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Recently, the replacement of the electric meter is increasingly becoming a necessity. Many people want to install meters that can separately count electricity at different times (multi-tariff), in some cases this is necessary, since the meter has broken or has begun to work incorrectly. To determine who should pay for the work and the meter itself, several factors must be taken into account.
In what cases it is necessary to change the electric meter
There are three main reasons for the need to replace the electricity meter:
- Modernization of the network or planned replacement of metering devices.
- Expiration of service life (not intertest interval).
- Breakage and failure, incorrect charges.
- The desire to install a multi-tariff meter.
It is worth explaining the second point – everything is clear with the rest. Each meter has a certain working resource, after which it begins to incorrectly record the consumed electricity. In most cases, this can be fixed with a repair, but the cost of a repair is commensurate with the cost of a new one. Therefore, in such cases, most often they decide to change the electric meter. And rightly so: after repair, it can quickly fail or start to “lie” again.
The second point: if the meter has expired, it is most likely many years old and it is not designed for the amount of electricity that we need now. This may be the reason that you often knock out traffic jams or the automatic protection works.
At whose expense
When changing an electricity meter, owners of private houses almost always pay the cost of the meter and work themselves. It is their property and their responsibility. With the owners of privatized apartments, the story is almost the same – if the meter is installed in the apartment, the owner of the apartment pays for the replacement of the electricity meter. But, in principle, there may be options: you need to carefully read the contract that you have concluded with the energy supply organization. There are clauses about who should pay for replacement and maintenance. If you signed a standard contract, then all responsibility lies with you. If you made changes and the contract is signed with changes, then the organization that is written in the contract will pay.
If in an apartment building energy metering devices are located on the landing, the replacement of the electric meter occurs at the expense of the management campaign, since in this case it is common property. In case of damage, failure, expiration of the service life, it pays for the replacement of the management company, which concludes a contract for the performance of work with an energy supply organization.
The same is the case with municipal (not privatized) apartments. Maintenance and replacement of electricity meters is carried out at the expense of the management campaign.
There is only one point: the management company pays for the replacement of the electric meter only if it is non-working, obviously lying, or they have a planned replacement. If you want to change an ordinary metering device to a multi-tariff one, you pay for everything – both the meter and the installation.
Who should put and the order of work
If the replacement of the meter is paid for by the management company, they themselves conclude contracts for the work. Usually – with the energy supply organization. If, according to the contract, the replacement is your responsibility, you have two options – do it yourself or pay the same energy supplier. The option to hire a third-party company is not the best, since problems can arise during admission, because if you wish, you can always find something to complain about.
In any case, the replacement of the electricity meter occurs with the permission of the energy sales campaign. Even in the event of a complete malfunction and stop of the device, nothing can be done without permission. You need to inform Energosbyt. After that, their representative should come to you, write off the meter readings, and only after that you can start work. For all the time while the meter is not working, payment is charged according to the standards approved in the region.
Upon completion of work on replacing the meter, representatives of the energy supply organization must seal it and give you an act of work performed, which indicates the series and number of the meter, the number of the seal, and the current readings. If you entered into an agreement with the energy retailer, an act on the provision of services and a registration certificate for the meter with signatures and seals. Based on all this, you can conclude a service contract. After that, we can assume that the replacement of the electric meter is over.