Who do i pay electricity to?

[killersla]

Hello all i have a bit of a situation here and im not sure what to do.

Ok we moved in to a new property in may and the landlord took us round and showed us the meters and stuff and i duley set up the accounts.

Now the gas is fine but its the electricty that is wrong. When we got our first bill i noticed that it was addressed to the ground floor flat not to the upper floor flat were we live. Any way i rang scottish power who supplies the building and they asked me to check the MPRN which i did and they told me that there was already an account setup for this meter (the GF flat) so they told me to check the other meter's.

There are 3 meters in total 2 qwite new ones with digital display and an old black one so i presumed our one was the other new one. So i set up and account for that. After a couple of weeks i went to check the reading and it was the same as the week before so either we havnt used any electricty hmmm or the meter was broken.

So back on the phone to scottish power and told them the meter was broken so they duley sent someone out to have a look. So the engineer arrives and starts to look at the meters but cant figure out which one is for our flat and wether this so called broken meter was even ours.

So we started to turn the power of to the meters to see which one cut the power to our flat. So tried the newer two meters and nothing so tried the old black and bingo it cut the power to our flat so bingo we have our meter (or do we).

So the engineer does some checks with the serial number on the black meter to discover that the meter is not registered to anyone no MPRN (meter point reference number) or supply number he suggested that it could be a sub meter of some sort and he told us an customer service rep would come out to investigate further.

In the meantime we havnt paid any electricty bill to anyone because no one knows who it belongs to.

So this rep comes out and has a look but couldnt really tell us much other than if no one has registered the meter then techinally we cant get billed untill it is registered and they arnt accurate any way. I asked well how did the previous tenants pay he said i think they held there hands up and paid us some money. But he was hinting if we just keep our mouths closed then we would get free electricty lol sounds great. He went on to say someone would be intouch and sort it out.

This was in july and noone has been intouch since and i really didnt want some bill to appear next year or something for thousands of pounds so i got back on to scottish power thismorning. No one there knew anything about it and they suggested to speak to the land lord.

So being the good citezen i am i told the land lord who was shocked and said well everyone before you has paid the bills with no problem but he is getting on to scottish power to sort it out and in the meantime we arnt paying anyone for the electricty.

I am just worried that we are going to get a big bill soon. However from what the rep said how can someone charge us for a meter that is not registered and they are inacurate so if scottish power decide to estimate a bill can i fight it.

Im a bit worried whats going to happen i suppose i should start putting money aside just incase.

Any views or ideas would be great.

[Guest]

Re: Who do i pay electricity to?

Scottish Power can only go back 12 months, as of July 2007, as during 2005 Ofgem ruled that energy suppliers who had failed to issue bills could not backdate bills for more than two years which which in July 2007 dropped to 12 months.

On a practical level, you cannot pay a bill that you have not received, so right now you have to wait.

Take a look here for some more information on a previous thread. Free electicity! Advice needed. - Legal Beagles

[Mochamoo]

Re: Who do i pay electricity to?

I personally would put money aside every month just in case as you really don't want to get lumped with a whopping great bill. Have you tried writing to them???

I know they can charge you up to one year but cant go further back than that I don't know where you stand other than that, I'm sure someone else will be along shortly x

Write down the meter reading on the meters to make sure they don't try to over charge you.
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lol someone came to help whilst I was typing x

[killersla]

Re: Who do i pay electricity to?

Thanks for the qwick reply. From what i can gather from other posts im my circumstances because my meter is not registered and i have had no bills and i have even tried to open an account if i just sit back and wait and mabe save up 1years worth of electricty bills i could probably get away with free electricty for a long time.

Although i have told the land lord but hes not the best land lord to ort things out so i think i will just wait and see what happens and put a bit of money aside.

Thanks for the info.

[WendyB]

Re: Who do i pay electricity to?

Stupid question, but if no-one knows who owns the meter, how do they know who's supplying the electric to it? Is it even Scottish Power?

Sit tight, you've taken all reasonable steps to try and pay. Put some money aside and see what happens.

[Tools]

Re: Who do i pay electricity to?

Also keep a documented record of any letters, telephone calls or visits you receive.

This will back you up if they decide to be silly.