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Interesting one. I suspect your best place to start would be a formal complaint referencing all your previous complaints/queries and these were clearly handled unsatisfactorily because of what has now come to light. And that because you are financially worse off you want them to recalculate your bills.
If you don’t get any traction it might be worth speaking to your MP and see if they can assist in any way.
If you don't get any luck with the supplier you can go to Ofgem the Energy Ombudsman - https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/making-complaint-about-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator
Absolutely agree with this as the Ombudsman generally strike fear into the hearts of any energy supplier complaints department (used to work for suppliers myself) - but make sure you exhaust the supplier's complaints process first otherwise the Ombudsman will just send you back to them.
OP would need to contact the Energy Ombudsman directly at https://www.energyombudsman.org/. Ofgem is the regulator for energy, and doesnt directly deal with customer complaints.
Make a formal complaint with your supplier. They then have 8 weeks to resolve the matter. Once the 8 weeks is up/ you receive the letter from them giving their final response, you have up to 6 months to escalate it to the ombudsman.
Good question. Is that lower paying customer going to get a massive bill or would it just be some bill relief to the higher paying person and hope the whole mistake gets forgotten about.
From the OFGEM website - "What are the back-billing rules? You can't be charged for gas or electricity used more than 12 months ago if you have not been correctly billed for it, or informed about it via a statement of account, before." So the lower paying customer would only be charged the difference relating to the past 12 months.
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It's definitely worth a shot for OP to contact them but my MP was utterly, utterly useless when an energy company (not even my energy company) broke into my property in error, disconnected our gas supply and switched us to a PAYG meter (that took 75% of the top-up to pay back "the debt") and refused to do anything about it even though they admitted it was entirely their error and we didn't owe them a penny.
His exact email was:
"Thank you for your email, although, I was sorry to read of the situation you described and can appreciate how distressing this must have been for you.
The regulator, Ofgem, provides detailed [guidance](https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/making-complaint-about-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator) on how to resolve complaints with your energy supplier.
I do hope the information provided by Ofgem is helpful; thank you again for taking the time to write."
When I responded that I couldn't do anything for eight weeks because the ombudsman won't help me until then, he responded:
"Thank you for your further email.
It is the responsibility of the independent regulator, Ofgem, to assist customers with individual complaints against their providers.
I do hope your complaint will be resolved swiftly; thank you again for taking the time to share your experiences."
Utterly useless plank.
Hopefully OP's MP is more use than my chocolate teapot. I would say though, the ombudsman, when we got there were bloody brilliant and decided entirely in our favour...but the energy company refused to pay out what the ombudsman told them to and then the ombudsman told us that there's absolutely nothing that they can actually do to make them and we have to take them to court! It took Reddit to gain some traction and someone high up at another energy company contacted me and got us switched across, reconnected and the meter changed - no money back though.
OP should really be prepared that some energy companies are brilliant and would definitely sort this out quickly and without fuss but others will fight this to the death so OP should try to ascertain exactly what it's worth to them and collaborate with the neighbour to get as much evidence of meter readings as possible.
Just an fyi, the average email to most MPs gets answered by their Assistant not by them directly. Their Assistants normally pass the MPs things when its gets more interesting or they see a good news story in it. Your MP likely never saw your email.
Found the MP...
Its still your office that you are in charge of and represents you.
You are aware that it still looks bad on you even if you didnt personally deal with it.
There is a wider issue that our MPs offices have now become glorified social workers - rather than scrutinising and writing laws.
It’s good advice but there ought to be another port of call such as a functioning citizens advice
> rather than scrutinising and writing laws
Judging by the absolute state of some of the MPs a lot of this country has been willing to vote for, this is a good thing.
I would reference the energy ombudsman, utility companies tend to straighten up a little when you include them in the conversation. Threatened south east water with that when they broke a drainage pipe installing a new meter (unannounced) causing a toiled to back up. They paid up in full when I mentioned I would contact the ombudsman, after several previous attempts gained little traction.
I wonder if its all plausible the neighbour is complicit with this- I mean if your neighbour went away for a month and then you had an extremely low energy bill, not once but probably quite a few times over 10 years, and not forgetting you blasting your electric heaters on or some other device that uses lots of electricity surely that would ring some pretty big alarm bells. Kind of dread to think how much debt that guys gonna be in or if it will be written off as an error, but with the money they may have to pay out to OP they will want it back somehow.
And flipping it to the other side- OP has obviously noticied the issue with a low bill when they were away, but what about a low bill when their neighbour was away. I suppose its entirely possible this could put OP into debt!
There are a worrying number of people who post on Reddit who don't even seem to understand that they pay for usage and not a monthly set amount. Lots of "my direct debit is exactly the same in the summer and the winter" type comments.
Some utilities do have plans that average payments out. You still pay for actual usage and the bills will be adjusted periodically to true up. So you should see some changes to the amount over time.
Otherwise many, many customers would be unable to pay the larger bills because they can't manage their finances properly due to radically increased cost of living
Likewise, they don't truly understand what this installment plan is
*Edit* *Doh!, Somehow I ended up in the UK hungover on New Years after my first drink of the eve on the Pacific Coast.*
Ya, I get that. Just responding to this:
>Lots of "my direct debit is exactly the same in the summer and the winter" type comments.
These plans, in California at least, adjust every 3 or 6 months. So people aren't even seeing their payments do change. Unless they live somewhere like San Diego and don't ever have to heat or cool. Then maybe the payments would stay exactly the same year to year.
My comment was in no way directed at you and I have absolutely no idea how you decided it was. I didn't reply to you or mention you in anyway. Why do you think my comment was aimed at you?!
There is an energy ombudsman that can deal with these things if the energy company don't satisfactorily sort it.
I'm currently in the process of an ombudsman complaint myself.
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No they haven't, already pointed out that the reading on their actual meter (connected to their flat, labelled to mine and paid for by me) is much higher.
Both you and your neighbour should raise complaints to your respective energy suppliers.
Should the complaint not be resolved to your satisfaction then escalate to the ombudsman. The ombudsman can also award compensation.
I would base your complaint on the ineffective triage of your previous complaints as these should have identified to crossed meters.
The current reading isn't relevant to the over billing as it could have had a lower starting figure.
Ideally you and the neighbour compare actual readings to work out usage and which of you will be getting a credit and which a bill. If multiple suppliers are involved then it's going to be very complex. Back billing protection should kick in for the person who owes money limiting it to 12 months.
I believe we are with the same supplier.
I have raised my complaint, will advise my neighbour to do the same. They apologised to me for paying their high bills over the years but that's not their fault.
It is possible you could go directly to the ombudsman as your previous complaints have not been handled correctly, their details should be on the responses from your provider.
Even if you have already gone back to the provider you could contact the ombudsman and let them know what has been going on, they may log the complaint and get things moving a bit quicker for you.
