How to Report a Faulty or Inaccurate Meter

A meter that over-records, stops, or sends the wrong numbers can cost a household real money, and the fix always starts in the same place: a complaint to your energy supplier. Suppliers are responsible for maintaining meters and must fix or replace them when they fail¹. Once a complaint is logged, the supplier has eight weeks to resolve it², and if it does not, or if it sends a deadlock letter saying nothing more can be done, the Energy Ombudsman can investigate and make binding decisions, with financial awards of up to £10,000 for domestic disputes³.

The signs of a fault are usually visible in the billing before they are visible on the meter itself. A smart meter may stop recording the energy you use, or may no longer send readings to your supplier⁴. Both failures have the same consequence: bills drift away from reality, either because they are based on estimates or because they are built on numbers the meter never truly measured. This page walks through what to look for, what to do at each stage, and how to build a case the Ombudsman will accept.

Signs your meter may be wrong

A meter fault rarely announces itself. It shows up as a mismatch between what the household actually uses and what the bills claim. Ofgem lists a faulty meter among the problems you take to your energy supplier, alongside late, incorrect or missing bills, back billing, being overcharged, poor customer service, and a supplier refusing to refund credit from your account⁶. That list matters because it confirms the official position: a suspected meter fault is a supplier complaint, not a job for the network operator or an independent engineer you hire yourself.

For smart meters, Ofgem describes two distinct failure modes: the meter "may stop recording the energy you use, or may no longer send readings to your supplier"⁴. The first is the more serious, because the meter is no longer measuring. The second is more common and less damaging, because the meter keeps measuring accurately but the supplier loses sight of the numbers and falls back on estimates. Distinguishing between the two is the first diagnostic step, and it is one a householder can take without any equipment: compare a manual reading from the meter against the reading printed on the bill.

There is also a scheme-specific duty worth knowing about if you receive payments under the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive. Under those scheme rules, a broken meter must be reported to Ofgem within 28 days of discovering the fault, and failure to keep meters in good working order or to notify within that window is treated as non-compliance, which could lead to suspension, loss of payments or revocation of accreditation⁸. Households outside that scheme are not bound by the 28-day rule, but it is a sensible benchmark for how quickly a fault should be reported to anyone.

What a smart meter does when it works properly

To spot a fault, it helps to be clear about what healthy looks like. A smart meter automatically sends your electricity and gas meter readings to your supplier⁹, using a secure network rather than any connection in your home¹. It measures your gas and electricity usage and sends the data directly to the supplier, with nearly real-time updates for electricity¹. The in-home display shows how much energy you are using during the day⁹, which is the feature most households notice first.

The data has three official uses: to bill you for the energy you use, to offer you new products and services such as new tariffs where you have given permission, and to help make the energy system more efficient by recording demand more accurately⁴. Smart meters enable accurate billing by automatically recording energy use in half-hour periods, so suppliers can bill on actual rather than estimated usage¹⁰. Automatic readings can reach the supplier monthly, weekly, daily, or even half-hourly depending on the setup¹¹.

When everything works, the household gets bills based on accurate meter readings and not estimates, access to more flexible tariffs including dual-rate tariffs, and up-to-date information on energy use that could reveal ways to save money⁴. For a household working towards energy independence, that visibility is the real value: the meter is the measuring instrument for every saving measure, tariff choice and generation decision. A meter that misreports undermines all of it, which is why a fault is worth pursuing rather than tolerating.

How meter faults affect your bills

The billing is where a fault becomes visible, and estimated readings are the most common symptom. One published case study involved a missed meter exchange that led to a household being billed for electricity using estimated readings only for the previous six months, even though a meter reader had taken a reading of 34518 from the meter eight months earlier¹². The reading existed; it simply never made it onto the bills. That pattern, estimates stacking up despite readings being available, is a classic sign that something in the chain between meter and bill has broken.

For households with generation, such as solar panels under the Feed-in Tariff, the stakes are higher still. FIT payments stop from the date of the last accurate meter reading¹³, so a fault in an export or generation meter does not just distort bills, it halts income. The same principle applies in reverse: if a meter is later shown to have been over-recording, the last accurate reading becomes the anchor point for correcting the account.

A fault can also show up as a bill that no longer tracks the seasons, the occupancy or the appliances in the house. A meter running too fast, in the household sense of the word, produces bills that climb while nothing has changed at home. Because suppliers bill on what the meter reports, the only way to test the suspicion is to gather evidence: manual readings taken at known times, compared against known usage. Those readings, and the bills built on estimates or impossible numbers, become the substance of the dispute later.

