Landlord tampering with electricity

outnumbered

Hi everyone,

So i moved into my new apartment tuesday night. There was 15 euro in the meter. It has since used 11 euro. I haven't used the cooking facilities yet ( haven't even boiled a kettle!), i rarely used the lights as i went out at night and haven't been home much. The electric heaters haven't been used. The only thing the is regularly being used is the fridge and the heating for the shower. It apparently heats really early and uses the low cost electricity to do so.

At home, we also have a meter. But 15 would usually suffice for a family of 3, with hair driers/straighners being used, cookers going all the time, showers for 3 each day, etc etc.

I wouldn't suspect anything if it was a legit ESB meter. The one installed is an old black thing the displays the price in pounds. To add to the suspicion, the electricity cards MUST be purchased from the landlord's own apartment.

Now i just feel like I'm being robbed. What will he do when the water charges come in as well...

Where do I stand? Can he legally resell electricity? How can i prove its being tampered with? How should i go about getting it sorted?

Theres two more tenants to move in thursday and with winter approaching the price will be extortionate. As a student, i cannot afford this kind of price.

If its 15 a week per person, thats 180 euro a month and that is without cooking and summer time with no heat!! Surely that can't be right, can it?

Help!

Sarn

I've just done a rough calculation for my place if I use zero units, taking into account the standing charge and PSO levy. Excluding electricity it would come out at about €4 for a seven day period.

Saying that, the meter sounds seriously dodgy.

outnumbered

Hm ok... still not sure i used 8 euros worth

rawn

outnumbered wrote: »

To add to the suspicion, the electricity cards MUST be purchased from the landlord's own apartment.

Do you mean the LL purchases the prepay cards and resells them to you from his apartment? Did he not give you an ESB card to purchase them from a store?

outnumbered

rawn wrote: »

Do you mean the LL purchases the prepay cards and resells them to you from his apartment? Did he not give you an ESB card to purchase them from a store?

Nope he didn't give me the ESB card They are like LUAS cards....

rawn

outnumbered wrote: »

Nope he didn't give me the ESB card They are like LUAS cards....

Yes we use them here too, with 2 computers going all day plus everything else we don't even use that much. It's preposterous that he expects you to call on him every time you want to top up the meter. Explain to him that you would rather buy the cards from the store yourself, and if he refuses, explain about the unusually high electricity charges and ask him to call the ESB to ask them to check it out. If he is doing something dodgy, he'll say no. Ask for specific reasoning if he refuses, and say you will call the ESB yourself to inquire about it. It could just be a faulty meter, but it definitely needs to be looked at before winter.

outnumbered

rawn wrote: »

Yes we use them here too, with 2 computers going all day plus everything else we don't even use that much. It's preposterous that he expects you to call on him every time you want to top up the meter. Explain to him that you would rather buy the cards from the store yourself, and if he refuses, explain about the unusually high electricity charges and ask him to call the ESB to ask them to check it out. If he is doing something dodgy, he'll say no. Ask for specific reasoning if he refuses, and say you will call the ESB yourself to inquire about it. It could just be a faulty meter, but it definitely needs to be looked at before winter.

thanks for this. The meter doesn't have a place to enter the long digit number from an ESB top up thing. So I think ill need these cards anyway.

Ill ask him this tomorrow.

thanks again.

rawn

outnumbered wrote: »

thanks for this. The meter doesn't have a place to enter the long digit number from an ESB top up thing. So I think ill need these cards anyway.

Ill ask him this tomorrow.

thanks again.

Yeah you use an ESB card to buy the LUAS type cards, which then slot into the meter. It's probably in his name but it doesn't matter at all. I can't think why he would want the hassle of buying the cards himself and then having you knock every time you run low. It's inconvenient on both sides.

Eric Cartman

could you potentially be paying for his electricity too ? rather than a tampered meter, a mis-wired one is a lot easier to do and the esb wont find it.

irishgeo

outnumbered wrote: »

Hi everyone,

So i moved into my new apartment tuesday night. There was 15 euro in the meter. It has since used 11 euro. I haven't used the cooking facilities yet ( haven't even boiled a kettle!), i rarely used the lights as i went out at night and haven't been home much. The electric heaters haven't been used. The only thing the is regularly being used is the fridge and the heating for the shower. It apparently heats really early and uses the low cost electricity to do so.

At home, we also have a meter. But 15 would usually suffice for a family of 3, with hair driers/straighners being used, cookers going all the time, showers for 3 each day, etc etc.

I wouldn't suspect anything if it was a legit ESB meter. The one installed is an old black thing the displays the price in pounds. To add to the suspicion, the electricity cards MUST be purchased from the landlord's own apartment.

