Is it the tenant's account that is being metered by it? If so, why are you so keen to have it removed?
Kind Regards, John
They want to install Smartmeters
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Kind Regards, John
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I told eon that if they wanted to install one they'd have to change my consumer unit for me in return.
They stopped contacted me after that.
Have new consumer unit now anyway.
The only reason for smart meters is to sack all the meter readers.
They stopped contacted me after that.
Have new consumer unit now anyway.
The only reason for smart meters is to sack all the meter readers.
I think that's only a pretty minor part. The billions it's costing could pay an awful lot of meter readers (plus their overheads) for a long time!
In any event, for the majority of people who are capable of providing meter readings, they seem to have almost given up sending meter readers around, once they come to 'trust' the customer's readings. Years ago, a meter reader appeared every 6 months, sometimes even more frequently - but I now seem to see one only once every 2 or 3 years.
Kind Regards, John
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You're saying that British citizens cannot be trusted?
Whose side are you on exactly ?
Everyone I know has their meter's read every 6 months. Does that not happen in Buckinghamshire ? Place gone down hill has it ?
I realise that it's your house - but, as I said, if its the tenant who pays the bills (and who would suffer any of the perceived possible consequences of having a smart meter), why is that a concern to you.
As I said way back, I don't want a smart meter, but not because of paranoia about what it might facilitate in the distant future - but, rather, since it simply wouldn't offer me any benefits (apart from, at present, a very small reduction in the cost of my electricity).
Kind Regards, John
John, because if/when I decide to move back into the property I will have a smart meter I don't want ...
Can you please not trouble me with this silliness.
The great majority can undoubtedly be trusted. However, if electricity (or gas) suppliers relied totally on customer-provided meter readings, I'm sure that they would find that a few of them cannot be trusted!
I think I've made that pretty clear, and I reiterated the gist of my position in what I posted here a few minutes ago.
I'm sure that Buckinghamshire, and E.ON, are not unique. I'm not sure what would have happened if they hadn't changed my meter (for a non-smart one) in January 2017, when they inevitably read it, but I haven't seen a meter reader in the 18 months since then, and the previous two appearances of a meter reader were in April 2015 and October 2013. If you have faith in the trustworthiness of (the majority of) British citizens, what's the problem with that?
Kind Regards, John
Fair enough, but most landlords don't ever move back into their rental properties, so I was not really considering that possibility.
In any event, I think it's pretty certain that smart meters will be 'compulsory' in the foreseeable future, so you might well not have any choice by the time if/when you move back in, anyway.
Kind Regards, John
A good and honest person would see any property as their own, and treat it accordingly. Youv'e highlighted a double standard there, i.e. some landlords don't care as much about a property they are living in. Landlords that think like that are often plagued with the most issues, and wonder why. Good landlords treat their properties as their own.
EDF have told my tenant that smart meters will be 'compulsory' in the foreseeable future, in fact that was one of the justifications for them not removing it.
Right this minute they are not compulsory and I want it out of my house.
I think that there is a bit of a 'double standard' at work here, but not necessarily the one you suggest.
I agree that that tenants should be in essentially the same position as the landlord - so do we know what are the tenant's views on this matter? Not everyone shares your view. Rightly or wrongly, and whether or not they have been misled, it is apparent that a substantial number of occupiers of properties have decided that they actually want a smart meter, and if it is the tenant who has to pay the bills, and to enjoy/suffer any benefits/downsides of having a smart meter, then a tenant should have as much right to make that choice as would an owner-occupier. If a person is not allowed to chose to have a smart meter if they are a tenant, but would be allowed to make that choice as an owner-occupier, I would be inclined to call that a 'double standard' being imposed by the landlord.
Kind Regards, John
As John and a lot of others say, usage charges would be the easiest and fairest way to collect revenue to replace fuel duty and tax.
But sticking with the idea of doing it via electricity pricing, the answer to your point is that by then smart meters would be "universal". Once they'd got a (better than the first and second) plan for how long it would take to roll out a universal smart meter infrastructure they could announce that in 20xx the prices for electricity for non-smart meter consumers would rise dramatically, either via a large hike in the standing charge, or by a large increase in the per-unit price, with all smart meters offering substantially discounted prices. Or they could remove people's right to refuse having one fitted.
Any concerns of high prices lining the pockets of producers could be solved at a stroke by state ownership of production, so a win-win there.
I may be wrong, but I seem to recall that last time there was fairly widespread state ownership of industries in the domestic fuel supply chain, that, in itself (coupled with related political issues) resulted in serious problems of electricity supply.
It's not silliness, it's a matter of law.
The tenant may well have acted without your permission, just as if he'd had the windows replaced, in which case your remedy would be to require him to arrange their removal and the old ones re-instated, not against the window company who installed them.
If the tenant will not, or cannot, get the meter removed then you will have to evict him and/or sue him for your losses, which I imagine would require you to show that you had suffered a loss, and not wanting there to be one in a house where you will not be affected by its presence unless you were to move back in would, I imagine, not be considered a loss. Given the widespread beliefs about them, it could more easily be argued that it was a benefit in that it makes your property more attractive to people.
No matter misguided the current roll-out is, and no matter how misleading the advertising, and no matter how undue the pressure applied to people to get them to have them, there are no drawbacks to having one, nor will there be until everybody has one and the "drawbacks" are just the way things are if you choose to have an electricity supply.
As much as I would resist having one installed, I would never make the presence of one a factor when buying a house.
Your tenant has done something irreversible which you don't like, I get that, and everything above must be qualified by IANAL. One of those should probably be consulted, but my best guess is that you are just going to have to suck it up.
If a tenant wants a smart meter they can find property to live in where there is one.
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