Huge E-on bill

[Whodidthewashing]

I've got a flat which I'm renting, it's a one bed flat newly built (well, it's 8 years old now) All appliances are energy efficient. When I lived the I used to pay £19 a month and at some point they reduced it to £12 as I had a large credit on the account.

My current tenants (a couple) have been paying £32 a month for a few years. They are hardly there, both work full time, they put the heating on for barely 3 months as it's a warm flat and all double/triple glazed.

I got a smart meter installed 18 months ago and so it started with 0. The current direct debit hasn't been changed and the amount has been right. I added a new reading yesterday which was over 23000 kw and so we now have a massive debit of almost £5,000. 😳 I called E-on today and they said they'd check the meter for accuracy but I'm worried. Has anyone experienced this?

Are the tenants not paying the bill shouldnt it be in their name and therefore their issue to sort out?

However you can ask for a offmat test where they will remove the meter and check it for faults. You have to pay for true replacement meter.

If the test come back there was a fault then they re adjust your bill and refund the cost of the meter.

If it comes back no fault then you get no refund and the bill stands.

You ask your supplier for this.

What was the reading before? Why has it now only been flagged there is so much debt?

Is it likely they have used this much what with covod working from home etc etc?

What are your readings?

Have they billed everything to actual reads rather than estimates?

why are you even involved. isn't it the tennant's responsibility?

It's prob about 3k kWh for a flat per year on average.

They have maybe programmed the meter incorrectly?

What does the supplier say?

@limitededitionbarbie No, our agreement was that it comes from my bank account as a direct debit and they send me the money for the bills every month.

I guess they'll have to come and check the meter, I'm absolutely certain it's faulty. Even if they were cooking non-stop and having hot showers 10 times a day, I do not believe it would justify this amount.

@limitededitionbarbie They asked me to send a picture of the reading which I did and said they'll investigate. I'll have to call them again tomorrow.

When was the last reading given, what is the tariff for the property?

My standing chages alone are £12 per month. I get it's a small flat but if a reading hasn't been given for years it may be correct.

They have been billed on estimates and we would send a reading every 6, 7 months. In Oct 2021 it was just over 21000 which looking back doesn't make sense either, however it didn't create any debits so we didn't question the reading back then.

No, our agreement was that it comes from my bank account as a direct debit and they send me the money for the bills every month.

Why? That seems an overly complicated arrangement and far too much work and effort for you as a landlord. I wouldn't recommend having this in any future tenancy arrangements. As for the meter reading issue wait to see what they say after they have got your photo, also take a reading at the same time every day for 7 days as they will normally ask for this before they send anyone out to investigate so may as well get started on it now.

@ifoundthebread last reading was Oct 2021 and it was just over 21000 kwh. The smart meter was installed in Oct 2020, so started with 0. As a pp poster said it's around 3000 kwh a year for a small flat, so this cannot be right.

I thought smart meters meant you didn't need to submit a reading?

Ask them for the last 18 months of automatic readings and ask if they have it in HH consumption data which they will if you have a smart meter.

I work in this industry and I can have a look at the readings if you would like. We can see where it's jumped up from the usual usage.

I think it's unlikely it's that high in all honesty.

You can pm me if you need to when you get the data.

So there has been 2k kW in 8ish month. Billed on the price cap 26p per kW? Is only £520 (plus standing charge). I'd definitely be raising a complaint and want it looking into.

In October 2021 was this an estimate?

Hopefully the reading you have sent will make the bill jump back down.

£32 a month sounds far too low. Looks like they've been underpaying for years. The account should be in their name and they should be paying the bill themselves.

Do you even know what the tariff is? Why do you only submit readings every 6 or 7 months?

@Hellocatshome It worked for us as I had no issues until now. They moved in on a short tenancy so changing the bills and direct debits seemed like a lot of work for just 6 months then having to change everything back. This way I had control over all the bills and I know they get paid. They ended up staying for almost 5 years now.

Is it all electric or gas and electric?

Presumably it’s because of a massive underpayment for the past 8 years. £32 would be an extremely low electricity bill

@limitededitionbarbie No, the Oct one was the actual reading

If it's a smart meter then manual readings shouldn't be required but I do wonder why they have billed to estimates rather than actual reads which the smart meter is meant to send back to the supplier.

Maybe the meter is faulty or the comms on the meter are not working hence the estimated bills but after a certain amount of estimates the supplier should really have flagged this and sent an engineer to look at the meter to see why it wasn't sending the month end reads.

It's all electric, no gas in the flat

Was the 21000 reading a smart reading or a customer reading? Why are you reading a smart meter?

@limitededitionbarbie Yes, I thought they do the readings themselves. That's the whole point of a smart meter.

Thank you for all your comments, I'll give the supplier another call tomorrow, I'm pretty sure this is not right.

However op the bills need to be moved into their names now.