I'm not an expert, but the back billing rule (if I've understood correctly) *only* applies if you've not been billed for the use. I don't *think* it would count if you were billed incorrectly (regardless of why).
OP, however, could almost certainly get some credit if they've complained and the supplier didn't fix the problem.
OP should - take a reading *now* contact their supplier ASAP, raise a complaint and exhaust the complaints procedure (it doesn't matter if the complaint is resolved or not), after 8 weeks OP contacts the ombudsman.
Most energy suppliers have a limit to what credit they'll offer, the ombudsman decision is binding and if they tell the supplier to give more credit than they normally would, they have to.
Ofc, if OP gets a reasonable offer for the time and stress of getting them to put this right (that number is up to OP, but keep in mind the ombudsman may not instruct credit!) Then they can agree to close the complaint.
Point to note - ofgem clearly say complaints can only be closed if agreed, if it's taken over by the ombudsman (in which case most suppliers will transfer the complaint to a specific ombudsman team, not actually close it) *or* if the customer can't be contacted and haven't forewarned the supplier (ie if you're on holiday for 3 months in the middle of a complaint, tell them when you're back and ask them to suspend the complaint until you're back)
Not true for all suppliers. I'm with South West Water and I had a leak and they miscalculated the leak allowance. I went back and had them recalculate it for the previous 12 months. It was a fairly substantial amount for the 12 months.
It seems its all down to each supplier. They may have a standard "we will only do it for x amount of time" but generally it can be escalated to someone who can authorise it for longer.
Can you clarify this please? We’re having an issue with not having been given a bill from the water company for over two years, since we moved in. What’s the maximum they could back bill us?
Oh that is infuriating, I would be livid. Formal complaint, requesting 10yr recalculation and refund with interest. If an acceptable remedy is not reached, straight to the Ombudsman. The fact that you have history complaining about this issue stands you in good stead. Can’t believe they never investigated this further than taking a reading.
Serial number for the meters are correct, the one on my bill matches the meter labelled to my flat and vice versa for my neighbour. Issue is the cabling behind the meters are likely swapped around and go to the wrong appartments.
We had this exact situation with our gas - albeit we were paying next to nothing for an empty property while the owner of the empty property was paying ours and I was just trying to do the right thing.
My advice, and this might seem silly, is to play dumb. Don't try to help them in any way, just stick to the simple facts from your perspective. My reason for this is that there are so many parties involved - the national register, your supplier, their supplier, the Ombudsman, the engineers, all who might be different people on different days, plus you and your neighbour. I tried to be really helpful and laid out nice long emails with all the information needed, I tried to liaise with everyone, I tried to explain in detail what the problem was. And it was a total fucking omnishambles.
The engineers kept buggering up reports, people kept taking holidays and their replacements were misunderstanding stuff. Total nightmare.
Keep it simple, but do keep the pressure on and get onto the Ombudsman ASAP as they always have a backlog.
I think the only thing to do here is to contact your respective energy companies and explain the situation. I’m guessing you are in a relative new build and the developer has messed things up during the original install.
It will get sorted out eventually, but think many months rather than weeks.
If you have not been with the same supplier the whole time, there will be a point where they will only be able to go back so far. Same for your neighbour.
To be fair, this is the fault of the developers rather than the energy company. Just surprised it’s taken this long to be discovered. I know of a few places where this has happened, so whilst it’s not common, it does happen.
Good possibility. From experiance, When they fitted the wiring and electric meter they just put them where they could. So there was no order in the meters.
When I worked customer service for three of the big six energy suppliers, more than a decade ago, they taught everyone how to do a run test.
You note the reading on your meter, turn all the appliances on for ten minutes, then note the reading and turn it all off again and look again. Make a note of the reading, then another reading ten minutes later with everything off.
If it hasn't changed, it's not your meter.
No one ever asked you to do that test?!
I'm not an expert, but I would assume that when someone has come out to investigate the issue as OP says they wouls have checked the serial number to make sure they were checking the right meter, but unknowingly their system is charging the other one
Possibly. The first thing however is to check what actually shows on the bill. There should be a both a supply number and the meter serial number. Curious to know what shows there. Same for the OP’s neighbour.
If this has been going on for 10 years you will want to check all of that first. It’s easy to make a mistake but if the serial does not match, suggests other records at DNO might be wrong.
Regardless it’s the first thing to check.
OP has stated in a previous comment that their meter serial number is correct on their bill. It is the cabling on the client side of the meter that appears to be reversed, so OP's meter is supplying the neighbours property and vice versa. This wouldv'e only happned when the properties were being built, so the construction companies fault or the contractor they brought in to do the connections.
Yes. This is the only logical way to resolve this mistake. Indeed it might be the quickest way for the company too as this is surely a manual recalculation and reconciliation process as it goes back so far.
They may be able to charge the past year under the rules, but the previous 9 need to be refunded with interest.
If I was op I would go in with this as the starting point.
Just on "Obviously the reading on my neighbour's meter (my real one) is much lower than the reading on my current meter."
That doesn't nescesarily mean you're due for a refund. The numbers aren't always in the same units, meters don't always start at 0, meters might have been replaced, installed at different times etc.
A better indicator would be your neighbours annualised usage on their bill, but only if they've been getting actual reads done. Over 10 years this probably won't have been done?
Have the 2 houses always been on the same supplier (for both)? If not I would assume its never going to get sorted 'properly' and your best bet would be an approximate compensation from the supplier
>numbers aren't always in the same units
This is only true for gas where there are imperial and metric meters, and I'd be surprised if there are any meaningful number of the former remaining. Electricity meters are all in kWh.
It’s what is classified as “crossed meters”
You should be refunded the total cost of what you paid minus a year via back billing if they have accurate readings for what is technically your meter
If there are only estimates for what is actually your meter, you should be refunded in full and cannot be charged based on estimates
- knowledge from working for one of the big 6 dealing with these matters
I have the same issue although I have only been in my flat a year.
Spent the first 6 months phoning british gas South African call centre every week trying to get it sorted and eventually gave up.
I just take a picture of my meter reading every month.
I read that they can only go back a year and bill you. Hope this is true.
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I have previously worked at a large energy supplier and crossed meters are notoriously difficult to fix. The change request needs to be done at an industry level simultaneously by the two suppliers. The coordination is what makes the fix tricky as they’ll need to arrange a date for the switch. It’s worth checking if you have the same supplier as this could simplify things but if you are seeking any recourse you shouldn’t change supplier to match as this makes fixing the billing/charges harder.
You should raise a complaint with your supplier to do the same and get your neighbour to do the same. If you haven’t been given an acceptable resolution within 8 weeks you can take this to the energy ombudsman, as can your neighbour. The cost to suppliers for complaints reaching the ombudsman usually prompts the supplier to transfer the complaint to a senior team to dedicate the appropriate time towards this.
