2 houses on 1 electric meter shenanigans

Fudge82

I have a strange set up with my electricity metering and bills. There are two meters in two houses sharing one metered account.

I have an old electric meter in a bungalow which I am renting, my neighbour who also rents from the same landlord (and apparently because I’ve never seen the meter) has a meter in their house, each billing cycle the landlord asks me for the meter reading from my meter and apparently combines it with the reading from his other tenant and then submits this to the utility company.

When I moved-in given the shortage of supply of places to rent I wasn’t in a position to raise questions over this. I would have preferred the option to have the bills in my name and the option to choose my supplier but needed a place to live and didn’t want to lose out over something that wasn’t too serious, and the landlord also told me that this meant that the standing charge would be halved between the two houses.

Given the bill that I’ve just received where my bill is about €300 my neighbours about €20 (both after the €200 government grant split 50/50 between us) I am looking at how my bills are calculated. 

Each billing period the landlord sends me a copy of the bill and a screenshot of a spreadsheet where he shows my and my neighbours usage, in the spreadsheet he breaks the bill down between the two of us, showing the past and current usage, rates etc..

I have just noticed errors on the landlords’ calculations which are on ever spreadsheet. The same error is there on the same calculation since I moved in, and I am trying to figure out what game if any that he might be playing. My neighbours’ usage calculations are always miscalculated under, mine are always correct. 

E.g. My usage would be shown in a column as (24hr tariff so only one rate) Current reading – past reading = usage. 1000-800=200, my neighbour’s column would be 500-450=8…

The rows below the usage would then multiply the rate, add the VAT on etc, and the total owed is then at the bottom. My total + my neighbours total then sums the exact amount on the actual bill. 

I then put the cash in an envelope with the rent and give to the landlord.

While I could say okay my bills are all I need to worry about, I think that there must be something else going on that I can’t think of. 

Why would there be huge under calculations on the spreadsheet on my neighbour’s usage, and that their bills are so small compared to mine, yet the two totals rounds perfectly to the bill amount each time. 

For reference my meter is an old type that has a physical counter but no visible spinning dial, there is an indicator that says 800 imp/kWh. Every 8 flashes it makes the counter goes up 1/100 kWh so I think that it is working okay or close to okay.

My landlord is or was an electrician, the seals on the meter in my house were broken when I moved in. 

Hoping someone might have seen something like this before or have an idea what if any kind of scam might be going on. Thanks sleuths. 

10-10-20

In this case, what is unseen, can't be believed.

When your neighbour has his lights on and is sitting comfortably on his couch, pull down your main breaker and leave and go to the pub. See if he looses his sh1t and by the time you return if your breaker is back up - then firstly your privacy has been violated and secondly you're paying for his power.

Fudge82

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077928#Comment_120077928

I'm not sure what you mean can't be believed or why I might make something like this up?

I tried flipping my breaker a long time ago, not just to see if the neighbours lights would go out but the landlord also has sheds behind my house, defiantly the neighbours aren't affected, I can't tell if the sheds were or not.

Thanks anyway.

walterking

so your bill was €400 and neighbour's bill €120 - the gov credit is neither here nor there.

Are you in a one bed or 5 bed, do you use a lot of hot water and electric heating, or do you have different heating.

And what about the neighbour - do they use electric heating or oil or other? How much hot water do they use.

My bill last month was €134, but I used about €250 of oil. Heating is the biggest part of a bill at this time of year

Without info, its impossible to know. Also is the landlord on the lowest available rate (currently about 38c after 10% disc with Electric Ireland)

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077972#Comment_120077972

I'm not, I'm suggesting that perhaps there was no 'other' meter. But if you've tested it, then it's a null point.

Fudge82

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120078055#Comment_120078055

I'm in a small 2 bed house on my own, my neighbours are a couple in a 4 bed. I'm very economical with my electricity usage.

While I could understand that somehow my neighbours have some way (that I can't see) been hugely more efficient compared to me, the red flag is the constant error in the spreadsheet that the landlord sends each billing period. like in my example above he calculates their usage as 500-450=8. Instead of 500-450 =50 . Somehow when his miscalculation is used the bill adds up.

Like I said the seals on my meter were broken, maybe on theirs too and something is going on here. If so the landlord must be in on it too as the spreadsheet makes no sense. Maybe he works the bill backwards to find out what usage the neighbour would have owed and throws some units on there side of the sheet to make it seem correct.

Fudge82

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120078153#Comment_120078153

They might have meter but not possibly not downstream feeding off mine, or at least not feeding off mine all of the time, or they might have a meter that is bypassed, or their connection could be downstream of the landlords house which is next door to them and the 50/50 split that I am chipping in on is actually between me and my landlords meter not the neighbours?

Anyways I was just hoping that someone might have recognised this as some kind of common scam and could tell me what was going on.

Fudge82

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120078153#Comment_120078153

In fact to better describe the scenario I could have said 2 houses sharing one bill only one meter showing on the bill.

The meter on the bill is also not my meter.

monseiur

It's obvious that you are paying another tenant's or landlord's bill (or part of) as well as your own and the figures on spread sheet are massaged to suit.

ESBN won't allow two properties to share one meter and account. Even a granny flat / apartment in a house has to have its own metering.

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120103724#Comment_120103724

Source? I got my house and attached granny flat combined from 2 meters to one meter by ESBN not 6 months ago.

It's a bit different when you're two completely separate households and housing units.

It sounds to me like there's one electricity meter and someone's put in a spur off the main board into another premises, with a private meter and is running their own pricing regime and charging the OP a unit rate they've made up themselves.

Not sure where that leaves you with wiring rules or building regs.

Also, questionable around VAT etc.