Now i just feel like I'm being robbed. What will he do when the water charges come in as well...

Where do I stand? Can he legally resell electricity? How can i prove its being tampered with? How should i go about getting it sorted?

Theres two more tenants to move in thursday and with winter approaching the price will be extortionate. As a student, i cannot afford this kind of price.

If its 15 a week per person, thats 180 euro a month and that is without cooking and summer time with no heat!! Surely that can't be right, can it?

Help!

dont you need a separate meter to avail of the night rate.

Gatling

I'm with Eric Cartman you could very well be subsiding the landlords electric .

Eric Cartman

OP, an easy way to check is wait for a time of day that its still light out but your landlord is home, 5-6pm is probably best if you can , turn off everything electrical in the house (including plugging out the fridge and turn off immersions / heaters / timer lights, etc..) get a kwh reading from the meter, come back an hour later and see if it changed.

even if theres mains smoke alarms or the house alarm or whatnot, it shouldnt go up a whole kwh in an hour.

outnumbered

Say I am paying for his electricity, what can I do? This is very frustrating.

Eric Cartman

outnumbered wrote: »

Say I am paying for his electricity, what can I do? This is very frustrating.

that would definitely be one for the prtb or possibly the guards, realistically though your probably out less than 50 quid total and Id just move out and report him to the prtb

L1011

The landlord would need to be authorised by the CER to sell electricity. He isn't.

ted1

Pull your main circuit breaker, does it still use electricity ?

Does your landlord have elec? Was there money owed on the meter before you topped up? It might have taking a fiver off straight away.

Gordon

Any way of shutting down the meter so that no electricity comes out of it and the landlord comes running?! Or is that what happens when the money runs out?

Not2Good

I remember student days in Waterford renting an apt and the meter back then could be set by LL so he made a profit ( i understand) by paying the esb rate and charging a student rate! He changed the setting in front of me and said what he was doing!i too had nothing mad on but the kettle and tv.... memories of college!

outnumbered wrote: »

Hi everyone,

So i moved into my new apartment tuesday night. There was 15 euro in the meter. It has since used 11 euro. I haven't used the cooking facilities yet ( haven't even boiled a kettle!), i rarely used the lights as i went out at night and haven't been home much. The electric heaters haven't been used. The only thing the is regularly being used is the fridge and the heating for the shower. It apparently heats really early and uses the low cost electricity to do so.

At home, we also have a meter. But 15 would usually suffice for a family of 3, with hair driers/straighners being used, cookers going all the time, showers for 3 each day, etc etc.

I wouldn't suspect anything if it was a legit ESB meter. The one installed is an old black thing the displays the price in pounds. To add to the suspicion, the electricity cards MUST be purchased from the landlord's own apartment.

Now i just feel like I'm being robbed. What will he do when the water charges come in as well...

Where do I stand? Can he legally resell electricity? How can i prove its being tampered with? How should i go about getting it sorted?

Theres two more tenants to move in thursday and with winter approaching the price will be extortionate. As a student, i cannot afford this kind of price.

If its 15 a week per person, thats 180 euro a month and that is without cooking and summer time with no heat!! Surely that can't be right, can it?

Help!

Galway K9

Is there dials on the meter, perhaps 4 dials, one is the set rate (by landlord) of Kilowatts per Hour per coin. Try and see how much this is? You can compare this to the standard rate. I don't trust coin meters.
Just an idea, Knock off electricity completely for a day and see if the Number of units go up or your balance has lowered. This will tell if the electricity is being shared illegally or just an extortionate rate being set by your landlord.

My advice, leave!

foggy_lad

OP Your landlord is not allowed to provide electricity at a higher rate than the electricity providers. He is not allowed have a meter that charges a higher rate as a commission for himself or anyone else.

Lantus

having one meter serve two properties would be something that ESB would be quite interested in as well I'd imagine if this is the case...

If the meter has been tampered with then ESB can normally tell this straight away. Despite peoples belief they can quite easily know when a meter has been adjusted or tempered with and the power readings can also tell what is going on.

ted1

foggy_lad wrote: »

OP Your landlord is not allowed to provide electricity at a higher rate than the electricity providers. He is not allowed have a meter that charges a higher rate as a commission for himself or anyone else.

Are you sure of that ? I think they you may be mistaken.

delop

My parents moved into a new house they built lastyear, it has all the goodies, solar heating etc etc...

So the was confused by the huge electricity bill, and called a electrician to investigate, he put meters on appliances and discovered the problem

it was an old fridge (maybe 4yrs old) that they moved from the old house to the new, it was malfunctioning some how, eating loads of electricity , they threw it out, and problem was solved...

