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Original poster

Gas Meter has been broken for a year - do I have to pay?

47 replies

WellRested · 30/03/2023 16:08

Our outside gas meter has been broken for about a year. I have told edf about it twice in that time with no action taken by them. (They have also been round themselves to check It in January and noted that it was blank but did nothing about it!)

I pay by direct debit and have only been served estimated bills in that time, they ask for meter readings I cannot provide despite having a smart meter. Electricity meter seems to be working fine and relaying to the smart meter.

I contacted them again last week and finally got them to say they would arrange for a replacement gas meter.

My question is, if the gas meter has been broken for a year, they will not know what my gas usage has been for that time, so am I eligible to pay? Would I be within my rights to ask for a refund on my direct debits if they cannot provide evidence of the amount of gas used in the last year?

Would be interested to know if anyone has experienced similar!

Thanks!

OP posts:
Parsley1234 · 30/03/2023 16:13

Yes mine broke in October I emailed them every day from then they were useless finally in January I threatened to report them to ofgem they got me an appointment the next day in the am. I took the morning off they told me they had to change it to the afternoon they did then change the meter. I told them I would be billing them for my time and I wanted to be in agreement of what I was being charged as I had been away so much oct-jan. I ended up with £120 for inconvenience and an agreed amount which was ok.

Original poster
WellRested · 30/03/2023 16:19

Thank you! Great idea to bill them for your time! Yes I think a fixed amount is fair rather than paying nothing, but would hope it would swing the benefit of the doubt in my favour as they didn't act fast enough to monitor my usage fairly!

OP posts:
Parsley1234 · 30/03/2023 16:21

You need to set it all out coherently I looked at the ratio to electric and gas I had used in the same month last year and worked out what I understood the increase to be and presented that good luck !

TheSnowyOwl · 30/03/2023 16:26

My question is, if the gas meter has been broken for a year, they will not know what my gas usage has been for that time, so am I eligible to pay? Would I be within my rights to ask for a refund on my direct debits if they cannot provide evidence of the amount of gas used in the last year?

Their terms and conditions state that they can bill you on estimated readings so yes, you do have to pay. They don’t compensate for customer’s time or trouble either.

WhatATimeToBeAlive · 30/03/2023 16:28

Yes of course you have to pay. Although if the bill is enormous they may allow you to set up a payment plan.

Original poster
WellRested · 30/03/2023 18:01

But there won't be a bill, that's my point, just the estimates I've had so far, which have all been covered by my direct debit payment. When new meter is installed it will reset to zero and there will be no record of what gas I've used for the last year. And I will never know if my DD payments covered it, if I owe more or if they owe me!

So yes I could just go by the estimate, but the person who came to look at the meter seemed to suggest that they have to give you a proper bill and if they can't then you are not liable to pay (that of course may be a load of rubbish! That's why I'm just trying to get others viewpoints!)

OP posts:
southeastlady · 30/03/2023 18:15

Currently going through the same with EON Next, our electric meter stopped working in January.

I have called them 5 times, apparently they have until 7th April to respond to me.

Can't wait for that conversation!

Parsley1234 · 30/03/2023 21:45

@southeastlady i was with EON totally useless. @WellRested you can argue it and they will back down

hollypolly12 · 30/03/2023 21:58

Op we have exactly this issue with Scottish power.
August 2021 our gas meter broke. Totally blank. We chased them numerous times asking for an appointment. Each time they blamed covid and not having any engineers available.
They were billing us on estimate readings and our bills had doubled, this was before energy prices went crazy. I knew for a fact we weren't using as much as they billed us for and my worry was we wouldn't get that back as the meter needed replacing and there wouldn't be anyway they would get an accurate reading to bill us correctly.

August 2022 after chasing every month I called again. They basically said they weren't doing any appointments that wasn't for new smart meters so I kicked up a stink stating I would report them to the ombudsman as we have numerous complaints open which no one ever replied to.
They then came back and said they were just going to bill us for standing charge until they can fix it going forward and refunded all our direct debits back to august 21 excluding standing charge.
They still haven't been in touch with a new meter date! But definitely kick up a fuss about it

Callmenat · 31/03/2023 07:34

Of course you'll have to pay but it will be an estimate as per the contract terms. NIce try.

CoffeeInTheClouds · 31/03/2023 07:53

Our residential gas meter broke a few years ago. It didn't stop completely, but only went up by a few units a week. It took a couple of months to realise and a few more for the supplier to arrange a replacement meter.

We were never given an updated bill, so we're significantly undercharged.

A slightly different scenario, we leased a new build office and the gas meter wasn't registered on the grid (well that is what I was told). I spent 2 years unsuccessfully trying to obtain a bill. After about 4 years, the supplier suddenly emerged and offered us a minimal bill in full settlement. As this was a business contract, we got off lightly here too.

Good luck!

