Electricity meter question..We've rented an apartment, however the previous

Mark D Image
03/09/2020 - 13:09

Electricity meter question..

We've rented an apartment, however the previous tenant didn't pay the electricity bill and the electricity was disconnected.

We've been to the office of the energy company and signed the contracts. We've checked each day but the electricity isn't working.

I spoke with the company this morning who say that the supply is working, but we need to "pull a lever" at the contattore, or meter box.

However that's in a locked cupboard on the ground floor and we do not have a key for that.

The concierge wasn't available on Saturday, so we went back today, but there's nobody there. There was supposed to be, within those hours, but the city is in a red zone, and there is hardly anyone anywhere.

We've asked the landlady who said "phone the previous tenant, he'll know". But it doesn't matter what he knows, we need the key to unlock the cupboard.

We'll go back tomorrow and try again but this is an odd situation. Am I right to think that we should have been given a key for this?

At the moment we're on day ten of the contract and, unless we break into the cupboard to reset the meter, we can't move in..

Thanks,

Mark

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I explained that we don't have access to the locked cupboard, and they said that we need to speak to the concierge, or to a neighbour.

I have no idea where the real accountability lies here.

However given the low wattage to the apartments with the supply going off regularly, I think we'll need our own key to the cupboard at some point - it seems odd that the energy company would have to come out to the building every time we run too many appliances at the same time.

Most of the meter boxes near where I live have two different keys, either of which will open the box. One is normally left with the owner, the other is for universal access by the electricity company. If you can’t get the former, it may be worth seeing if the electricity company could help.

After a short while you should find you adapt to the limited power and rarely, if at all, trip the meter. You do have to learn the power draw of major appliances but it becomes second nature to avoid switching on the washing machine if the oven is on, etc.