Meter Tempered

shakirmughal

So I bought this house back in Oct 2024 in an auction. Its was an eviction property and needed lots of work to be done. Its still empty to this date means no one live in it. When I bought it like in usual way I contacted the energy supplier to setup a new account under my name. 

However long story short I got an email from the energy supplier to give them the meter reading after so many months so i tried to get it but can't figure out which button I need to press to get it.It was only displaying only few zeros and nothing else. Besides i thought that energy company should get it automatically. However I contacted them about the situation, they send an engineer out to check it and turned out that the meter was tempted and needed Revenue Protection team to come and have a look. As it seems to be a criminal activity and need to be investigated. Now that sounds as scary as it can be. I have no idea what will happen. The property is vacant for good couple of years and have not flooring, gas and running water either. I am only paying monthly direct debit of £34. Does anyone has a clue what will happen in this case. Is there will be a fine / penalty on me. If so how much?

Many thanks
Regards

QrizB

You've only owned the property for eight months?

And you didn't tamper with the meter?

And you have co-operated with your supplier?

If you point the finger firmly at the previous owners/tenants, you probably won't have any problems.

flaneurs_lobster

Any reason why you didn't take meter readings when you took possession of the property? This would have flagged up the problems at your earliest opportunity.

Now, however, you've had ownership of a property with a hacked meter for 8 months - I'm not sure what the energy company's policy will be in this situation. You will just have to make the facts clear to the company (and possibly the police if there are criminal matters being investigated) and see what happens.

shakirmughal

flaneurs_lobster said:

Any reason why you didn't take meter readings when you took possession of the property? This would have flagged up the problems at your earliest opportunity.

Now, however, you've had ownership of a property with a hacked meter for 8 months - I'm not sure what the energy company's policy will be in this situation. You will just have to make the facts clear to the company (and possibly the police if there are criminal matters being investigated) and see what happens.

Yes you are right ideally I should have done it when i took the possession of the property. Not to go through this nightmare. But since no one was / is using any energy at all so I wasn't bother too much. Besides it didn't occur slightly in my mind that this could be possible at all, otherwise I would not only have done the reading but have had invited the energy provided to do all the necessary check on the meters. Besides the house is clearly a picture derelict place and need literately every thing to do, from flooring, carpeting, painting, water, boiler etc etc 

Well hope for the best and plan for the worst which is what I don't know

Regards 

shakirmughal

QrizB said:

You've only owned the property for eight months?

And you didn't tamper with the meter?

And you have co-operated with your supplier?

If you point the finger firmly at the previous owners/tenants, you probably won't have any problems.

Previous owner is dead, previous tenants are unknown , property taken by virgin money and sealed by an auction company Savills. Wonder why they didn't noticed anything on meter when they were putting seal and red tape on it.