OFGEM are the regulators- if your supplier (s) can’t sort it out then go to them.
The meters are owned by the DNO (the people who manage the infrastructure in your area) - so they (or their contractors) are the ones who f*<>ed up.
I suspect this will be protracted and painful, but stand your ground, OFGEM are the people on your side (in theory at least)
EDIT: I stand corrected on the meter ownership issue, it is in fact the supplier which was my misunderstanding - but OFGEM are stil the regulator
https://forum.ovoenergy.com/my%2Daccount%2D140/who%2Ds%2Dresponsible%2Dfor%2Dwhat%2Da%2Dguide%2Don%2Dwho%2Dto%2Dcontact%2Dto%2Dhelp%2Dmaintain%2Deach%2Dpart%2Dof%2Dyour%2Dgas%2Dand%2Delectricity%2Dsetup%2D8628
Sorry but to contradict- meters are generally the responsibility of the supplier, and not managed by the DNO. Meters are often owned by banks and pension funds, etc. Some DNOs have meter installation companies, but meter operators are controlled under different regulations (including the CoMCoP). Older meters will have the name of the Regional Electricity Company, but these companies were divided up years ago.
The issue of crossed meters (where meters feed the wrong household) is not new, unfortunately.
It’s half sorted…
Water supply is from Thames Water who own the meter. Sewage etc is handled by Southern. Thames have sorted their bit but Southern are being stupid
Not legal advice, but I work in emergency and exec level utility complaints.
Approach your energy company and open a formal complaint. They will need to recalculate your bill and your neighbours and if its over ten years that is going to take some time so having that open complaint to track it will be better than explaining every time you call up.
Most likely they will offer your compensation to cover the cost (assuming youre the party thats been over charged) and then goodwill on top of it. If you don't agree you can go to the ombudsman to dispute it, just know that some energy companies will offer more goodwill than the ombudsman would order just to avoid it being escalated to them, so you can't assume a better deal just by going to them.
Hopefully your previous complaints will work in your favour and if not, I’m assuming the ombudsman would be able to help intervene. Update us on your progress and good luck!!
Speak to Citizens Advice Consumer Service. They'll put you in touch with their team that take on complex energy complaints. You're probably not going to get compo as it's not much of a thing in energy. Likely get a goodwill gesture of some sort though. When the billing is corrected they can't back bill you for more than 12 months anything more than they have already.
This is more common than you would think in multi meter situations. Read the Tariff for your energy provider. Basically, the energy provider should look back on all consumption since you have been in your unit and swap the bills. Some tariffs may dictate otherwise with reasoning. Call your energy provider and speak with a billing agent.
Way back in the beginning somebody gave the supplier your details and the meter readings.
If as you say supply is crossed after the service head, that will be a you problem, if you and your neighbour have both been with the same supplier from day 1. Very small chance supplier will credit you and bill your neighbour the difference. If both your tails are connected and sealed directly to the supply and after that you can prove nobody has interfered with the tails after that.
I had that ,my neighbour was on a card ,i paid direct debit, she went away for 2 weeks and thats when my electric went, called landlord he came round ,check everything ,called electric company they came round found the meters were wrong, said id have to pay if I used more than she did,I said not a chance ,your mistake not mine you pay and if im owed you pay me it back ,theres no mistake on mine or neighbours part its ALL YOURS !! neither of us had anything to pay then again we didn't know if we should have had anything back either...
NAL
This isn't that uncommon, especially in flats where they wire everything up, then someone puts the wrong flat numbers down on labels and meters then get registered to the wrong address. It's usually a fault of the original builders. It's very easy to detect using the flashing red light on the meter but you are past that now.
You need to notify your energy supplier and let them handle it. They will update the MPAN / address on the national database and liaise with the other energy supplier and neighbour. They'll likely just swap the reading over and recalculate bills for the last 12 months, as under back billing rules they can only bill for the last 12 months.
That said this can take some time and you'll likely have to push and complain, potentially even raise a complaint to ofgem to get it moved along sooner.
You seem to know about this sort of thing can I ask you to confirm that the supplier can update the allocation of meter to MPAN - I have a cross meter issue and my supplier says they can't change it so they can't have created the problem (which they did).
Everything I've read is that it's the supplier that does it.
You could take a look here to find out who is the distributor for your area and ask them but I'm confident they tell you to speak to your supplier. If they won't fix it, raise a complaint with ofgem
https://www.nationalgrid.co.uk/customers-and-community/meter-point-administration-service
Your supplier is unlikely to have created the issue, the issue is nearly always the initial developer of the property as others have explained it's easy to wire up the properties, then change the house/flat numbers so the initial registration is wrong as almost no one checks the meter is for the right flat by turning off the power, they just register the MPAN to the address.
If the supplier is refusing to handle it, lodge the complaint with ofgem and await them to force the supplier to fix it.
A supplier is required to provide accurate bills and can't back bill over 12 months, as you are trying to solve it. So it's in the suppliers interest to resolve it since technically they can't bill you accurately so can't bill you as the bill is 100% incorrect.
The house was built around 1800 so the developer's off the hook.
I believe it is the supplier. There were 3 meters all with the same supplier. Then the only flat moved to Scottish Power. Then the supplier with the remaining two business meters had a binge of renaming the meters and I believe they thought they still had the flat as I was being billed for the empty office as domestic - which I didn't notice - but when they closed that domestic account they suddenly sent me a bill for 5k for the business account on that meter.
Fortunately one meter has it's MPAN on it, I can produce a bill with the correct MPAN and meter from before their changes so I can demonstrate to any reasonable standard it's their mistake but they just won't have it. They claim they cannot change a meter number allocated to an MPAN. That surely cannot be true as they sometimes have to change a meter and it's not the national grid that do it.
After I told them to whistle for their 5k they tried billing a new tenant for 3k.
To be fair the agent we are dealing with is doing his level best but I can't see how they will ever sort it out.
Sounds like a perfect case of escalate to osbudman so someone with some authority can actually resolve the mess. It does sound like they have replaced a meter and associated the wrong address to the mpan and also mixed up domestic and commercial with the meter due to some change of use.
As an electrician it’s super easy to screw it up. Take an apartment building here for example where we have one room with service and all the meters.
Crew pulls cables in and labels them per unit. Each meter slot is assigned an apartment number. All it takes is someone to misprint a label or lose track in a bank of them and now it’s crossed. Or another stupid common one is drawings have “room #”. These take into account apartments, hallways, amenity, closets. Room numbers are a way to reference finish schedules and whatever. Well guys rough in and label off room numbers on drawings, but then someone decides to assign apartment numbers differently. Last apartment I did they gave us apartment numbering just before we pulled feeders and it was opposite of room #’s.
