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Using electricity in the barn that has not been paid for - HELP!

2

Comments

  • Lorian
    Lorian Posts: 6,665 Forumite
    Twentieth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic

    Also a possibility it's 3 phase

  • tfhnota
    tfhnota Posts: 145 Forumite
    100 Posts

    MPAN starts 00 for business but that designation is now used for smart meters as well - I found that out when my smart meter went dumb and it came up as business and thus excluded from heat pump quote by Octopus, once it was fixed it went back to domestic. You really can't make this up, the supply industry has layers of incompetence and nonsense that is protected by Ofgem who consumers actually pay for.

  • QrizB
    QrizB Posts: 22,509 Forumite
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    MPAN starts 00 for business but that designation is now used for smart meters as well

    Some smart meters, typically ones on smart tariffs.

    Other smart meters still have 01 or 02 MPANs.

    N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Vodafone BB / iD mobile. Kirk Hill Co-op member.
    2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 35 MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.
    Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!
  • Scot_39
    Scot_39 Posts: 4,560 Forumite
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  • MWT
    MWT Posts: 10,951 Forumite
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    edited 20 March at 6:34PM

    I agree, but regardless of that if they took control of the premises, used energy and failed to contact the supplier they are not in a good position to be looking at back-billing as the supplier does need to be given the opportunity to bill in the first-place…

    … on the other-hand I am not going to be surprised to find that if they kill all the power to the house, the barn supply will also go dead…

  • WiserMiser
    WiserMiser Posts: 611 Forumite
    500 Posts Name Dropper

    Surely the supplier would long ago have sent a bill to 'The Occupier' at the relevant address?

    But it may be a false alarm, we need to hear back from the OP whether turning off the house supply also disconnects the barn.

  • Spikeygran
    Spikeygran Posts: 237 Forumite
    100 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper

    How have you come to the conclusion that the barn isn't connected to your meter?

    You could switch everything off at the house for a short while, take a meter reading, then have one of you in the barn with a small appliance (not safe to leave unattended obviously) but a 1kw or larger appliance should use enough in 30 minutes to register on the meter. Assuming you have mobile signal at the barn you can co-ordinate the switching on/off while watching the meter.

    Who did the barn belong to originally? I'm assuming your house was divided off from a farm, or estate. So could the barn still be connected to the farm?

    If you cant work it out a qualified electrician should be able to confirm whether it is attached to your supply or not. And what sort of supply is in the barn.

  • Swipe
    Swipe Posts: 6,162 Forumite
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    edited 20 March at 7:44PM

    If you switch off the mains at the house, if the barn is connected to your house supply, then there'll be no power to the barn unless it has a direct connection to your meter cupboard. If it does, and still has power, as above, use an appliance in the barn for a while and then check both meters to see if they incremented equally.

  • optimistique1
    optimistique1 Posts: 13 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Name Dropper Photogenic First Post
    edited 23 March at 8:12PM

    Hello sorry for the late reply…. We assumed that all the utilities were supplied from the house just like the water is. There was nothing listed in the deeds regarding any other electrical supply other than the main house. The meter in the barn is all taped up as though it is out of use and has never been touched by us since the move. We only suspected something last week or so when we turned the power off in the house during renovations and the bulbs were still on in the barn…

    We will reach out to the electricity board and see that they say….

    Yes the village was part of an estate which was all sold off in bits quite a while ago….

  • WiserMiser
    WiserMiser Posts: 611 Forumite
    500 Posts Name Dropper
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