2 houses on 1 electric meter shenanigans

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.