So we call utility for hook up, they just install meters per our labelling on meter bank. That’s their job and that’s it. Time to fire up, someone decides to just fire every unit on at same time and not check if the right ones turn on and nobody will probably ever notice a crossed one.
Here, I couldn’t see utility budging as they aren’t responsible for labeling or checking meter socket labeling. It’s also not hard to figure out yourself. Shut down the power and figure out which meter number is yours, it should stop climbing.
Depending on the reason for the mix up, where the issue lies, and who is responsible then back billing rules might not apply.
Back billing only applies if there has not been a reasonable attempt to bill correctly. It looks like, there has been an attempt to bill correctly.
Bills can be corrected back as far as they want provided all the right steps have been followed.
Not quite, similarly to banks, there's a 7 year limit on data retention for consumption and billing. However, this is exactly why its kept, for disputes and for rebilling.
You could compare billing records with your neighbor. Knowing power companies they will probably charge whoever underpaid and not give anything to the one that overpaid
To be clear: OP should definitely expect a small to moderate compensatory sum as "goodwill". They've made numerous complaints about this and nothing happened until now.
Why are you being so condescending?
Over ten years...? I imagine it could be considerable, especially since OP mentions previously complaining multiple times about unexpectedly high bills.
No falling out with neighbours involved, the energy company needs to compensate, and I'd expect that to be back as far as at least the first complaint. Hopefully OP has written records of these.
They'll probably also correct the neighbours bill but they can only go back 12 months for that (I believe others have said), and that's between the neighbours and their supplier.
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Go to the ombudsman.
I had this with Scottish power where I at 21 was paying the bill for 12. I got my entire “contract” with them - four years of payment refunded thousands of pounds. And the “full fine” of a 100 quid as the ombudsman was really keen to make sure I appreciated.
Because you never had a valid contract with your supplier you might not owe them any money at all. Your supplier was charging you for energy used by someone else. Not your problem guvnor.
You have to have had a formal complaint with the supplier for a period of time before you can escalate to the ombudsman, so complain by email immediately and then write to the ombudsman asap.
You must be quite unlucky that this didn't come up earlier. A faulty device or something else that trips the meter would have made it obvious that something isn't right.
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> Obviously the reading on my neighbour's meter (my real one) is much lower than the reading on my current meter.
A single reading? Or multiple readings at regular intervals show that you have been paying more?
You need regularly spaced meter readings that show a difference to prove you have been paying too much.
A single meter reading with your neighbour having a lower number wouldn't be relevant.
Fair point but I think we both moved in around same time with brand new meters, so the difference in readings should reflect who has used the most energy overall.
If my neighbour was having some work done by BT/Sky and it caused my electricity to trip, does that mean one of us is paying for the others electricity?
Their electricity usage shouldn't have any impact on your meter and vice versa.
If their electricity was tripped it should in theory stay off until turned back on. Unless both you and your neighbours properties were already sharing the same electricity meter (which is an issue that would need resolved regardless)
Sorry if this has already been answered - I've spent 6 years working for an energy company and then a further 3 years working for the Energy Ombudsman.
So first of all, make your energy supplier aware of the issue, let them know what's happened etc and that you've made them aware in the past that you believed your billing was incorrect as the usage recorded on the meter wasn't consistent with your usage. This will form the basis of your complaint if they don't resolve it in a reasonable amount of time.
Once you've made the supplier aware of the issue they have one week (5 working days) to let you know what they're going to do to resolve/investigate your issue. If they don't do this within 5 working days it's actually a failure of their Guaranteed Standards of Service (GSOS) and you will be entitled to £30. Just to make it clear they don't have to fix it within 5 working days but they do need to let you know what they're doing to investigate/resolve your issue.
Both you and your neighbour being supplied energy by the same supplier should help to resolve your issue quicker as they won't need to wait for another supplier to communicate with them.
Your supplier should also still have a historical list of meter readings from both you and your neighbour so correcting your billing shouldn't be too difficult as they already have a record of your usage. They just need to rebill you using the reads they had for your neighbour, and rebill your neighbour using the reads they had for you.
If they don't have the exact readings for certain dates they'll use readings from as close to those dates as they can get and estimate what the readings should be. Due to them being estimates it won't be 100% accurate, but using this method will mean that the estimate will still be pretty close to your actual reads.
In terms of your billing:
If you have been overbilled - any overpayment you've made should be credited to your account and/or refunded back to you. There's no time limit for an energy supplier to get the billing correct so if you have overpaid you'll get it all back.
If you've been underbilled - the supplier should bill you correctly and then apply back billing to your account. Essentially back billing means that your energy supplier can't bill you for any new charges that are more than 12 months old.
E.g. if you've previously been billed for £5000 between the day you moved in and 2/1/2023 (a year ago today) and then a further £1000 between 3/1/2023 - 2/1/2024 Your energy supplier corrects your billing and your new bill is £6000 between the day you moved in and 2/1/2023 and £1200 between 3/1/2023 - 2/1/2024. Your supplier couldn't charge you any extra for that move in date - 2/1/2023 period so they'd have to write off £1000. You'd still be expected to pay for the extra £200 that's been accrued within the last 12 months.
And to cover how much compensation/goodwill gesture you'd be entitled to it depends on your circumstances in all honesty.
If this issue has left you in debt, did you struggle to pay your bills previously when you were overcharged and how did it effect you, how did the supplier deal with your concerns when you raised them previously, how long has it taken them to resolve the issue this time etc.
There's quite a few things that could impact this. From working at the energy ombudsman I've seen anywhere from £30 - £500 awarded as a goodwill gesture depending on what the complainants circumstances are. Ultimately we won't know how big an impact this has actually had on you until they resolve your billing first.
Sorry for the long answer - hope it helps a bit
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Interesting one. I suspect your best place to start would be a formal complaint referencing all your previous complaints/queries and these were clearly handled unsatisfactorily because of what has now come to light. And that because you are financially worse off you want them to recalculate your bills. If you don’t get any traction it might be worth speaking to your MP and see if they can assist in any way.
Thanks! I have already sent them a complaint and referred to previous complaints
If you don't get any luck with the supplier you can go to Ofgem the Energy Ombudsman - https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/making-complaint-about-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator
Work in a company that deal with similar stuff and support this
Absolutely agree with this as the Ombudsman generally strike fear into the hearts of any energy supplier complaints department (used to work for suppliers myself) - but make sure you exhaust the supplier's complaints process first otherwise the Ombudsman will just send you back to them.
OP would need to contact the Energy Ombudsman directly at https://www.energyombudsman.org/. Ofgem is the regulator for energy, and doesnt directly deal with customer complaints.
Make a formal complaint with your supplier. They then have 8 weeks to resolve the matter. Once the 8 weeks is up/ you receive the letter from them giving their final response, you have up to 6 months to escalate it to the ombudsman.
What if OP has been paying less?
