A Surrey  woman is demanding answers from BC Hydro, and her strata, after finding out she was paying her neighbour's power bills for the past 12 years. 

Denise Dolnik owns a vacation condo in Whister. Last July, her tenants called to say the power was out in their suite.

When an electrician couldn't find the problem, B.C. Hydro was called in. It turns out the wires to Dolnik’s smart meter number 376 were crossed with the condo next door, meter 377.

Her neighbours had just bought the condo and weren't paying the bills because they thought hydro was covered by the monthly strata fees, so the power was cut off to Dolnik’s suite by mistake.

"If that wouldn't have happened, I could have gone on indefinitely paying someone else's bills and vice versa," she said.  

For 12 years, the meter mix-up went undetected. Dolnik figures she's overpaid BC Hydro since 2002, since the original neighbour lived at the Whistler condo full time, while her unit was empty five months of the year. But getting answers from the corporation hasn't been easy.

So consumer reporter Lynda Steele spoke to BC Hydro on Dolnik's behalf, and was told the condo developer is actually to blame for the meter mix-up.

"When the building was constructed, the wires between the two units had been switched, so this is obviously a really rare situation, and something we certainly don't see very often," said Mora Scott, BC Hydro spokesperson.

But Dolnik isn’t convinced. The electrician she had hired told her there was no problem with the wiring. She wants to see her neighbour's power bills to make sure she hasn't been overcharged the past 12 years. 

BC Hydro refuses to do that, citing privacy issues.

"The good news is we have been able to go back and look at this, and this customer, although she feels that she has been overcharged, in fact she has been undercharged and this construction error has actually saved her about $800," said Scott.

If that's the case, then Dolnik got off lucky because BC Hydro has a policy of only going back six months in billing history. It did that, and charged her an extra $31 dollars.

Still, Dolink wants to see those documents and has applied for BC Hydro documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

Until she gets those answers, she plans to withhold payment on her condo's Hydro bills.  She also wants someone to pay her electrician's bill of $236 dollars which was charged to her when she had to call someone out last July to see what the problem is. 

Hydro says she has to go after her strata for that.