Sorry Pelham. I took it from the first post that they had been paying for gas, & were getting bills, but had got behind. Of course if you're not getting bills at all, the situation is different.

Hi Nottslad. Theanks for that, I did check today & got the same message. No prepay meters, but disconnection possible. I have to say Pelham I disagree with you. Crossed meters is not a valid reason to not pay. You have a contract with the supplier & they are supplying the gas. Any billing errors will be corrected & the billing code should ensure that the customer is no worse off than they would have been had there not been a mistake.

If it is 17 watts, you would use 408 watts per day. 1 unit of electricity is 1000 watts. So if for example your electricity tariff is set at 15p per unit, you would be using roughlt 0.4 of a unit per day, about 6p. Hope that helps

Suppliers don't usually own the meter anyway. They own the supply. If your property has an IGT (independent gas transporter) supply, this only affects the actual pipes supplying the gas & the cost of the gas, as IGTs usually charge more than National grid to deliver the gas & this is usually passed on by the supplier. There would still need to be a meter operator & they should be able to disconnect the supply or fit a prepayment meter, in the same way as a national grid supplied property. (although my gas knowledge isn't as good as my electric!). The billing code basically limits a suppliers ability to charge you for errors for which you were not responsible, prior to 1 year ago. In your case, since you were receiving & paying bills, even though on the wrong meter, your supplier could not charge you for any extra use that you had not already been billed for. e.g. if you had been billed for £1000 gas in the 4 years pror to March 2009 & it turned out you had actually used £1500, the supplier would be required to write off the extra £500. If you had used £800, the extra £200 would be refunded. For the last year, you would be billed for the full amount. Hope that helps.

I think the meter man is wrong. The fact that your supplier has the wrong meter serial, does not mean you are not required to pay for the gas you use. It could be, that you actually use less gas than you have been billed for, in which case, you should get a refund once it's sorted out. If you use more than you've been billed for, the late billing policy should come into play for any extra use prior to 12 months ago.

Some properties do have more than one MPAN Pelham. Usually where there is a normal domestic supply & another that supplies heating, not E7, the type that gives a boost during the day. There will usually be 2 meters too. There are others where there can be even more. So the fact that the flat has more than 1 MPAN, may not neccesarily mean there is anything wrong.

I don't think there is a law behind the billing code as such, just an agreement between ofgem & the suppliers. I disagree with a couple of you comments pelham. Suppliers do not invariably say the code does not apply. After all, the code in practice, is applied by the people who do the bills. By & large, they have no vested interest in refusing or allowing the code. There are many cases where they cannot apply the code because an account just doesn't qualify when they actually feel it should & others where it is applied through gritted teeth when the person doing the bill knows the supplier has been "had". Sometimes, especially ombudsman cases, suppliers are asked to amend an account in the "spirit" of the billing code, even though it doesn't actually apply. The rules are actually quite clear. Sometimes they work in favour of people who don't deserve it & sometimes against those who do. I also disagree with your comments about occupiers contacting the supplier. I believe there is an onus on people who move onto a property letting the supplier know. We all have to pay for the gas & electricity we use, we know that & I don't think inertia is an excuse. Of coure, sometimes there will be mistakes, but you seem to see something sinister behind them all & that just isn't the case.

So what are the suppliers to do? Allow a potentially illegal debt to accrue or fit a prepayment meter. It's also not always true that prepay meters are more expensive. For some suppliers, gas especially, is often cheaper on a prepay meter than on a standard credit tariff.

I can assure you meursault that meter tampering is most defnitely NOT an urban legend. It is widespread. The reason you don't hear more about it is that suppliers are very reluctant to prosecute. The reasons are not clear to me, as I believe it would deter others, but for some reason, they seem to believe it is "bad publicity" & also detailed court cases might give ideas to others.

How long has your friend lived here? Have his bills always seemed unreasonably low? It's possible a former occupier may have done the tampeing & in my experience, meter tamperers don't usually let the meter man in, so it may not have been discovered until now. The meter operators are very experienced in this sort of thing & usually the signs of tampering are quite obvious, so I would think it unlikely that they had made a mistake. It's possible the tamper may have been removed before your friend moved in, but the telltale signs are left behind. If your friends consumption is around average for the type of equipment in use, that would indicate that may have been the case. Hope that helps

Have you checked that the readings are not crossed? Take a reading reading during the day & then check again a couple of hours later to see which has moved. That will of course be the day register. Did you check the readings when you moved in? Even new meters don't always go in at 00000. Have you checked the timer on your heaters & immersion heater to make sure it's correct. There's always the possibility of a faulty timeswitch on the meter too, that would take a lot of studying of the readings, to see when each register begins & stops moving. Best I can offer.