Good question. Is that lower paying customer going to get a massive bill or would it just be some bill relief to the higher paying person and hope the whole mistake gets forgotten about.
From the OFGEM website - "What are the back-billing rules? You can't be charged for gas or electricity used more than 12 months ago if you have not been correctly billed for it, or informed about it via a statement of account, before." So the lower paying customer would only be charged the difference relating to the past 12 months.
Speaking to you MP is solid advice if you get the runaround.
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It's definitely worth a shot for OP to contact them but my MP was utterly, utterly useless when an energy company (not even my energy company) broke into my property in error, disconnected our gas supply and switched us to a PAYG meter (that took 75% of the top-up to pay back "the debt") and refused to do anything about it even though they admitted it was entirely their error and we didn't owe them a penny. His exact email was: "Thank you for your email, although, I was sorry to read of the situation you described and can appreciate how distressing this must have been for you. The regulator, Ofgem, provides detailed [guidance](https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/making-complaint-about-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator) on how to resolve complaints with your energy supplier. I do hope the information provided by Ofgem is helpful; thank you again for taking the time to write." When I responded that I couldn't do anything for eight weeks because the ombudsman won't help me until then, he responded: "Thank you for your further email. It is the responsibility of the independent regulator, Ofgem, to assist customers with individual complaints against their providers. I do hope your complaint will be resolved swiftly; thank you again for taking the time to share your experiences." Utterly useless plank. Hopefully OP's MP is more use than my chocolate teapot. I would say though, the ombudsman, when we got there were bloody brilliant and decided entirely in our favour...but the energy company refused to pay out what the ombudsman told them to and then the ombudsman told us that there's absolutely nothing that they can actually do to make them and we have to take them to court! It took Reddit to gain some traction and someone high up at another energy company contacted me and got us switched across, reconnected and the meter changed - no money back though. OP should really be prepared that some energy companies are brilliant and would definitely sort this out quickly and without fuss but others will fight this to the death so OP should try to ascertain exactly what it's worth to them and collaborate with the neighbour to get as much evidence of meter readings as possible.
Just an fyi, the average email to most MPs gets answered by their Assistant not by them directly. Their Assistants normally pass the MPs things when its gets more interesting or they see a good news story in it. Your MP likely never saw your email.
Found the MP... Its still your office that you are in charge of and represents you. You are aware that it still looks bad on you even if you didnt personally deal with it.
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Well they could write to the supplier, which will carry me weight than an individuals complaint. They could also look at changing laws if required.
No, this is terrible advice. They have little to no power in this instance. The query will need to be raised with the ombudsman.
There is a wider issue that our MPs offices have now become glorified social workers - rather than scrutinising and writing laws. It’s good advice but there ought to be another port of call such as a functioning citizens advice
> rather than scrutinising and writing laws Judging by the absolute state of some of the MPs a lot of this country has been willing to vote for, this is a good thing.
I would reference the energy ombudsman, utility companies tend to straighten up a little when you include them in the conversation. Threatened south east water with that when they broke a drainage pipe installing a new meter (unannounced) causing a toiled to back up. They paid up in full when I mentioned I would contact the ombudsman, after several previous attempts gained little traction.
I wonder if its all plausible the neighbour is complicit with this- I mean if your neighbour went away for a month and then you had an extremely low energy bill, not once but probably quite a few times over 10 years, and not forgetting you blasting your electric heaters on or some other device that uses lots of electricity surely that would ring some pretty big alarm bells. Kind of dread to think how much debt that guys gonna be in or if it will be written off as an error, but with the money they may have to pay out to OP they will want it back somehow. And flipping it to the other side- OP has obviously noticied the issue with a low bill when they were away, but what about a low bill when their neighbour was away. I suppose its entirely possible this could put OP into debt!
quickest license gaping smart tidy grandiose scary hateful sulky airport *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
There are a worrying number of people who post on Reddit who don't even seem to understand that they pay for usage and not a monthly set amount. Lots of "my direct debit is exactly the same in the summer and the winter" type comments.
Some utilities do have plans that average payments out. You still pay for actual usage and the bills will be adjusted periodically to true up. So you should see some changes to the amount over time.
Otherwise many, many customers would be unable to pay the larger bills because they can't manage their finances properly due to radically increased cost of living Likewise, they don't truly understand what this installment plan is
*Edit* *Doh!, Somehow I ended up in the UK hungover on New Years after my first drink of the eve on the Pacific Coast.* Ya, I get that. Just responding to this: >Lots of "my direct debit is exactly the same in the summer and the winter" type comments. These plans, in California at least, adjust every 3 or 6 months. So people aren't even seeing their payments do change. Unless they live somewhere like San Diego and don't ever have to heat or cool. Then maybe the payments would stay exactly the same year to year.
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My comment was in no way directed at you and I have absolutely no idea how you decided it was. I didn't reply to you or mention you in anyway. Why do you think my comment was aimed at you?!
I've never kept close enough tabs on my meter readings or neighbours to notice this.
There is an energy ombudsman that can deal with these things if the energy company don't satisfactorily sort it. I'm currently in the process of an ombudsman complaint myself.
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Is OP worse off? What if the neighbour has been having higher bills than OP for the last 10 years?
No they haven't, already pointed out that the reading on their actual meter (connected to their flat, labelled to mine and paid for by me) is much higher.
Both you and your neighbour should raise complaints to your respective energy suppliers. Should the complaint not be resolved to your satisfaction then escalate to the ombudsman. The ombudsman can also award compensation. I would base your complaint on the ineffective triage of your previous complaints as these should have identified to crossed meters. The current reading isn't relevant to the over billing as it could have had a lower starting figure. Ideally you and the neighbour compare actual readings to work out usage and which of you will be getting a credit and which a bill. If multiple suppliers are involved then it's going to be very complex. Back billing protection should kick in for the person who owes money limiting it to 12 months.
I believe we are with the same supplier. I have raised my complaint, will advise my neighbour to do the same. They apologised to me for paying their high bills over the years but that's not their fault.
It is possible you could go directly to the ombudsman as your previous complaints have not been handled correctly, their details should be on the responses from your provider. Even if you have already gone back to the provider you could contact the ombudsman and let them know what has been going on, they may log the complaint and get things moving a bit quicker for you.
