Past meter readings

tompipe

Our latest electric bill arrived and was for £2900. After looking into it I realised that the bills have been estimated since we have lived here (18 months). I called npower to ask them for a list of readings, which they provided. The last accepted meter reading was 76342, (18 months before we moved in), 6 months later the previous tenant provided a meter reading of 5265 which I think is the incorrect one and has caused our account readings and actual readings to be out of line.

After further investigation, they read the meter twice during our tenany. One a month after we moved in (August), and the one recently used to generate this bill (January). They dismissed the August reading because it wasnt in line with the readings held on the account.

I've lodged a complaint with npower and they've informed me that due to not having an accurate start reading, they will estimate our usage based on the inspector readings in August and October. Yet, according to the records provided by them before I lodged the complaint, there was no inspector reading in october.

Can I go to the meter reading agency to obtain the list of readings for this property in writing? Or can I only obtain this through npower?

Thanks in advance

Ken68

Npower have done wrong in letting you have sight of another's account details. A bargaining lever for you perhaps.
You can only go from the readings during your tenancy , the August one (which is near enough from when you moved in ) and now. Npower will then extrapolate this back to your start date.

espresso

Surely you took meter readings when you moved in?

tompipe

Another tenant was (supposedly) responsible for doing the meter readings, he's moved out now and I've found out he's never given them any.

Apparently when we moved in, he gave them a meter reading and they told him it was wrong (probably because what they had on the system was way out from the erronous reading by the past tenant) So they were sending out an inspector to read it, he came in August 06 and they dismissed his reading too.

Ken68

Sounds like you are being billed for the previous tenant too.
You have to exhaust the complaints proc edure with the supplier before going to Energywatch.

Terrylw1

Ken68 wrote: »

Npower have done wrong in letting you have sight of another's account details. A bargaining lever for you perhaps.
You can only go from the readings during your tenancy , the August one (which is near enough from when you moved in ) and now. Npower will then extrapolate this back to your start date.

They have to discuss it with the current tenant since the whole dispute is potentially based around it. The reading does not expose any details of the previous tenant.

Ken68

Could be Terry, although Tom has an August reading and a recent reading, so no need to get involved in previous mis-readings and/or possible fraud.

Terrylw1

Very true Ken but Suppliers minds work based on the customer is always wrong when they dispute previous firm readings. So, they insist on visits and a lot of the time the previous customer just misread it.

Based on the other thread some or these readings are firm visits and have been failed by the Data Collector so any readings after at this stage will most likely have been dismissed as a meter reader mistake, which happens a lot.

Any readings OP can get his hands on will really help him. Having readings on either side of a change of tenancy date is a major bonus in trying to sort it out so he should plug the Supplier for as much as possible.