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Hi there,
I think I may have been paying my Landords Utilities for Two Tears
I rent a property where the owner of the property lives in a granny flat at the rear. When I moved in he told me he has separate meters for utilities eg: gas, electric and Water.
My power was cut of the other day as my direct debit failed, but I noticed so was my landlords power. I payed the bill and the power was re-connected. I checked to see if there were any other meters around his granny and i found one Electric meter box. However when I switched all the power switches to my property off, the power also went off in his granny flat. So Im pretty sure his power is going through MY meter box. I then checked to see if he had a separate gas or water meter, I found none. Ive been living here for two years and in retrospect I can honestly say I have never seen a power bill arrive in his name. I think ive been paying the whole lot…. gas electric and water.
What should I do?
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My first step would be to find out if their is 1 or 2 circuit breakers in your power box that supplies the granny flat by switching them off in turn. If their are breakers just for the granny flat wait until Friday night then switch them off, having previously bought a special lock (that the power company can unlock) from a locksmith that you can use to lock the power box.
See how he likes being without power for a whole w/e.
I like it kiwipaul. You’re a genius.
It is of course possible that if there is a meter box on the granny flat as you’ve described, that it’s a sub-meter being used to record the granny-flat’s usage, and which is then being deducted from the main meter’s usage before bills are issued.
It may be less confrontational and direct to just approach the landlord and say you’ve observed that your breakers cut off their power, and you’re concerned about the bills – and could they show you their bills to assuage your concerns.
Also, if you’re in Vic, I think granny-flats aren’t allowed to be separately metered – they’re ‘dependent dwellings’ – but it’s been a while since I checked that.
Just have a look around the granny flat and see if you can find a meter box. It would have to be somewhere accessible to a reader.
From my past experiences, if there is a “sub-meter”, it is used by the installation “owner” to calculate the usage and seek re-imbursement based on its readings. The supplier won’t be interested in reading it.