What to do if you didn't take a meter reading when you moved out of your property

We've blogged previously as to why you should always take a meter reading yourself when moving house.
However what should you do if you have left your house and haven't taken a meter reading.  What should you do?

Scenario 1 - It's only been a few days but you can't get back to read the meter.  Solution: You can get a friend/landlord/real estate agent to read the meter and give you the reading.  You can then give this reading to the electricity company.

Scenario 2 - It's been a long time and now the Power Company are calling you due to your overdue account.
At this stage you could lie and make up a reading.  Don't do this, it's generally obvious what is happening and the Power Company will refuse to believe you.
If there has has been a meter reading after you moved out ask to use that reading to close the account.  This means you may have to pay some money but hopefully not so much.

Scenario 3 - You had an advanced meter. Little known fact - AMS (the company that monitors the advanced meters) takes a reading from every meter every day.  Insist that they use this reading.  If the person you are talking to tells you that you are wrong, talk with a manager.  Do no let up until they locate this reading.

Scenario 4 - You posted in the the reading / submitted it online.  We would recommend just not giving in, blame the Power Company, insist they wipe any liability from your last invoice and if the person refuses to budge make a complain.

Hopefully that covers the obvious scenarios, if you think of any more just let us know and we'll try to help.

Why you should always take a meter reading yourself

Whenever you move into a new property always always take a meter reading yourself and call it through to your power company.  This should be one of the first things you.  

The reason for this is that if you do not take a reading the electricity company will bill you from the last reading of the previous occupier.  

Even when there is an advanced meter at the property your electricity company will not take a reading and bill from that, they will still bill you from the last reading of the previous occupier.  

Whilst this would be fine if you moved in the afternoon that the other person moved out, in practice this doesn't happen.  

Also most people don't turn their electric hot water cylinders off after moving out, so unless you take a reading you will pay for the electric hot water cylinder heating that occurred between the last occupier moving out and you moving in.  

This assumes that the reading the last person gave was accurate (unlikely as you give misleading readings and they won't be caught).  It also assumes that nobody did renovations or cleaning in between occupancies.  It is just too risky not to take the reading when you move in.  

Unless you give this start reading the day you move in you can easily wind up paying for usage that isn't yours, and the electricity company will not do much about it.

To bring home the point further we'll tell a brief story about our sales manager when he was working for an electricity company.  A lady rung up to give her start reading, which was just over 1000 Kw different to the final reading of the previous occupiers.  Our sales manager queried this and confirmed she was reading the meter correctly.  He explained that this was a lot of usage different and asked if anything had been done on the house in the meantime.  The lady said that the previous tennant had flooded the house and done a runner (but closed their electricity account) and the landlord had had 5 industrial dehumidifiers and 10 industrial fans running for the past 10 days to remove the moisture.

That phone call saved the lady hundreds of dollars.  

Next time it could be you, call your power company when moving into a new place, and give them that reading.