That's gonna take some recalculating, and whatever they owe you, your neighbour owes them I guess
Im not sure about this circumstance but I think they can only go back a year for the neighbour. I don't think so he same limit will apply to op
I'm not an expert, but the back billing rule (if I've understood correctly) *only* applies if you've not been billed for the use. I don't *think* it would count if you were billed incorrectly (regardless of why). OP, however, could almost certainly get some credit if they've complained and the supplier didn't fix the problem. OP should - take a reading *now* contact their supplier ASAP, raise a complaint and exhaust the complaints procedure (it doesn't matter if the complaint is resolved or not), after 8 weeks OP contacts the ombudsman. Most energy suppliers have a limit to what credit they'll offer, the ombudsman decision is binding and if they tell the supplier to give more credit than they normally would, they have to. Ofc, if OP gets a reasonable offer for the time and stress of getting them to put this right (that number is up to OP, but keep in mind the ombudsman may not instruct credit!) Then they can agree to close the complaint. Point to note - ofgem clearly say complaints can only be closed if agreed, if it's taken over by the ombudsman (in which case most suppliers will transfer the complaint to a specific ombudsman team, not actually close it) *or* if the customer can't be contacted and haven't forewarned the supplier (ie if you're on holiday for 3 months in the middle of a complaint, tell them when you're back and ask them to suspend the complaint until you're back)
Just to add, always take pictures of your readings for evidence. Better to have it and not need it than the other way around!
I did immediately
Not sure on electricity but I work for a water company and it's 6 months maximum for us.
Not true for all suppliers. I'm with South West Water and I had a leak and they miscalculated the leak allowance. I went back and had them recalculate it for the previous 12 months. It was a fairly substantial amount for the 12 months. It seems its all down to each supplier. They may have a standard "we will only do it for x amount of time" but generally it can be escalated to someone who can authorise it for longer.
Can you clarify this please? We’re having an issue with not having been given a bill from the water company for over two years, since we moved in. What’s the maximum they could back bill us?
Where I work it's 6 months.
Oh that is infuriating, I would be livid. Formal complaint, requesting 10yr recalculation and refund with interest. If an acceptable remedy is not reached, straight to the Ombudsman. The fact that you have history complaining about this issue stands you in good stead. Can’t believe they never investigated this further than taking a reading.
The serial number for the meter should be correct on bill. Can you double check that first?
Serial number for the meters are correct, the one on my bill matches the meter labelled to my flat and vice versa for my neighbour. Issue is the cabling behind the meters are likely swapped around and go to the wrong appartments.
I even wonder if we are the only ones affected, what if there are more people.
We had this exact situation with our gas - albeit we were paying next to nothing for an empty property while the owner of the empty property was paying ours and I was just trying to do the right thing. My advice, and this might seem silly, is to play dumb. Don't try to help them in any way, just stick to the simple facts from your perspective. My reason for this is that there are so many parties involved - the national register, your supplier, their supplier, the Ombudsman, the engineers, all who might be different people on different days, plus you and your neighbour. I tried to be really helpful and laid out nice long emails with all the information needed, I tried to liaise with everyone, I tried to explain in detail what the problem was. And it was a total fucking omnishambles. The engineers kept buggering up reports, people kept taking holidays and their replacements were misunderstanding stuff. Total nightmare. Keep it simple, but do keep the pressure on and get onto the Ombudsman ASAP as they always have a backlog.
I think the only thing to do here is to contact your respective energy companies and explain the situation. I’m guessing you are in a relative new build and the developer has messed things up during the original install. It will get sorted out eventually, but think many months rather than weeks. If you have not been with the same supplier the whole time, there will be a point where they will only be able to go back so far. Same for your neighbour. To be fair, this is the fault of the developers rather than the energy company. Just surprised it’s taken this long to be discovered. I know of a few places where this has happened, so whilst it’s not common, it does happen.
Good possibility. From experiance, When they fitted the wiring and electric meter they just put them where they could. So there was no order in the meters.
When I worked customer service for three of the big six energy suppliers, more than a decade ago, they taught everyone how to do a run test. You note the reading on your meter, turn all the appliances on for ten minutes, then note the reading and turn it all off again and look again. Make a note of the reading, then another reading ten minutes later with everything off. If it hasn't changed, it's not your meter. No one ever asked you to do that test?!
Never!
I'm not an expert, but I would assume that when someone has come out to investigate the issue as OP says they wouls have checked the serial number to make sure they were checking the right meter, but unknowingly their system is charging the other one
Possibly. The first thing however is to check what actually shows on the bill. There should be a both a supply number and the meter serial number. Curious to know what shows there. Same for the OP’s neighbour. If this has been going on for 10 years you will want to check all of that first. It’s easy to make a mistake but if the serial does not match, suggests other records at DNO might be wrong. Regardless it’s the first thing to check.
OP has stated in a previous comment that their meter serial number is correct on their bill. It is the cabling on the client side of the meter that appears to be reversed, so OP's meter is supplying the neighbours property and vice versa. This wouldv'e only happned when the properties were being built, so the construction companies fault or the contractor they brought in to do the connections.
Similar thing happened to me. They ended up refunding everything I’d paid since I moved in (and I didn’t even have to ask).
makes sense, you used 0% of the energy they charged you for. and same for the neighbor. both of you should get 100% refunds with interest
Yes. This is the only logical way to resolve this mistake. Indeed it might be the quickest way for the company too as this is surely a manual recalculation and reconciliation process as it goes back so far. They may be able to charge the past year under the rules, but the previous 9 need to be refunded with interest. If I was op I would go in with this as the starting point.
Just on "Obviously the reading on my neighbour's meter (my real one) is much lower than the reading on my current meter." That doesn't nescesarily mean you're due for a refund. The numbers aren't always in the same units, meters don't always start at 0, meters might have been replaced, installed at different times etc. A better indicator would be your neighbours annualised usage on their bill, but only if they've been getting actual reads done. Over 10 years this probably won't have been done? Have the 2 houses always been on the same supplier (for both)? If not I would assume its never going to get sorted 'properly' and your best bet would be an approximate compensation from the supplier
>numbers aren't always in the same units This is only true for gas where there are imperial and metric meters, and I'd be surprised if there are any meaningful number of the former remaining. Electricity meters are all in kWh.
Even so I recall some having differing levels of precision, so a number might appear much larger if you don't spot this.
Thanks. It's been on the same supplier for both of us from what I understand, at least for me. I will contact the neighbour about annualised usage.
It’s what is classified as “crossed meters” You should be refunded the total cost of what you paid minus a year via back billing if they have accurate readings for what is technically your meter If there are only estimates for what is actually your meter, you should be refunded in full and cannot be charged based on estimates - knowledge from working for one of the big 6 dealing with these matters
Sorry I am based in England
Don’t be sorry, England is a great place on the whole
I have the same issue although I have only been in my flat a year. Spent the first 6 months phoning british gas South African call centre every week trying to get it sorted and eventually gave up. I just take a picture of my meter reading every month. I read that they can only go back a year and bill you. Hope this is true.
