Meter readings are the easiest evidence to get and the most commonly botched. Five minutes on moving day prevents a bill for someone else's electricity.
The mistake is nearly always the same: people photograph the number and nothing else. A number on its own is a number. It does not say which meter, which property, or when.
What a complete reading looks like
Four things, and you need all four:
- The reading itself, legible, with no glare on the display
- The meter serial number, legible in the same shot or in a second shot of the same meter
- The date and time you took it
- A wider shot showing where the meter is — in the cupboard, on the wall, in the meter box outside
The serial number is the one that matters most and the one nobody takes. It is what ties the reading to a specific physical meter. Without it, a supplier or landlord can say the number belongs to a different property, a different meter, or a different date, and you have no way to show otherwise. With it, the reading is close to unarguable.
You will find the serial number printed on the front of the meter, usually labelled as the serial number, meter number, or MSN. Photograph it even if it means crouching in a cupboard with a torch.
Do it on the right day
Take the readings on the day you take possession, not the day after you have unpacked.
The gap matters. Twenty-four hours of someone else's heating, or of the previous tenant's final laundry load, is chargeable to whoever the meter says was there. The day you get the keys is the day the meter stops being their problem and becomes yours.
Same at the other end: take the final readings on the day you hand the keys back, after everything is out, not the week before.
Keep your readings with the rest of your record: our move-in checklist covers day one, and our move-out checklist covers your last day.
Every meter, not just the obvious one
Walk the property and find all of them:
Electricity. Usually one. If there is an Economy 7 or similar two-rate meter you will see two readings, often labelled low and normal, or rate 1 and rate 2. Photograph both.
Gas. If there is a gas supply. Note whether the meter reads in cubic metres or cubic feet — older imperial meters are still around, and the conversion matters when you check a bill.
Water. Not all properties are metered. If yours is, the meter is often outside under a small cover at the pavement, or under the kitchen sink.
Heat meters. In some flats with communal heating there is a separate heat meter. Easy to miss, and expensive to miss.
If a meter is in a locked cupboard or an inaccessible spot, ask the landlord or agent to open it on the day and photograph it then.
Smart meters do not remove the job
A smart meter sends readings automatically, which is not the same as those readings being attributed to the right person from the right moment.
The account switch still has to happen, and the reading on the day you take over is still what draws the line between your usage and the previous occupant's. Press the button on the in-home display or the meter itself to bring up the reading and photograph it exactly as you would a traditional meter.
Smart meters also get set to a prepayment mode, or lose their connection, or get replaced. A dated photograph survives all of that.
Tell the supplier, in writing
The photographs protect you in a dispute. They do not open an account.
On the day you move in:
- Find out who supplies the property. The landlord, agent or previous occupant should tell you; if nobody knows, you can find the supplier through the industry databases for gas and electricity
- Contact the supplier with the reading and the date
- Do it by email or through their website, so there is a record — a phone call that nobody logged is worth nothing later
Do exactly the same on the day you move out, and ask for a final bill to the reading you have given.
Why this ends up in deposit disputes
Unpaid utilities are a legitimate deduction from a deposit where you are the one who owed them. The argument is usually about how much, and which period.
A tenant with a dated, serial-numbered photograph of the meter on the day they arrived and the day they left has bounded the problem exactly. Whatever happened before the first reading and after the second is not theirs. That is a short conversation.
A tenant without it is negotiating over an estimate, and estimates tend not to favour the person who cannot produce a number.
The same evidence also settles the other common version: a final bill arriving months later for a period after you moved out, because the account was never closed.
The five-minute version
- Photograph each meter with the reading and the serial number legible
- Take a wider shot showing where it is
- Note the date and time
- Do it on the day you take the keys, and again on the day you hand them back
- Send the readings to the supplier in writing the same day
- Keep the photographs with the rest of your tenancy record
Meter readings belong in the same file as your move-in photographs, for the same reason. Our move-in inventory checklist covers the rest of that walk-through.
Where RentSeal fits
RentSeal keeps meter photographs alongside the room-by-room record for one tenancy, dated as you add them, so they are still findable and still legible two years later. You can see how it works first.
This guide is general information, not legal or billing advice. For a dispute with a supplier, the supplier's complaints process and the Energy Ombudsman are the routes; for a deposit dispute, see what evidence to send in a deposit dispute.