FAQs
No. A normal sub-meter can often cost nearly as much as our prepaid meters depending on where you buy it and who you get to install it for you. If you are at the stage where you do not already have a seperate electrical board and are still going to be installing one then getting a Meter Mate Prepaid Meter with an integrated earth leakage can actually cost you less than buying an earth leakage and meter seperately.
If your meter is on the voucher system you need to buy vouchers from your landlord or managing agent. If your meter is registered you can buy from Easy Pay outlets (Pick 'n Pay, Checkers, Shoprite ect) aswell as any shops that sells unipin vouchers (Spar, Garages, Spaza Shops). You can check if your meter is registered by clicking "supported meters" on the Easy Pay website.
No. Our Meter Mate prepaid meters can only be recharged by vouchers supplied by Meter Mate, so there is no way or tenants to by-pass you.
No. There are some inbuilt and external tamper proof measures. The Prepaid Meter is sealed when it is installed. If at any stage the prepaid meter is opened it will become disabled until a unique reset code is entered.
NB! It is also important to regularly read you council meter, submit meter readings and check that the amount of units that you are selling to your tenant add up to the amount of units you are paying the council for. In this way, if you see that your bill from the council is much higher than amount of money you are being reimbursed from your tenant you will know that there is either a problem. Either prepaid meter has been tampered with or you have a problem with your council meter. It is also important to regularly inspect your property and check the meter itself for evidence of tampering.
We suggest that you do and recommend that you put in the relevant clauses pertaining to the supply and consumption of electricity. (ask your lawyer or agent for advice)
The tenant should be billed the rate that you are paying to the council, which can vary according to the tariff structure you are on. It is therefore important to ensure that you know what rate you are paying the council. This way you will not be under or overbilling. See Tips and tools making sure you are on the best tarrif for you.
If you have an existing tenant they may have reservations about the new meters. We feel that if you point out the benefits of how prepaid meters can work best for both parties they will be happy to have one installed.
We feel that these meters offer great advantages to both tenants and owners and that if you discuss this with your owner they will also see the advantages and will be willing to install a prepaid meter. The cost of installation is not that high the owner may be willing to pay the full cost. You may be asked to contribute to the cost either with a once off fee or by charging you a slightly higher rate for each KWH that you consume.
We suggest that if you are going away for a short period ie a month or less, that you make sure that you have recharged your meter with enough electricity to last this amount of time (bare in mind your average consumption for this period) For longer periods and possibly even in the case above you should make sure that everything that is not essential is turned off and unplugged, thus minimzing any useage. You will still need to ensure that you have sufficient electricity to keep you meter going for anything that you can't turn off (e.g. alarm, gate, pool etc) We suggest that you have a friend or family member check you property once a week as this is the best way to ensure that your property will be safe from crime, water damage or any other disaster.