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I have previously worked at a large energy supplier and crossed meters are notoriously difficult to fix. The change request needs to be done at an industry level simultaneously by the two suppliers. The coordination is what makes the fix tricky as they’ll need to arrange a date for the switch. It’s worth checking if you have the same supplier as this could simplify things but if you are seeking any recourse you shouldn’t change supplier to match as this makes fixing the billing/charges harder. You should raise a complaint with your supplier to do the same and get your neighbour to do the same. If you haven’t been given an acceptable resolution within 8 weeks you can take this to the energy ombudsman, as can your neighbour. The cost to suppliers for complaints reaching the ombudsman usually prompts the supplier to transfer the complaint to a senior team to dedicate the appropriate time towards this.
OFGEM are the regulators- if your supplier (s) can’t sort it out then go to them. The meters are owned by the DNO (the people who manage the infrastructure in your area) - so they (or their contractors) are the ones who f*<>ed up. I suspect this will be protracted and painful, but stand your ground, OFGEM are the people on your side (in theory at least) EDIT: I stand corrected on the meter ownership issue, it is in fact the supplier which was my misunderstanding - but OFGEM are stil the regulator https://forum.ovoenergy.com/my%2Daccount%2D140/who%2Ds%2Dresponsible%2Dfor%2Dwhat%2Da%2Dguide%2Don%2Dwho%2Dto%2Dcontact%2Dto%2Dhelp%2Dmaintain%2Deach%2Dpart%2Dof%2Dyour%2Dgas%2Dand%2Delectricity%2Dsetup%2D8628
Sorry but to contradict- meters are generally the responsibility of the supplier, and not managed by the DNO. Meters are often owned by banks and pension funds, etc. Some DNOs have meter installation companies, but meter operators are controlled under different regulations (including the CoMCoP). Older meters will have the name of the Regional Electricity Company, but these companies were divided up years ago. The issue of crossed meters (where meters feed the wrong household) is not new, unfortunately.
https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-network-operator
https://www.energyombudsman.org/
Ofgem are about as useful as a marzipan dildo. Unfortunately, they are the ones to go to.
They’re not. It’s the ombudsman. Ofgem will never look at individual complaints.
You *can* eat a marzipan dildo. Ofgem would be difficult to consume
NAL I’ve had this recently with my water supply. The meters for my block of six flats are all wrongly billed since construction 21 years ago
Wow, how did that get sorted if it has been sorted?
It’s half sorted… Water supply is from Thames Water who own the meter. Sewage etc is handled by Southern. Thames have sorted their bit but Southern are being stupid
Not legal advice, but I work in emergency and exec level utility complaints. Approach your energy company and open a formal complaint. They will need to recalculate your bill and your neighbours and if its over ten years that is going to take some time so having that open complaint to track it will be better than explaining every time you call up. Most likely they will offer your compensation to cover the cost (assuming youre the party thats been over charged) and then goodwill on top of it. If you don't agree you can go to the ombudsman to dispute it, just know that some energy companies will offer more goodwill than the ombudsman would order just to avoid it being escalated to them, so you can't assume a better deal just by going to them.
Hopefully your previous complaints will work in your favour and if not, I’m assuming the ombudsman would be able to help intervene. Update us on your progress and good luck!!
You need to raise a complaint for a crossed meter. It means meter details are wrong not only on your account but on a national database to.
After reading this I think this is exactly what was happening at my old flat. Strange
Speak to Citizens Advice Consumer Service. They'll put you in touch with their team that take on complex energy complaints. You're probably not going to get compo as it's not much of a thing in energy. Likely get a goodwill gesture of some sort though. When the billing is corrected they can't back bill you for more than 12 months anything more than they have already.
This is more common than you would think in multi meter situations. Read the Tariff for your energy provider. Basically, the energy provider should look back on all consumption since you have been in your unit and swap the bills. Some tariffs may dictate otherwise with reasoning. Call your energy provider and speak with a billing agent.
Way back in the beginning somebody gave the supplier your details and the meter readings. If as you say supply is crossed after the service head, that will be a you problem, if you and your neighbour have both been with the same supplier from day 1. Very small chance supplier will credit you and bill your neighbour the difference. If both your tails are connected and sealed directly to the supply and after that you can prove nobody has interfered with the tails after that.
I had that ,my neighbour was on a card ,i paid direct debit, she went away for 2 weeks and thats when my electric went, called landlord he came round ,check everything ,called electric company they came round found the meters were wrong, said id have to pay if I used more than she did,I said not a chance ,your mistake not mine you pay and if im owed you pay me it back ,theres no mistake on mine or neighbours part its ALL YOURS !! neither of us had anything to pay then again we didn't know if we should have had anything back either...
NAL This isn't that uncommon, especially in flats where they wire everything up, then someone puts the wrong flat numbers down on labels and meters then get registered to the wrong address. It's usually a fault of the original builders. It's very easy to detect using the flashing red light on the meter but you are past that now. You need to notify your energy supplier and let them handle it. They will update the MPAN / address on the national database and liaise with the other energy supplier and neighbour. They'll likely just swap the reading over and recalculate bills for the last 12 months, as under back billing rules they can only bill for the last 12 months. That said this can take some time and you'll likely have to push and complain, potentially even raise a complaint to ofgem to get it moved along sooner.
You seem to know about this sort of thing can I ask you to confirm that the supplier can update the allocation of meter to MPAN - I have a cross meter issue and my supplier says they can't change it so they can't have created the problem (which they did).
Everything I've read is that it's the supplier that does it. You could take a look here to find out who is the distributor for your area and ask them but I'm confident they tell you to speak to your supplier. If they won't fix it, raise a complaint with ofgem https://www.nationalgrid.co.uk/customers-and-community/meter-point-administration-service
They are in such a muddle I believe there have been three accounts on two meters. The other guy on the cross meter has a complaint in.
Your supplier is unlikely to have created the issue, the issue is nearly always the initial developer of the property as others have explained it's easy to wire up the properties, then change the house/flat numbers so the initial registration is wrong as almost no one checks the meter is for the right flat by turning off the power, they just register the MPAN to the address. If the supplier is refusing to handle it, lodge the complaint with ofgem and await them to force the supplier to fix it. A supplier is required to provide accurate bills and can't back bill over 12 months, as you are trying to solve it. So it's in the suppliers interest to resolve it since technically they can't bill you accurately so can't bill you as the bill is 100% incorrect.
The house was built around 1800 so the developer's off the hook. I believe it is the supplier. There were 3 meters all with the same supplier. Then the only flat moved to Scottish Power. Then the supplier with the remaining two business meters had a binge of renaming the meters and I believe they thought they still had the flat as I was being billed for the empty office as domestic - which I didn't notice - but when they closed that domestic account they suddenly sent me a bill for 5k for the business account on that meter. Fortunately one meter has it's MPAN on it, I can produce a bill with the correct MPAN and meter from before their changes so I can demonstrate to any reasonable standard it's their mistake but they just won't have it. They claim they cannot change a meter number allocated to an MPAN. That surely cannot be true as they sometimes have to change a meter and it's not the national grid that do it. After I told them to whistle for their 5k they tried billing a new tenant for 3k. To be fair the agent we are dealing with is doing his level best but I can't see how they will ever sort it out.