Hi. Yes a bankrupt can be an account holder, but you must inform your supplier. It seems different companies act differently. The company I have knowledge of, close the old account at the date of the bankruptcy, allowing any debt to be included & they usually also fit Prepay meters, to avoid the possibilty of any more debt being created.

D.I. Visit charge is £23.50, so you've been charged for 3! Have you been put into the official complaints system? If not, make sure you are. If you have been, mention consumer direct or the ombudsman, that usually gets their attention!

Hi Steve. I had a similar thing happen. I was paying GPB for an equidebt account. I started to get letters from Equidebt & called them, they said I should be paying their new collectors, Weightmans. I ended up calling Weightmans myself to get payment details. It might be worth giving them a call.

Are you saying that in 2 years, you never contacted npower yourself? Suppliers are required to read the meter at least once in 2 years, this being for safety reasons. Most companies will attempt to read the meter quarterly, with virtually all of them trying twice a year. I'm afraid if you cannot prove or present a pretty strong case that you did contact them during the 2 years, the billing code may not apply. New builds however can be a bit of a nightmare. Often the builders are at fault. They should notify the company when they hand the property over, as there will usually be a bill to be paid by them for use during the building & completion. As for the point about disconnection, if there was no account set up for you, there'd be no debt to take action on

sorry post in eror

Incidentally Kryt, if you are Bankrupt, you shpuld not be responsible for any debt accrued before the date of your bankruptcy. In addition, the company I work for would have fitted a prepay meter for gas & electirc by now, as they are not legally allowed to offer you credit. Are BG aware of your bankruptcy?

Not sure I agree entirely Nottslad. If the occupier had made no attempt to set up an account with a supplier, the billing code may well be refused.

Hi Starfarer. You need to call your local meter operator, with your MPAN. They will tell you who supplies your electric. Generally speaking that system is one of the few things that tends to be 100% accurate in the whole utility industry!

Fairly simple Cinders. The read you supplied was lower than the read that your account was opened on. They have then taken 2 reads from you to work out what your read would have been on the date you changed suppliers. npower will now send you an amended final bill to that reading & Scottish power will start your account on that. It all boils down to your final bill from npower being a bit lower than it was, but of course your first bill from spow will be higher than it would have been.

Converting metric units to kwh is approximately 11:1. 257 units would be around 257*11*3.844P plus 10.5p* however many days your bill is. That won't be spot on since it's a little less than 11 & the calorific value will make a small difference but you'll get an approximate bill.

Sorry indebtstudent. That'll be why I keep getting accounts wrong then:D

I think you're a little out of touch with prices! Higher rates average 12-15p & lower 10-14p depending on area & tariff.

Thanks Scousegeezer, it's pretty much what I am led to believe. I'm not asking for anything that others in the same building already get. Unfortunately much of it is still down to your immediate management area & whether or not they refer your case to HR in the first place. It seems once it goes to HR, they always go for the formal route. Where your management area don't refer,no action is taken. Incidentally, I don't work for a small company & generally they are very good about this sort of thing. Anyway, I have now decided to bring matters to a head. I have raised a formal grievance, stating that I am not being treated fairly, in accordance withe the provisions of the DDA & the way others, in a similar situation to myself, are treated. I needed a way to raise this, as raising it during a formal hearing into capability, is met with "we're not hear to discuss how others are treated" etc. I've done it against the advice from my union rep that I would get nowhere, although they will support me. I'm not the type to sit back & wring my hands & let them just get away with it. I already feel better knowing that at least I am trying to fight back.

I have been put into my company's capability procedure for some time. In March I was given a first written warning. In August, following 3 absences totalling 7 days to the end of June, I was "invited" to another formal hearing. The result of this was no further action, as my absence had actually improved. I had no further time off until the end of September, when I was off for a further 4 days. I have now been "invited" to another formal meeting. I am asking for advice, as my main problem is arthiritis in both knees. The company doctor has clearly stated this & also that it I am likely to be covered by the DDA. One of the provisions of this is that the "reasonable adjustments", should include the acceptance that the employee will have more time off than an average employee. We continually argued this in the last hearing, but it had no effect on the outcome, even though I "got off". They are now saying that the 3 previous absences, covered in the last meeting, are to be part of the subject of the new hearing along woth the 4th absence. Can they do this? It seems the disciplinary form of double jeapordy. I have little faith in my union reps. I always seem to know more than they do.