Smart meters in rented flat?

There is no “resetting” of the meter. All you need to do is take the meter reading and pass that onto the utility provider and say that’s the reading when the previous occupants left.

All a smart meter really is, is a way for the utility companies and customers to be able to view usage in real time. It’s otherwise just a normal meter and you would treat this exactly as you would had you had a regular meter installed.

Is it a “key meter”?

Smart Meters can be read by the Energy Supplier, so you just need to inform them when the Tenant moved out & give any forwarding details you may have.

If its a key meter the supplier will advise you where you can get a key & top up so you can have energy if needed until a new Tenant takes over.

Thanks for your responses

Reply to the comment left by John Mac at 28/03/2023 – 10:44
Can you give forwarding details without breaching GDPR?

Smart meters will mean the energy supplier will know exactly how much energy has been used by the hour, so in my case I was just asked to prove the date the tenants left so only energy used after that date will be the landlord’s responsibility.

Reply to the comment left by John Mac at 28/03/2023 – 10:44
Good point John – although not necessarily relevant to the question posed by Mrs Wild one thing I never do is use a PAYG key that a tenant leaves behind as I have concerns it can swallow any money you put on it to infill the tenants debt. In the past I refused to use the key and got them to reinstall an ordinary meter as I hate the smart ones! But it does take a bit of pressure to get them to do it! British Gas are terrible for this.

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 28/03/2023 – 11:07
Yes its normally written into AST that you can pass details on for legitimate reasons. In this instance so that the Utility Company can send a bill for usage whilst occupying the Prop.

Reply to the comment left by John Mac at 28/03/2023 – 12:24
It might be written into your ASTs but potentially dangerous to make assumptions about others.

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 28/03/2023 – 13:13
I’m not making assumptions, I merely pointed out that its normally incl in AST’s

Even if its not the LL still has a legitimate reason for sharing T’s details.

Reply to the comment left by John Mac at 28/03/2023 – 12:24
Only any good where you know where the tenant has buggered off to