# Interest group forums > Electrical Contracting Industry Forum >  Bypassing an muncipal electricity meter

## ians

Busy with an interesting issue which I have never had to deal with before. 

I did a COC for a house which is a total write off, I cut and disconnect literally the entire house, the purchaser bought the house for about a third of the property value if not less , and was advised accordingly.

Now months down the line I get a call from the new owner enquiring about bypassing the electricity meter, and instructed me that I must attend to the problem because I signed over the COC. Well I just laughed, yeah right you got to be kidding.

I informed the new owner that I have no authority to disconnect tor reconnect the meter, only the municipality metering department can break the seal and reseal the meter. In the case of a new installation I would install the meter in the location as illustrated on the application form and leave tails for the municipality to connect and seal. In the case of a relocation I would have to send a in an application for them to disconnect and reconnect, supply a new meter box with tails etc ready for them.

The COC has absolutely nothing  to do with the metering and I cannot be held liable for any issue the new or old owner have with regards to someone bypassing a meter, in fact 90 % of the time I don't even open the meter box and if there is no power I merely state on the COC that there was no power at the time of test and therefore could not complete all the test results.

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## Leecatt

> Busy with an interesting issue which I have never had to deal with before. 
> 
> I did a COC for a house which is a total write off, I cut and disconnect literally the entire house, the purchaser bought the house for about a third of the property value if not less , and was advised accordingly.
> 
> Now months down the line I get a call from the new owner enquiring about bypassing the electricity meter, and instructed me that I must attend to the problem because I signed over the COC. Well I just laughed, yeah right you got to be kidding.
> 
> I informed the new owner that I have no authority to disconnect tor reconnect the meter, only the municipality metering department can break the seal and reseal the meter. In the case of a new installation I would install the meter in the location as illustrated on the application form and leave tails for the municipality to connect and seal. In the case of a relocation I would have to send a in an application for them to disconnect and reconnect, supply a new meter box with tails etc ready for them.
> 
> The COC has absolutely nothing  to do with the metering and I cannot be held liable for any issue the new or old owner have with regards to someone bypassing a meter, in fact 90 % of the time I don't even open the meter box and if there is no power I merely state on the COC that there was no power at the time of test and therefore could not complete all the test results.


I agree with you 100%

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## IMHO

For pure educational purposes, how would one go about bypassing such a meter?

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## ians

There are a variety of methods, some things are better not shared on public forums.

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## wynn

I had a young guy with municipal identity come and check my prepaid meter the other day.
he switched off all the circuits except for the lights, punched a code into the meter and the lights went off and on again, I don't know what that proved but he seemed to be satisfied.
If I was skelleming the juice I would only bypass the stove and geysers and he never tested that? Probably because the geyser is on 'ripple relay' and it would complicate his test?

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## Justloadit

Now what if you had a UPS backing up your light circuits in the event of a power failure?
He would then be really confused  :Smile:

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## Pieter00

The funniest thing I've seen with a prepaid meter is that it's pluged in so you can just plug it out or in.
But would a loop impedance test damage a prepaid meter when testing

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## ians

I have never heard of a loop impedance test damaging a pre paid meter, but hey stranger things have happened.

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