anyway.

Potentially half that if there's a sub-meter arrangement going forward. 

sonypc100 said:

Aside of usage and I’ve no idea how much the standing charge has increased over the years but in today’s money at 0.52 a day over 14 years we are around £2.5k 

It's already been pointed out you can't legally pursue a debt from longer than 6 years ago - trying would probably just alienate your neighbour and result in a dispute that you would have to declare if/when you want to sell.

As for the amount - It depends on the fix you were on, but back in 2021 I was paying 14.42p per day (which would be £52.63 per year) and in 2022 it was 23.74p (£86.65).

So I'd think the highest you could 'reasonably' estimate would be £600 for the standing charges - and you should have paid half, meaning the neighbour probably owes you around £300ish... hence saying the cost of installing sub meters probably balances it out if there's no reason to think more than very minimal use for lighting. 

ArbitraryRandom said:

Netexporter said:

sonypc100 said:

Aside of usage and I’ve no idea how much the standing charge has increased over the years but in today’s money at 0.52 a day over 14 years we are around £2.5k 

But you'd be paying that, anyway.

Potentially half that if there's a sub-meter arrangement going forward. 

sonypc100 said:

Aside of usage and I’ve no idea how much the standing charge has increased over the years but in today’s money at 0.52 a day over 14 years we are around £2.5k 

It's already been pointed out you can't legally pursue a debt from longer than 6 years ago - trying would probably just alienate your neighbour and result in a dispute that you would have to declare if/when you want to sell.

As for the amount - It depends on the fix you were on, but back in 2021 I was paying 14.42p per day (which would be £52.63 per year) and in 2022 it was 23.74p (£86.65).

So I'd think the highest you could 'reasonably' estimate would be £600 for the standing charges - and you should have paid half, meaning the neighbour probably owes you around £300ish... hence saying the cost of installing sub meters probably balances it out if there's no reason to think more than very minimal use for lighting. 

I'm really not looking to claim back anything, I think a reasonable outcome would be for Garage 2 to pay for any splitting or sub meter work and we call it quits.