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Metered estate means no switch? HELP!

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I really need some help!

I moved into a property in December on a 12 month lease. No mention was made to energy suppliers except that i have a right to switch suppliers once.

I have tried on numerous occasions to change the details of my gas supplier and have found out it is LPG from Flogas and i am on a metered estate so cannot switch supplier without a unanimous agreement from all residents. they estimated my bill (1 bed flat) will be £225 per month! that was ridiculous but ive received a bill when i know a different supplier quoted me £20 a month cheaper.

i feel this is unfair and Flogas have the monopoly as i cant switch and save.

Should i have been informed of this by the landlord and the letting agent? i feel completely let down as its been one problem after another and this is the final straw!

Any help would be really appreciated
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Comments

  • dullnote
    dullnote Posts: 38 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker Mortgage-free Glee!
    I am also on a metered estate, getting a change I near impossible, we have 40 properties, all have to agree, we are at all different times in the contract , and someone will be offered a £100 to renew the existing agreement.

    Hence I came off gas and went to ASHP, much cheaper to run and I can change electrical suppliers.

    Does not help you if you rent, but £200 a month for 1bedroom sounds steep, on LPG I was paying £260 a month for four bedroom detached house.

    Get your landlord to look at insulation, he or she may be able to get help with the costs

    Dullnote
  • sk240
    sk240 Posts: 474 Forumite
    100 Posts
    Sorry but with metered estates your screwed (especially with Flogas), i too was in the same poition so changed my heating system to an air source heat pump, my winter montly bill went from £250 to around £60.
    See the attached link for a DIY version, or pro installed are around £900 - £1000 for a toshiba unit.
    http://www.vyair.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=125
  • Thanks for your replies. I just feel i should have been informed by the landlord/agency before taking the tenancy because as the tenant paying the bills directly i have a right to choose my supplier. Do you know whetehr they should have said? i cant find much info about it.
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Wha does your STA specify about the fuel supply? If you knew it was metered LPG then you should have made further enquiries. The LL isn't obliged to tell you anything at all, it's up to you to ask. You'd have to prove that they misrepresented the property.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • We have been waiting for over 2 months to be credited back £692.88 that was taken out of our account IN January. Every time we phone Flogas, we get an apology and saying, they will definitely get it sorted, and that the phone call is recorded... bla bla bla... This is ridiculous and we have no one to turn to , to complain!
  • ilikecookies
    ilikecookies Posts: 196 Forumite
    edited 13 March 2015 at 12:04PM
    Hi Millie_B,

    As Macman states I fear you are in a very difficult position from a legal/misrepresentation position. You are right that the landlord could have made it clearer but equally you could have asked more questions (though I totally appreciate this isn't the first thing on your mind especially if you are not used to LPG or the ins-and-outs of metered estates).

    I know that isn't what you want to hear but the "good news" is that £225/month for a one-bedroom flat is insane! I think your main line of attack has to be with the Flogas rather than the landlord/letting agent.

    I would ask Flogas to confirm how they come to this figure - eg. what they plan to charge you per litre of LPG and what they expect your annual usage to be.

    Assuming both are unrealistic figures you'd then need to negotiate hard with them. This should be possible as I'd expect everyone on the estate to be paying different prices anyway and as a new customer now is your time to negotiate. I remember a couple of years ago there was a programme on BBC One with Dominic Littlewood where he investigated a metered estate. He found prices varied enormously from an elderly unquestioning couple paying 80p per litre to new arrivals paying 30 pence.

    To challenge your quote it would be useful to know what the average cost of a litre of LPG is these days (there's a sticky on here with that sort of info - suspect it's in the 30-40p range with the recent fall in oil prices) and maybe talk to neighbours in similar sized properties to ask how many litres per year they get through. Armed with this info you can then haggle and as a former Flogas customer myself I'm afraid you will have to haggle hard - gently gently won't work with this company. You'll probably have to threaten to not use any LPG if they won't drop the price substantially - you can say you have an electric immersion for the hot water and have portable heaters for room heat which both work out cheaper than their LPG price.

    I assume Flogas are trying to get you to pay by DD to spread the cost throughout the year. It might be worth declining this and paying as you go because then you can control/monitor the costs more. With spring/summer on the way I can't see that in these months you'd spend more than £50/mth. Obviously you'd don't want to build up a big credit which you then have to fight to get back either.

    I really hope you manage to get something sorted. Let us know how you get on!
  • sk240 wrote: »
    Sorry but with metered estates your screwed (especially with Flogas), i too was in the same poition so changed my heating system to an air source heat pump, my winter montly bill went from £250 to around £60.
    See the attached link for a DIY version, or pro installed are around £900 - £1000 for a toshiba unit.
    http://www.vyair.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=125

    This URL produces the statement:
    System Message
    Invalid or Inactive Product.
    "There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe a 'Princess Coronation' locomotive in full cry. We shall never see their like again". O S Nock
  • molerat
    molerat Posts: 34,595 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    This URL produces the statement:
    System Message
    Invalid or Inactive Product.
    That post was from just over a year ago, post #6 resurrected it ......... ;)
  • usefulmale
    usefulmale Posts: 2,627 Forumite
    Even though its a metered estate, doesn't each house have their own meter? If not, whats to stop each house having the heating on full blast 24/7, if its just a set price per month?
  • molerat wrote: »
    That post was from just over a year ago, post #6 resurrected it ......... ;)

    D'oh! Didn't notice this was an old thread!

    Usefulmale - yes everyone will have their own meter but you can bet everyone is paying a different price per litre to extract it from the same underground tank!
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