Refused access to meters, and OVO unable to contact the building management

Thanks for your help @Blastoise186 

We’re going to email them and ask for permission, will refer to this depending on what they say. Fingers crossed this will sort out our issues. 

Thanks again. :) 

Hey @sophwillox 

Let us know how you get on. 

You shouldn’t really need their permission at all unless there are something like terms in your tenancy agreement that prevent you from making certain changes, but we also know that it can be easier if they do know about it - just make sure they know it’s your right as the legally responsible party.

Keep us updated with things.🙂

@Abby_OVO Thank you Abby, will do. 

Hello,

This is a bit of a long winded story but basically for context I have had issues with my landlord over access to my meter. It is in a locked cupboard that I have been denied access to since I asked in November. It is denied under ‘health and safety’ regulations. 

With this, my landlord is in charge of giving me my reading every month. I had a reading December 8th before the new year. On 8th January I requested another reading as I wanted to know my spend within that month time frame. I received no reply until 12th where I was told someone would come to attend the week commencing 15th to provide me with a reading. I did not receive any reading until January 24th, and when I entered that reading, It skyrocketed my debit so now I owe OVO £275 more. OVO have also increased my monthly debit from £113 to £162 and then up again 4 days later to £192 because of this.

I will be putting a formal complaint in for this with my landlord, but does anyone know if I have any way to gain some compensation from my landlord for this? As I had to wait 47 days for a reading from a meter I pay for? And I had asked the entire month for this reading. I don’t know where I stand with this in terms of my rights.

If not compensation, what would be they best thing I can ask out of the complaint process?

Hi @dhughes1009 ,

I’m one of the Forum Volunteers here. :)

I personally think you’d definitely be right to ask your landlord to compensate you. Landlords should not be blocking your (or your suppliers) access to your meters, alas this is an issue we’ve seen here time and time again. Landlords have a nasty habit of doing this and we can never figure out why.

The wait period you had there is also just stupidly excessive. I’m sorry, but it just is.

I think the best long-term solution is probably going to bet getting the meters swapped out for Smart Meters. That way, the readings can be sent pretty much every month without fail even if your landlord is acting like a snail.

If you are paying the bill directly to your supplier, your landlord CANNOT block this without an extremely good reason either. Excuses such as “I don’t like them” or “they don’t work” are not considered to be acceptable either. If you get any excuses, let us know here and we can advise.

Hope this helps!

Hey @dhughes1009 

I’m really sorry to hear about this situation with the landlord.

Blastoise186 has left perfect advice above on this, I’d have advised getting smart meters myself had he not already - and as mentioned, if you’re the one that pays the electric/gas bills directly, and the account is in your name, it’s you who is responsible for the meters and decisions, not the landlord. This would also be beneficial to the landlord if you were to move out, as even their bills in between tenants would be accurate.

We do see this more often than we’d like, and it’s always quite tricky to deal with. I’ve linked below to a similar topic we had recently:

Do you know if they also refuse access to official meter reader staff when they stop by?

Hello,

in terms of denying professionals access, they have said all it requires is for the professional to call the property management team and they will be provided with a ‘code’ for the door. 
 

after living there since July 2023 I have only been able to know where my meter was for the first time 3 days ago. I have asked around 6 times to see it and have been denied. I also have found out there is no ‘code’ and it is in fact a key. 
 

my argument was anyone could call claiming to be a professional in that case, and they would grant them access before someone who is a trusted paying tenant. I was told by their out of hours time they would “make sure” I could not access my meter and would go as far as to let professionals know that they were not allowed to give us the “code” or unlock it with us present. Bare in mind this access was because we have reasonable suspicion to believe our meter is faulty as we have been getting very high readings despite living in a small 2 bed flat and have not dared use heating and have used limited hot water since around November. Not sure if you know what it is like to be able to see your breath on a night but it isn’t a nice feeling. 
 

Trust me when I say a 13 page formal complaint was issued to them last night from myself. I am in no position to repay £400 to ovo by March, on top of the £192 they now are requesting I pay for my monthly direct debit. This would have been 100% avoidable if I had received regular on time meter readings from the company if they are dead set on not giving me access. When viewing my meter for the first time, the gentleman who accompanied even commented that my reading was exceedingly higher than every other meter in the area. Which is insane as I mentioned before we have not used heating, and use appliances sparingly. I will also mention we work 9-5 on weekdays. 
 

We did request an ovo technician attend before Christmas to check the meter for issues but they never showed up. That was a separate issue in itself. We were told we would have to wait around 17 days before we could request another attend, which is why we have not had anyone out to check our meter. We hoped that when we should have received our reading on 8th jan we would have had an idea if there was definitely an issue or if we were just not as careful over the previous months. 
 

we got accepted for a smart meter and are due to have it installed on Friday. I will request the installer check the meter for possible faults as based off our meter reading we have used 60kWh in 2 days.
 

I apologise for such a rant, but I am assuming you can tell we are at our edge. I wanted to ask outright that my landlord compensate the extra I have had to pay, but I was afraid that might have been a stretch. After speaking on this forum I think it is a path I will definitely consider.   

Is it possible that you are being billed for someone else’s meter ?

There is 100% a chance that is happening. Worth mentioning the meter beside mine is my landlords for the rest of the building and his doesn’t seem to be that large… 

if after all of this my meter is 1000% not faulty I honestly don’t know what I will do. 

Did you take photos of your meter ? I’ve forgotten which numbers you need to confirm that your bill related to your meter… someone here will know !! Have you been to citizens advice about this ?