They would never have discovered this unless they moved house...

My advice is get one of those plug meters , and check each appliance before you go after the landlord ...

Eric Cartman

delop wrote: »

My parents moved into a new house they built lastyear, it has all the goodies, solar heating etc etc...

So the was confused by the huge electricity bill, and called a electrician to investigate, he put meters on appliances and discovered the problem

it was an old fridge (maybe 4yrs old) that they moved from the old house to the new, it was malfunctioning some how, eating loads of electricity , they threw it out, and problem was solved...

They would never have discovered this unless they moved house...

My advice is get one of those plug meters , and check each appliance before you go after the landlord ...

+1 thats why the first thing to check is plug everything out and see if the meter still counts up, rules out the landlord if it doesnt go up at all , after that is appliance checking.

ciaradx

Something like this happened to my friends renting near UCC last year. They had a pre-pay electricity meter and whenever they topped up, the full amount was not going into the meter e.g. top up by 20 but only 15 actually going into the meter. When they got in touch with the company it turned out the landlord had another account which was in debt and he had set up their meter so that some of their money was being moved to the other account to pay off his debt. I'm not sure how they resolved it but I wouldn't be surprised if your landlord is up to something similar!

Roselm

outnumbered wrote: »

Hi everyone,

So i moved into my new apartment tuesday night. There was 15 euro in the meter. It has since used 11 euro. I haven't used the cooking facilities yet ( haven't even boiled a kettle!), i rarely used the lights as i went out at night and haven't been home much. The electric heaters haven't been used. The only thing the is regularly being used is the fridge and the heating for the shower. It apparently heats really early and uses the low cost electricity to do so.

At home, we also have a meter. But 15 would usually suffice for a family of 3, with hair driers/straighners being used, cookers going all the time, showers for 3 each day, etc etc.

I wouldn't suspect anything if it was a legit ESB meter. The one installed is an old black thing the displays the price in pounds. To add to the suspicion, the electricity cards MUST be purchased from the landlord's own apartment.

Now i just feel like I'm being robbed. What will he do when the water charges come in as well...

Where do I stand? Can he legally resell electricity? How can i prove its being tampered with? How should i go about getting it sorted?

Theres two more tenants to move in thursday and with winter approaching the price will be extortionate. As a student, i cannot afford this kind of price.

If its 15 a week per person, thats 180 euro a month and that is without cooking and summer time with no heat!! Surely that can't be right, can it?

Help!

I would contact ESB.ie as they install meters and maintain the service. They might be able to tell you if your meter is legal and functioning accurately!

rawn

Roselm wrote: »

I would contact ESB.ie as they install meters and maintain the service. They might be able to tell you if your meter is legal and functioning accurately!

If OP doesn't have an ESB card, odds are they don't have an account number so they may have difficulty in their inquiry.

outnumbered

Thanks everyone so much for taking the time to reply.

UPDATE: This morning, I checked the balance and the heating is using €2 per morning. That is what's costing so much..... How and ever, could it be that he has it set on a higher price per KW?
"
The shower is broken too (it has no function other than scalding hot). I text him on iMessage and it was "seen" 3 days ago and he didn't reply. Why are people so awful.....

I will try cutting off the circuits too.

If it helps, the apartment is within a house and there are about 8 other apartments, each with their own electricity meter... Maybe i could ask someone else how much theirs uses.

WoollyRedHat

Students having central heating?! Consider yourself lucky, back in my day we had to have constant orgies with each other to keep warm. All well and handy you might think, but had no energy for studying and had to purchase a lot of condoms as barebacking was out of the question.

But in all seriousness, hope you get your electrocity sorted, maybe ask people nearby how much they're paying to get a cost comparison and see if your bill seems disportionate. Eta.. See you have already considered this, do this.
Is there an option to turn the heaters off individually btw

outnumbered

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

Students having central heating?! Consider yourself lucky, back in my day we had to have constant orgies with each other to keep warm. All well and handy you might think, but had no energy for studying and had to purchase a lot of condoms as barebacking was out of the question.

But in all seriousness, hope you get your electrocity sorted, maybe ask people nearby how much they're paying to get a cost comparison and see if your bill seems disportionate. Eta.. See you have already considered this, do this.
Is there an option to turn the heaters off individually btw

Lol..

Oh and this doesn't heat the radiators, they are electric, not water. So thats €2 for just water for a shower.

And no, you can't turn them off individually.

ted1

A 2 bar heater will cost about 40c an hour. How many heaters are there? Do you really need the heating on at this time if year ?