Contact your supplier first

The first step is always the same, whatever the fault turns out to be. The Energy Ombudsman puts it plainly: "The first thing you need to do is log a dispute with your supplier"¹⁴. Its own guidance for consumers is to speak to the energy supplier first to raise a complaint, and if they cannot help, the Ombudsman will aim to fairly and impartially resolve the dispute¹⁵.

This applies even in the more alarming scenario of a supply cut. If your supply is cut off because of a faulty energy meter, contact your energy supplier rather than the power cut line¹⁶. The supplier owns the maintenance obligation: if a smart meter stops working, contact your supplier, which is responsible for maintenance and will fix or replace the meter as needed¹.

When you make the complaint, be specific about what you have observed: the dates of any sudden bill increases, the period covered by estimated readings, and any manual readings you have taken that conflict with the bills. Ask for the complaint to be logged with a reference number and note the date, because that date becomes a formal requirement if the case later reaches the Ombudsman. Our guide to making an energy complaint covers the wording and the record-keeping in more detail.

Reading the meter yourself during a fault

While the fault is unresolved, the household's own readings become the reliable record. The good news is that a smart meter which is not operating in smart mode will still record your energy usage accurately, and you will also still be able to take manual readings¹⁷. Loss of the communications link does not mean loss of the measurement. Manual readings taken from the meter itself can be submitted to the supplier and used to challenge estimated bills in the meantime.

For households on traditional meters, the supplier should still send an engineer out to read the meter, usually a couple of times a year¹⁸. If bills arrive based on estimates despite those visits, the readings the engineer took are evidence worth requesting from the supplier. Our pages on how to take a meter reading, reading a gas meter and reading an electricity meter cover the mechanics, and submitting meter readings explains how to get them onto the account.

There is one situation where taking a reading is an official instruction rather than a precaution: if your energy supplier goes out of business. The same logic applies to a meter dispute. A dated sequence of your own readings, kept from the day you first suspected the fault, is the single most useful piece of evidence you can hold.

Adding credit when a prepayment meter goes dumb

Prepayment households face a sharper version of the problem, because a fault in the top-up chain has immediate consequences. Once your credit runs out you will not be able to use any energy until you top up again¹⁹. There is no buffer, no bill to dispute later: the supply simply stops. That makes a failed smart top-up route an urgent fault to report rather than a nuisance to work around.

The official guidance is that if you have a smart prepayment meter, you may be able to top up online or using your supplier's mobile app¹⁹. When those channels fail, the fallback is the traditional one, and our guide to topping up a prepayment meter covers the alternatives, including emergency credit. The key point for a dispute is to keep a record of every top-up, its amount and its date while the fault is unresolved, because those records show what credit actually reached the meter.

A prepayment meter that appears to burn through credit faster than the household's usage justifies is the prepayment equivalent of a meter running too fast, and it is reported the same way: as a faulty meter complaint to the supplier, logged with a date and a reference. If the supplier's response is to simply reissue credit without investigating the meter, that response is itself part of the evidence of how the complaint was handled.

Supplier response times: 5 working days and 8 weeks

Once the complaint is logged, two clocks start. The first is short and specific to smart meters. Under Ofgem's Guaranteed Standards for smart meter operational issues, the energy supplier must complete an initial assessment, take an appropriate action and offer to update the consumer, within 5 working days⁵. The same standard appears in Ofgem's 2025 statutory consultation on the Guaranteed Standards²⁰, so it is a firm regulatory expectation rather than good practice. If a smart meter fault report disappears into a queue with no assessment inside that window, the supplier is falling short of the standard.

The second clock is the general complaints deadline. Your energy supplier must try to fix any problems you reported within 8 weeks and resolve the complaint². That eight-week window is the gate to the Energy Ombudsman: if after 8 weeks your issue is still unresolved, the Ombudsman can then investigate⁷.

If your supplier fails during the process, the complaint does not die with it. If you have a case open with the Energy Ombudsman when a supplier goes out of business, the Ombudsman will contact you to discuss next steps²². The meter itself, and the readings on it, carry across to the new supplier, which is why the reading taken at the point of transfer matters.

Complaining to the Energy Ombudsman

If the eight weeks pass without resolution, or the supplier gives up sooner, the case moves to the Energy Ombudsman. The eligibility rules are consistent across the Ombudsman's own guidance: you can complain if a reported problem is not fixed within 8 weeks, if you and the energy company cannot agree how to fix it, if you receive a deadlock letter, or if you are not happy with the decision you receive². Anglesey County Council's trading standards guidance puts the same rule simply: "If the complaint is not resolved in eight weeks, or if you receive a deadlock letter, you can contact the Energy Ombudsman"²³.

