Fitting a credit meter in place of an existing key meter for a new tenant would, (for the company I work for) require a security deposit or payment by Direct Debit. Only if the account is in their name in the first place. In houses of multiple occupation, you'll find a lot of landlords (In our area anyway) keep the account in their name and charge the tenants accordingly with their rent.

You will find that a lot of the old mechanical meters have a life of up to 29 years. Each meter has a type ID on it. According to which type of meter it is, is when the recert will be done. If you are elderly or disabled or both, then your supplier may change the meter if it is near it's recert year. As for the cut-out. If it is a metal clad cut out, then your supplier should be informed. They are your supplier and they should arrange to have this changed on safety grounds.

Your Tenancy Agreement with your landlord is all you need to prove that you moved in on the date you did and that any bills owing from a previous tenant will have to be sorted out by them. This is the reason I think all landlords offering short term leasing should fit their premises with a pre-paid meter. There wouldn't be any of this hassle then.

If it has gotten to the warrant stage, then bailiff fees will be added for the first visit. If the bailiff has to go to court to obtain a warrant for disconnection,then more charges are added for The Bailiff, A locksmith and an engineer from the utility company. BTW You say that your supplier is Southern Electric. Southern Electric do not have any gas engineers so they will sub contract it out to Transco to fit the meter. This will be a card meter. key meters are for electric meters.

Gizmo is right. I often install Key Meters for various Utility companies with payback as low as £3.00 per week. The unit rates and meter rental may be dearer, but at least your debt will be paid off eventually.

Most people know when their utility bills are due. NO utility company will inform their customers when a routine meter reader will call, unless it is a non-routine call. This is when a customer calls their supplier and asks for a special appointment to read their meter at a date and time were the customer can provide access at a time to suit. Everybody has the right to refuse entry to their home. Continuous refusals could lead to a warrant being issued under The Electricity Act 1989 which states that under your contract of supply,The meter must be inspected at least once a year.

This is why we have a lot of satisfied customers, because the face that reads their meter, actually works for the company and can readily answer any questions.

I work for an Electric Company and we ONLY use our own meter readers. You will probably find that the people who want to read the meter out of sync, are the salesmen from competiting companies out to win contracts through stealth. We see it all the time. The usual meter readers will always carry a hand held device, whereas the contract hunters have paperwork.

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