Tampered electric meter

er… but the meter is no longer in your home right? It was replaced by Eon and you have a new EICR. So everything is fine now, isn’t it?

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“looking to take it further” " I m not bothered about getting any money" ?? You may end up" looking “”.for another place But that will not “bother” you

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You said tampering was not a safety issue. I argued it could well be.

I don’t understand your reply that the meter has been replaced. Clearly, my argument about it being unsafe, was prior to it be being replaced, and when it had been tampered with, not after.

The tenant may well be in this for the buck, but it seems to me that this Landlord & agent may well have been negligent in not attending to a tampered meter, and certainly in not reviewing an EICR before expiry.

Whatever the tenants motives, I feel it is wrong for it to be suggested on a public forum that meter tampering is not a safety issue.

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I think we’ve both mistaken each other for different posters. I thought you were the OP. I thought they’d said that they had the meter replaced in their first post but it actually says Eon came out to replace it but not that they actually did so.

Qq if it was bypassed did you never query your bill? Either you never got one or it was basic standing charge - and surely you’ve benefitted from a bypassed meter whether you knew or not. Yes I would be upset as I would think it’s a safety issue but it’s safe now and the only thing you have to consider is how much money you now owe for electricity that was provided and never paid for during your tenancy.

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Most billing is done on estimates of usage. A proper meter reading by an external agent is supposed to happen every year or so for the purposes of verification. We’ve had one reading in 10 years (I give them myself at the end of each month). So it is quite possible that Leanne16 has been billed for electricity usage but quite likely not what she has actually used.

In which case they haven’t checked their bills, so still their fault.

Aa and colin are experienced landlords and they know this old dodge to get some free electricity. You might finish up getting an increased estimated bill so suggest just let it go. Read a_a first answer it explains it all very clearly

Life endangerment ? :rofl::rofl:. You are joking right? If the electrical company came out to inspect your meter, I assume that they’ve left the meter in a correct manner where it is “safe”… It seems you’re on a money grab and you just want to sue your landlord so go and seek legal council and stop asking other landlords on how to get one over on your landlord

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I don’t understand the point ‘it was safe after it was fixed’. Well that’s obvious. Presumably, the concern for safety is before it had been fixed. A period where the tenant suggests they were totally unaware that it had been tampered with. A totally valid concern in my eyes.

And also, the original poster is ‘asking other tenants’, not Landlords. This post was in the ‘Tenant Discussion’ group, which as a Landlord, some have chosen to engage in.

I bet a previous tenant did this to the meter ,the landlord may not have known about it and been taken by surprise. This tenant will shortly be looking for another place

I wasn’t looking at getting one over on the landlord or looking for any money just wanted them to take some responsibility that it should have been sorted before we moved in not the attitude we got when reporting it. Anyway I have left it with eon to sort out now we have proof it wasn’t us and although the tampered meter was still in place the bypass had been removed. Oh and they did know about it before we moved in they have said it was previous tenants.

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It could be the case that your landlord wasn’t aware of the meter tampering. It could just be the assumption made when it was brought to their attention which kind of looks good on you.

If the meter was tampered with the utility provider will send a letter or card to the house for the occupier to arrange an appointment for a meter check as they can see usage but there are stagnant readings.
If in fact , the previous tenant tampered with the meter he would not likely respond to the request because he would be caught, thus the landlord would likely not know about it .

The only reason I ever found about about it was because I have seen a check card from the utility company after the tenant has vacated or there are clues when you go to the house for an abandonment assessment ( I’m not going to detail those before someone gets ideas ) . The tenant has departed because the meter tampering hasn’t gone to plan and they can’t report it otherwise they will be found out . It’s a criminal offence so they leave before the police are notified.

The utility account is in the name of the tenant so why would the landlord know about it ?

At no point after meter tampering have I needed to do an EICR as my electrician has said it’s unnecessary .
The issue occurs before the RCD board to the house so it’s not affected.

Blaming your landlord for this is unreasonable as he was not the account holder and unless the fuse had gone , which I’m guessing it hadn’t , he may not have known about it .
The only person you can blame for this is the person who tampered with the meter. Vilifying the landlord is unreasonable.
You are best using your time more productively.

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Karl clearly you seem not to understand why quotation marks are used in a worded sentence :roll_eyes: …The point is Karl the electric meter wasn’t unsafe and now the tenant will have a backdated bill from Eon! Since you like defending Tenants so much, I’m sure you can get out of your pocketbook and help them cover their bill.

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I am not defending Tenants, nor Landlords. This is a discussion forum, where I do not make a decision who I feel is right based on whether they are a tenant or a Landlord. The original poster basically suggested a meter had been tampered with, that they had just discovered this fact, and that the Landlord knew about it from a EICR 2 years before they moved in.

From the version of the facts provided, this would seem grossly negligent of the Landlord, and I cannot support such Landlords, and would not understand why others would.

That said, you’ll also note my post above where I have suggested blame on the tenant for not checking / noticing bill irregularities. So, I’m not one sided, but balanced in my responses.

As as said before, my basic assumption has & remains that a tampered meter cannot be considered safe.

Your “basic assumption “a tampered meter cannot be considered safe implies no experience of the matter.

It is the act of meter tampering that is not safe. The person tampering with the meter is the one at risk and if they are in the know they will know what to do to protect themselves.
Once the process is complete the meter is not unsafe .
The outcomes are the fuse to the house blows or you have successfully bypassed the meter .

If it is implied that the meter was tampered with the utility company changes the meter , not because it is unsafe, but because they cannot guarantee accurate readings .
Case in point an EICR was completed on the property and it must have been satisfactory otherwise the tenant would not be in situ. I found out about my first meter tampering years after the fact by chance.

I cannot go into details of the process ( for obvious reasons ) .

Touche. Let the Grid go after the lost earnings.

Unfortunately the last government prohibited utility companies using forced entry , to deal with metering issues or cutting supply for failure to pay, after their practices were exposed in the press.

Now we, the paying consumer, pay for the freeloaders stealing from the grid. Only recently, it was published in one of the broadsheets, we pay circa £600 more per annum, since the invasion of Ukraine , even though the wholesale cost has declined. We are paying for all those that are stealing from the grid and a legislation that prevents the utility companies dealing with the issue.

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