Electricity Meters in Rented Accommodation

Vadge

I recently moved into an old flat . Its an old, large house divided into flats. I share downstairs with a friend, one room each and share a kitchen and bathroom. Our electricity is paid for by us using those old meters, that take €2 coins. This covers all our electricty - our rooms, and kitchen and living area (rarely if ever used). I have been here 2 months. At the start of the first month, I noticed €2 would just about get us a days worth of electricity. I figured something was up immediately. We counted over 2 weeks that we had spent about €30 on electricity, which was clearly a lot. I contacted the landlady who assured me all was in order, but that her husband would look at it the following morning. The following day she contacted me assuring all was in order. From there on in, the money was going a bit further but not far. It was clear some tinkering was done because I approached her about it. The last two months bills are clocking up to around €190. I have been renting for 10 years, we are clearly being shafted. But I have no idea what to do about it. They are clearly in control of these meters and making a lot more off us than what they have to pay of it to the ESB. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Doom

Turn off everything....if disc of meter is still spinning, power is been used somewhere, do this around 6pm when most drain is on the domestic supply

Vadge

I will try this, but I don't believe that the power is being drained from an unknown source, I believe they have it set to 'spin' faster than it should, thus us having to refill the meter a lot more than what they get their electricity bill for. Am I just being paranoid? I used to share, for example, with 2 other guys prior to this place, and our bills would come in (direct from ESB) at around €210 for 2 months. That was 3 of us. I just feel like i've never paid so much for electricty anywhere else. Bear in mind too that this is a cash-in-hand place. I don't think they have the fact that their house is flats on the books, so its all going into their pocket.

melekalikimaka

those meters almost certainly will be on a high tariff than the no prepay ones, as all providers charge a premium on the prepays, which may account for the higher bills

Tails142

Vadge wrote: »

I will try this, but I don't believe that thike power is being drained from an unknown source, I believe they have it set to 'spin' faster than it should, thus us having to refill the meter a lot more than what they get their electricity bill for. Am I just being paranoid? I used to share, for example, with 2 other guys prior to this place, and our bills would come in (direct from ESB) at around €210 for 2 months. That was 3 of us. I just feel like i've never paid so much for electricty anywhere else. Bear in mind too that this is a cash-in-hand place. I don't think they have the fact that their house is flats on the books, so its all going into their pocket.

The coin operated meters are installed by the esb themselves and the unit price is higher to account for the extra burden of having to empty the meter.

Are you saying this is a meter that the landlord controls.

Reselling of electricity is supposedly illegal but it happens in some places in any case, e.g harbours and marinas to boats

Vadge

I just find it a bit ominous that, the day after I reported to the landlady that I feel our electricity is being eaten at a lot higher rate than I feel is correct, and the next day, after her husband 'had a look', that it wasn't as bad, yet still eating up a lot of coins. How did the landlord have access to the meters to 'have a look' and allude to 'changing something around' if the ESB are the only people who are supposed to have access to to the meters? Thanks a lot for the replies thus far. I'm quite eager to get to the bottom of this

aujopimur

Does the meter have an ESB security tag on it, if not it's the L/L meter and he can adjust to charge what he likes.
If you read the consumsion you can ring ESB they maybe able to give you a rough idea as to what you should be paying per unit.
If the L/L has just one ESB metercovering several flats the service charges should be divided amongst the tenants.

Vadge

Thanks. Just had a look, no ESB tag, so suspicions that the landlord is in control confirmed. The meter in question is covering two flats and is divided between both of us. So I presume the landlord is just allowed overcharge us? Do we have no leg to stand on here?

aujopimur

One meter for 2 flats, that's really not on.
Insist on your own meter.
The L/L is not allowed to overcharge you, just a little exrta for his trouble.
A call to Citizans Advice might be a good idea.

Electric Ireland: David

Hi guys,

I thought it would help to drop in here to clear something up: ESB do not install coin-meters, and would have no control over the settings of the device in question.

We can only charge a registered customer (i.e. the name of the person(s) on the bill) in accordance with the usage clocked up on the actual meter originally installed by ESB Networks. For further (general) information on your meter, see here.

Vadge wrote:

So I presume the landlord is just allowed overcharge us? Do we have no leg to stand on here?

Unfortuntately ESB Electric Ireland could not intervene in a case like this. In general, we usually recommend that electricity accounts are registered to the actual occupant(s) of a property (see the section of our website Information for tenants).

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

David.

(P.S. we have our own forum on boards if you want to discuss this with us further - you could also send us a PM)