A deadlock letter is a statement from the supplier that your problem cannot be fixed or that they believe there is no more they can do². Its value is timing: the supplier has 8 weeks to resolve your issue "unless they send you a deadlock letter enabling you to come to us sooner"²⁴. So a deadlock letter is not a defeat, it is a key that opens the Ombudsman's door early.

The Ombudsman's remit is broad. It handles disputes with energy suppliers, energy brokers, network operators, Green Deal providers and heat network suppliers²⁵, and its most common disputes include gas and electricity bills, smart meters and Feed-in Tariffs, customer service, problems arising from switching, the way an energy product or service has been sold, and the supply of energy to a home²⁴. It can consider disputes about network operators where there is a loss of service or a problem with a connection or repair²⁶. It is approved by Ofgem, which ensures it has the requirements to operate its schemes while remaining fully independent and impartial²⁷. To start a dispute, you search for the name of your energy supplier on the Ombudsman's site, or call 0330 440 1624²⁸. Our page on deadlock letters covers that stage in detail.

Where the Ombudsman's powers begin and end

Once a case is accepted, the process is structured. The Ombudsman will ask you to send information and evidence relating to the complaint, review the evidence from you and your energy company, inform you of its decision within 6 weeks, and give the energy company a set of actions to resolve the problem⁶. In practice, most disputes are resolved within 6 weeks of the Ombudsman receiving evidence from both parties³, so the pace depends heavily on how complete your evidence is when you submit it.

The Ombudsman's powers are real but bounded. It can require the supplier to put things right: "If a mistake has been made or you have been treated unfairly, we can require the supplier to put things right"¹⁴. It can tell suppliers to take practical action such as crediting or cancelling an account or changing your tariff, to make an apology, to offer a financial award, or a combination of these, and it may make recommendations to prevent issues happening again³. Financial awards are based on the cost of putting things right, such as ensuring you have been charged accurately, clearing unfair charges or fixing faults³.

The limits are equally firm. The Ombudsman cannot punish companies, dictate how companies operate, or issue fines³. For domestic energy disputes the maximum financial award is up to £10,000, and up to £20,000 for small business disputes³, but the average award is around £50²⁹. That gap between ceiling and average is worth understanding before you escalate: the scheme is designed to restore what you lost, not to penalise the supplier. One boundary also matters for meter-related technology: the Ombudsman can consider complaints about electric vehicle charging at a consumer's home, but is unable to consider complaints about charging away from the home²⁷. Our page on Energy Ombudsman outcomes sets out what to expect from a decision.

Collecting and sending in your evidence

The Ombudsman's eligibility checklist is the practical guide to what a case needs. Before raising a dispute, you must have complained to the supplier first, have waited 8 weeks or received a deadlock letter, have sufficient evidence to support your case including the date you raised your complaint, and confirm that the supplier name matches the bill²¹. The same checklist wording appears on the Ombudsman's dispute pages for individual companies, which confirms it is a standard gate rather than guidance for one firm²¹.

For a meter dispute specifically, the evidence that carries weight is:

• The date you raised the complaint with your supplier, and any complaint reference number
• Copies of the bills in question, especially any based on estimated readings
• Your own dated manual meter readings taken while the fault was ongoing
• Any readings taken by the supplier's own meter readers, and their dates
• The supplier's written responses, including any deadlock letter
• For prepayment, a record of every top-up, its amount and date
• For generation meters, the date of the last accurate reading, since FIT payments stop from that date¹³

Submit the case by searching for your supplier's name on the Ombudsman's raise-a-dispute pages, or by calling 0330 440 1624²⁸. The Ombudsman handles complaints for both domestic and small business consumers in the energy sector²⁹, and there are over 20 Ombudsman schemes in the UK, so check you are with the right one: energy belongs to the Energy Ombudsman, while travel, retail, insurance, employment, financial products and banking belong to other schemes²⁸. If your complaint is about a heat network rather than a standard energy supplier, the Energy Ombudsman has handled those disputes since 1st April 2025²⁵.

The independence lens is worth a final word. A meter dispute is one of the few areas where a household is entirely dependent on others: the supplier owns the meter, the supplier investigates the fault, and the Ombudsman arbitrates if the investigation fails. What the household controls is the record. Every reading you take yourself, dated and kept, is evidence no supplier can rewrite, and it is the difference between a dispute that rests on your word and one that rests on numbers.