Parsley1234 · 31/03/2023 07:56

People saying you have to pay you do have to pay but you can argue and they can’t prove what you’ve used so you will be fine

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 31/03/2023 08:00

It was about 12 + years ago and British Gas, but when someone else in our changed supplier it became apparent that their gas meter was registered to our address and our gas meter was not registered anywhere. I forget the details, but they had no way of knowing how much gas we'd used, and ended up reimbursing us everything we'd ever paid them.

KnittingNeedles · 31/03/2023 08:03

We have had this all winter. With a bit of googling by DH, it appears that the battery in our outside gas meter is affected by the temperature. It still "speaks" to the energy provider through the internet, but does not register that we are using gas. So from about October to end Feb, we only paid the standing charge.

DH has emailed and web chatted and called SO many times but the energy provider just isn't interested. We finally got someone out a couple of weeks ago, and as it's now a bit warmer, the battery is working again and registering what we are using. So we've basically had free gas all winter and they don't care.

Hercules12 · 31/03/2023 08:04

Hi. I had similar with a non working water meter - I had no idea of course it wasn’t working until they discovered it after about 2 years. First I knew was when they sent me a refund of about 800£. I phoned them as very confused and they said legally not allowed to charge me for time with no working meter and just deducted standing order charges.

Callmenat · 31/03/2023 08:28

Parsley1234 · 31/03/2023 07:56

People saying you have to pay you do have to pay but you can argue and they can’t prove what you’ve used so you will be fine

Nope. Poor advice.

hollypolly12 · 31/03/2023 09:58

Callmenat · 31/03/2023 07:34

Of course you'll have to pay but it will be an estimate as per the contract terms. NIce try.

Not if she's actively trying to provide accurate meter readings but can't because their meter is broken and they won't fix it.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 31/03/2023 10:48

My question is, if the gas meter has been broken for a year, they will not know what my gas usage has been for that time, so am I eligible to pay? Would I be within my rights to ask for a refund on my direct debits if they cannot provide evidence of the amount of gas used in the last year?

I believe that if they can not prove what you've used, they can't charge you for it.

pippitypoppitypoo · 31/03/2023 11:25

A family member of mine took their energy supplier to the ombudsman last year as they had repeatedly raised with the supplier that their meter was showing nil reading and supplier was useless and unresponsive. Their complaint was upheld and the supplier now cannot charge them for that whole period. Meter problem was then promptly fixed and now getting accurate bills!

Parsley1234 · 31/03/2023 11:29

@Callmenat clearly you have never had this happen to you as proved by what happened to me and others on this thread. I think my meter is affected by the water it doesn’t work when it’s waterlogged EON not interested so I expect it will happen again this year and next time I won’t report it so quickly completely inept

Callmenat · 31/03/2023 11:55

hollypolly12 · 31/03/2023 09:58

Not if she's actively trying to provide accurate meter readings but can't because their meter is broken and they won't fix it.

Show quote history

They will owe an estimated amount. Not nothing at all.

pippitypoppitypoo · 31/03/2023 12:07

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/problems-with-your-energy-bill/you-havent-received-a-gas-or-electricity-bill-in-a-while/

This should help. Companies have to act reasonably and it's not reasonable to expect people to pay when there is no evidence on which to base billing. I think a lot of these issues are caused by increasing use of AI instead of people doing customer service. Meter problems are relatively rare but require a real human to take real action to fix it which can take ages! I guess the savings they make in staffing costs still outweigh the costs in not being able to bill people when they don't have accurate information to do so.

Geneticsbunny · 31/03/2023 12:35

We are in the same situation with edf. Gas meter broken since April last year. Reported many times. They came out to replace both meters in Feb and now neither work! We are just about to go to the ombudsman. Keep a record of everything that happens and pass to the ombudsman.

Hopedun · 31/03/2023 12:44

We had this happen to us. Our gas meter has been broken since 2021. I repeatedly told the energy company and they said that they weren't replacing the meters or fixing them. I emailed them monthly to complain. Meanwhile they then put our bills up to over 400 a month based on estimates. What the estimates were based on I have no idea.

I took them to the ombudsman who fined them for not taking prompt action, we got an amount paid back to us in compensation, they were also told to fix the meter within one month. It is now fixed and they've said they need 3 months of readings from it and then will reassess all the gas bills we've been paying. When we have an accurate bill we will then leave them as they have been beyond shocking. They also sent us a letter of apology with someone else's details on it. Then refused to understand why I was upset about that.

KnittingNeedles · 31/03/2023 12:46

They will owe an estimated amount. Not nothing at all.

Only if the energy company accepts there is a fault with the meter. In our case, as the meter was sending readings to the energy company, they would not accept there was a fault, they would not send anyone out to look at it, and just kept saying everything was fine. Eventually they did send someone out, by which point the battery had warmed up (?) and the meter has now been working again for about a month.

As far as the energy company is concerned, there is no money to be chasing for.

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