Please help: Meter running backwards, bill for £9,000!

[jsm]

This is complex: I have a house that was vacant for a few years, and then rented out for a few more. A family member handled the letting, as I was over 500 miles away for work purposes.

 

During the vacant and letting periods, it seems that an electricity meter reading was *never* taken.

 

When I resumed control of the house this summer, I submitted a meter reading -- I was told that this was the first reading in 6 years, and the bill of £13,000 would be payable by me.

 

I rechecked the meter the following week, and found that the meter was running backwards!

 

The electricity company came out, confirmed the fault and changed the meter for a new one. They say that adjusting for the meter fault, they estimate that I am liable for a bill of approx £9,000

 

Here are my issues with this:

 

- Why should I have to pay any bill for the period when a family member had let out the house to tenants? Should the bill not be sent to the tenants (or the other family member who was acting as a landlord?)

 

- I did propose that they allocate the bills more fairly, and they told me that if they did so, then the bill would have to be split evenly over the occupied and vacant periods. Can this be right? It should be obvious to anyone that a vacant house consumes less power than an occupied one.

 

- How can they (or I) know *when* the meter started running backwards, and whether it was running at the same rate for the entire time? Is a meter even capable of giving a consistent/reliable reading when running backwards?

[qwerty45]

I'm assuming the other family member was either your tenant or the previous landlord?

 

If you have remained the landlord of the property throughout the period it's up to you to inform your suppliers when a tenant moves in and out; your supplier isn't 'psychic.

 

Due to the size of the debt I would imagine the supplier would require documentation backing up your claims that some of the debt tenants are

[qwerty45]

I'm assuming the other family member was either your tenant or the previous landlord?

 

If you have remained the landlord of the property throughout the period it's up to you to inform your suppliers when a tenant moves in and out; your supplier isn't 'psychic.

 

Due to the size of the debt I would imagine the supplier would require documentation backing up your claim that some of the debt tenants are responsible for.

 

Is this a domestic supply? If it is your supplier is only able to backdate charges for one year.

[MaxxPower]

Would the billing code not apply here so they can only backbill for the last 12 months since this is a residential property? Surely it's the provider's responsibility to actually send a bill either based on estimates, or send someone out to read the meter.