After changing to a smart meter, I've got a huge bill.

S

spupazza

New Member
Messages
4
Hi all, few months ago, my old meter was changed with a smart meter (I rent, it was my landlord's decision). After it was changed, I got a huge bill, over €7000 for just 2 months. My average bill is around €200-€250 euros for 2 months. With my energy provider, we agreed to stop to pay bills until the issue was solved.
ESB opened an investigation, they discovered (at least that is what they say) that my old meter was faulty and after 2 months, they credited me around €3000.
But my bill is still over €4000.
How do I proceed from here?
As I said, never had such high bill and I haven't used any heater during those months. I have no intention to pay that bill, because it isn't accurate.
Any help is much appreciated.
 
The first question would be when was the old meter faulty from and then has it been underestimating the previous monthly charges for a period of time. As you are a tennant you should also be looking at when you first moved in and when the bill was transferred to your name. You should have no liability for the previous tennant.

I'd be asking for how long the over payment goes back to and for them to provide evidence of any undercharge against your previous bills
 
thedaddyman said:
The first question would be when was the old meter faulty from and then has it been underestimating the previous monthly charges for a period of time. As you are a tennant you should also be looking at when you first moved in and when the bill was transferred to your name. You should have no liability for the previous tennant.

I'd be asking for how long the over payment goes back to and for them to provide evidence of any undercharge against your previous bills
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for your suggestion.
 
How long have you been there, have your past bills been estimated or read either by you and submitted or meter reader, is it a house/apartment and what size, did you or ESB take a meter reading from the old meter when it was removed and have proof of it, any pic or proof of what the new meter started out showing?

You will have to build up a case assuming your bills have not been estimated for years, having gone through this last year with Electric Ireland it took 9 months and many many emails etc before they agreed it had to be an error and we were *only* talking about 900 euro approx.
 
Did you get a meter reading when you moved in? Most landlords do that so that they know when the billing in your name is supposed to start. You should be able to get smart data ie 30 min intervals to show the KWH usage. You can compare that to your old pre smart meter bills to check if your use went up or not. You would have your normal KWH used on your old bills. Check also what the new tarrif you are on is.
 
Fist things first. Who is your provider ? Do you have an online account setup with them, if not, do so now. This should give you your history of bills and readings. In the meantime dig up all bills you can and check all the readings. Winter bills will probably be dearer than summer if you have electric heating. You need to do your own work on this as the energy company will take the easiest route which will usually mean you lose out.
 
Monbretia said:
How long have you been there, have your past bills been estimated or read either by you and submitted or meter reader, is it a house/apartment and what size, did you or ESB take a meter reading from the old meter when it was removed and have proof of it, any pic or proof of what the new meter started out showing?

You will have to build up a case assuming your bills have not been estimated for years, having gone through this last year with Electric Ireland it took 9 months and many many emails etc before they agreed it had to be an error and we were *only* talking about 900 euro approx.
Click to expand...
I have lived in a 2-bedroom apartment for the last 15 years. The bills were mostly estimated, but some were submitted at the request of the energy provider. I am unsure if ESB took a meter reading from the old meter when it was removed and I do not have it. And I also don't have a meter reading when the new meter was installed.
But I have a photo of a reading from the 18th of April 2024, as they mistakenly got another reading in that period too (the meter was changed in June 2024).
 
You are there long enough so that a pattern of usage should be possible to establish based on units used between bills with proper readings which should hopefully would give an average usage per year even if it can't be done monthly. Has there been any big changes to heating system or faulty appliances that could account for it over the past while? I bought a monitor and monitored every item over a 24 hr period to show usage which was interesting and on foot of that I got rid of an old freezer. But that was for my own info, in the dispute case I fought last year it was just the storage heaters that were on a new smart meter that were the issue but I also monitored them for a 24 hr period from the meter readings to prove they couldn't use the amount billed for in the time period referred to.

I would ask the ESB for evidence of the meter readings taken when old one was removed and new installed, I had to do the same and they couldn't provide any evidence as such, I would have thought these days it would be obvious that they should take pics, anyway they couldn't give me hard evidence just confirmed they were correct which obviously is not very satisfactory when a dispute arises!

I will add I never got an explanation as to what went wrong to produce the over inflated bill but it clearly had something to do with the new meter, the house owners got such a fright from the bill that they have not turned on the storage heaters since and don't intend to ever again so I don't know if the meter is now working correctly or not or is it likely to do the same thing again!
 
spupazza said:
But I have a photo of a reading from the 18th of April 2024, as they mistakenly got another reading in that period too (the meter was changed in June 2024).
Click to expand...
So check this reading with the estimates around the time and figure out whether they were accurate. Your latest bill must explain where the extra 000's came from and without seeing them we cannot advise.
 
If I remember correctly when my meter was switched the new smart meter was zeroed
and I got a bill which showed both the old meter readings and the new smart meter reading and all was fine
what was the breakdown of the €7000 bill in units, is it both meters or just the new smart meter??
 
Cervelo said:
If I remember correctly when my meter was switched the new smart meter was zeroed
and I got a bill which showed both the old meter readings and the new smart meter reading and all was fine
what was the breakdown of the €7000 bill in units, is it both meters or just the new smart meter??
Click to expand...
Same thing happened in my case. I happened to be at home when the new metre was installed and took a picture of the old reading just in case. My next billed showed two sets of readings as you have described above.
 
Cervelo said:
If I remember correctly when my meter was switched the new smart meter was zeroed
and I got a bill which showed both the old meter readings and the new smart meter reading and all was fine
what was the breakdown of the €7000 bill in units, is it both meters or just the new smart meter??
Click to expand...
They haven't provided any breakdown of the €7000.
 
Sue Ellen said:
Not 100% sure if you are referring to a complaint with ESB or Electric Ireland. Whichever organisation it is you need to pursue it to the end and then if you get no satisfaction you need to refer the complaint to the who are CRU.
Click to expand...
This in itself was even part of the problem I encountered last year, I was dealing with Electric Ireland, I asked them several times for a final letter on the complaint as there was no satisfactory conclusion so I could go to CRU, I never got it! Instead they dragged it out pushing payment plans/pre pay meter/threatening disconnection, I asked them what their service standards were for completing a complaint in the hope that there was a time span but they said they don't have service standards when it comes to complaints. It was a serious trial having to deal with them!
 
Register online to access your smart meter data and review your current usage patterns. That will give you a sense of your typical daily summer usage.
 
Leo said:
Register online to access your smart meter data and review your current usage patterns. That will give you a sense of your typical daily summer usage.
Click to expand...
Just to clarify I think that @Leo means that you should register with ESB Networks here for access to your smart meter usage data:


This is separate from/in addition to registering for online access to your electricity provider's account, bills etc.
You don't seem to have clarified/stated who your electricity provider is.
Or the nature of the bills that you have received - in particular whether or not they included old and new/smart meter readings and what these were.
It would help if you did as otherwise people are trying to guess/infer what might be going on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leo
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top