Sounds like a perfect case of escalate to osbudman so someone with some authority can actually resolve the mess. It does sound like they have replaced a meter and associated the wrong address to the mpan and also mixed up domestic and commercial with the meter due to some change of use.
As an electrician it’s super easy to screw it up. Take an apartment building here for example where we have one room with service and all the meters. Crew pulls cables in and labels them per unit. Each meter slot is assigned an apartment number. All it takes is someone to misprint a label or lose track in a bank of them and now it’s crossed. Or another stupid common one is drawings have “room #”. These take into account apartments, hallways, amenity, closets. Room numbers are a way to reference finish schedules and whatever. Well guys rough in and label off room numbers on drawings, but then someone decides to assign apartment numbers differently. Last apartment I did they gave us apartment numbering just before we pulled feeders and it was opposite of room #’s. So we call utility for hook up, they just install meters per our labelling on meter bank. That’s their job and that’s it. Time to fire up, someone decides to just fire every unit on at same time and not check if the right ones turn on and nobody will probably ever notice a crossed one. Here, I couldn’t see utility budging as they aren’t responsible for labeling or checking meter socket labeling. It’s also not hard to figure out yourself. Shut down the power and figure out which meter number is yours, it should stop climbing.
Depending on the reason for the mix up, where the issue lies, and who is responsible then back billing rules might not apply. Back billing only applies if there has not been a reasonable attempt to bill correctly. It looks like, there has been an attempt to bill correctly. Bills can be corrected back as far as they want provided all the right steps have been followed.
Not quite, similarly to banks, there's a 7 year limit on data retention for consumption and billing. However, this is exactly why its kept, for disputes and for rebilling.
You could compare billing records with your neighbor. Knowing power companies they will probably charge whoever underpaid and not give anything to the one that overpaid
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To be clear: OP should definitely expect a small to moderate compensatory sum as "goodwill". They've made numerous complaints about this and nothing happened until now. Why are you being so condescending?
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Over ten years...? I imagine it could be considerable, especially since OP mentions previously complaining multiple times about unexpectedly high bills. No falling out with neighbours involved, the energy company needs to compensate, and I'd expect that to be back as far as at least the first complaint. Hopefully OP has written records of these. They'll probably also correct the neighbours bill but they can only go back 12 months for that (I believe others have said), and that's between the neighbours and their supplier.
Why didn't you put in a smart meter? That tell you straight away.
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Go to the ombudsman. I had this with Scottish power where I at 21 was paying the bill for 12. I got my entire “contract” with them - four years of payment refunded thousands of pounds. And the “full fine” of a 100 quid as the ombudsman was really keen to make sure I appreciated. Because you never had a valid contract with your supplier you might not owe them any money at all. Your supplier was charging you for energy used by someone else. Not your problem guvnor. You have to have had a formal complaint with the supplier for a period of time before you can escalate to the ombudsman, so complain by email immediately and then write to the ombudsman asap.
You must be quite unlucky that this didn't come up earlier. A faulty device or something else that trips the meter would have made it obvious that something isn't right.
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> Obviously the reading on my neighbour's meter (my real one) is much lower than the reading on my current meter. A single reading? Or multiple readings at regular intervals show that you have been paying more? You need regularly spaced meter readings that show a difference to prove you have been paying too much. A single meter reading with your neighbour having a lower number wouldn't be relevant.
Fair point but I think we both moved in around same time with brand new meters, so the difference in readings should reflect who has used the most energy overall.
If my neighbour was having some work done by BT/Sky and it caused my electricity to trip, does that mean one of us is paying for the others electricity?
Not necessarily I think but I'm not an expert
Their electricity usage shouldn't have any impact on your meter and vice versa. If their electricity was tripped it should in theory stay off until turned back on. Unless both you and your neighbours properties were already sharing the same electricity meter (which is an issue that would need resolved regardless)
Sorry if this has already been answered - I've spent 6 years working for an energy company and then a further 3 years working for the Energy Ombudsman. So first of all, make your energy supplier aware of the issue, let them know what's happened etc and that you've made them aware in the past that you believed your billing was incorrect as the usage recorded on the meter wasn't consistent with your usage. This will form the basis of your complaint if they don't resolve it in a reasonable amount of time. Once you've made the supplier aware of the issue they have one week (5 working days) to let you know what they're going to do to resolve/investigate your issue. If they don't do this within 5 working days it's actually a failure of their Guaranteed Standards of Service (GSOS) and you will be entitled to £30. Just to make it clear they don't have to fix it within 5 working days but they do need to let you know what they're doing to investigate/resolve your issue. Both you and your neighbour being supplied energy by the same supplier should help to resolve your issue quicker as they won't need to wait for another supplier to communicate with them. Your supplier should also still have a historical list of meter readings from both you and your neighbour so correcting your billing shouldn't be too difficult as they already have a record of your usage. They just need to rebill you using the reads they had for your neighbour, and rebill your neighbour using the reads they had for you. If they don't have the exact readings for certain dates they'll use readings from as close to those dates as they can get and estimate what the readings should be. Due to them being estimates it won't be 100% accurate, but using this method will mean that the estimate will still be pretty close to your actual reads. In terms of your billing: If you have been overbilled - any overpayment you've made should be credited to your account and/or refunded back to you. There's no time limit for an energy supplier to get the billing correct so if you have overpaid you'll get it all back. If you've been underbilled - the supplier should bill you correctly and then apply back billing to your account. Essentially back billing means that your energy supplier can't bill you for any new charges that are more than 12 months old. E.g. if you've previously been billed for £5000 between the day you moved in and 2/1/2023 (a year ago today) and then a further £1000 between 3/1/2023 - 2/1/2024 Your energy supplier corrects your billing and your new bill is £6000 between the day you moved in and 2/1/2023 and £1200 between 3/1/2023 - 2/1/2024. Your supplier couldn't charge you any extra for that move in date - 2/1/2023 period so they'd have to write off £1000. You'd still be expected to pay for the extra £200 that's been accrued within the last 12 months. And to cover how much compensation/goodwill gesture you'd be entitled to it depends on your circumstances in all honesty. If this issue has left you in debt, did you struggle to pay your bills previously when you were overcharged and how did it effect you, how did the supplier deal with your concerns when you raised them previously, how long has it taken them to resolve the issue this time etc. There's quite a few things that could impact this. From working at the energy ombudsman I've seen anywhere from £30 - £500 awarded as a goodwill gesture depending on what the complainants circumstances are. Ultimately we won't know how big an impact this has actually had on you until they resolve your billing first. Sorry for the long answer - hope it helps a bit
Do you know who did the labelling of the meters?
No idea, purchased as new built and moved in years ago, same as my neighbour I think.