Electricity meter readings?
Question:Does anyone know if there is a legal requirement for gas/electricity suppliers to read the meters at least once a year (or whatever) or can they just estimate over a long period. I have had an electricity bill of over £1400 as my supplier had not read my meter for about 3/4 years had been underestimating my reading for this time.
Answers:
They are obliged to read the meter at least once a year but unfortunately this isn't always the case. At my business premises I went nearly 2 years without receiving a bill for my electricity ... then got hit with an invoice for £5,500. I obviously complained, but they argued that I should have set funds aside as I knew I was using the electric. I ended up negotiating a payment plan with them to pay over 6 months to make it a little easier. The sad news is that regardless of circumstances i'm afriad we all have to pay.
You could have telephoned your supplier with a customer reading at any time.
I think they would be likely to turn round and tell you that you should have been checking it yourself. You can request a meter read from the company at some points if you want to - seems a bit odd that no ones been out the read it for 3 or 4 years though. Contact the company to discuss the situation - it happened to a friend of mine and they were allowed to pay it back in instalments.
why dont you read your meters and phone them with an accurate customer reading each time a bill comes through?
I understood that they had to read it at least every 2 years. This happened to my sister a few years ago, write saying that yuo will not pay this amount due them being negligent in the duty in reading the meter, offer an amount and then insist that thsi amount is spread over a years payments. Go to the auditor offgas or something like that and see what they say
Thats happened to us too, only not to such a great degree as in Canada they are only required to read every other month and they can only screw that up so bad! Joe Kool is right about calling in your readings though!
Here, we have Xcel.
Don't know about 'legal requirement', but here, we can make them make a special trip and read the meter while we are here.
For a long time, I read the meter a day or two within their reading, because one month it would be low because he misread. Next month it would be high which would make up for the previous' months mistake.
I didn't like it, but I never got a reading difference enough to raise trouble about. Because as it stood, I never paid for electricity I didn't use, so I let it go.
But I know how you feel, so read the meter yourself, and if you find a discrepancy large enough to call in a dispute, do it as soon as you can. Before the next billing closing.
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