Band rehearsal space? Dodgy meter or dodgy landlord?

Dan_Nailed

First post but I've bene lurking for a while. Have recently been embroiled in a row with a landlord on our band rehearsal space over a large electricity bill. £650 for 2 years. Not much on a house I know but you ahve to hear our specifics!

We use the room from 5.30pm till 7.30pm 2-3 days a week. So we're only there for between 4-6 hours a week. Rest of the time all the wall sockets are off, only thing running is a dehumidifier as the building has started to develop damp over the years. We have two guitar amps, bass amp and a PA system plugged in, with 6 energy efficient 11W bulbs. Measuring the usage on these is not an exact science as even if an amp is 1000W and you use it for an hour, it won't use 1000W all the time as when you aren't making any noise it is running at idle.

The bill our landlord brought up(that he had prepared himself, not an official bill from a supplier) said we had used 3711 units in two years. This works out at 35 units a week on average (3711 / 104 weeks). Our unit price is 17.53p, no economy rates or anything as we're on business rates, even though we do this as a hobby - we even get a council tax rebate from the council every year to support this.

I rang Energywatch(now Consumer Direct) and they told me there were 3 meters listed at the postcode, on Npower. Npower told me there are 6 meters at the address, 3 Npower and 3 British Gas. Landlord says rooms use British Gas. Rooms are attached to an old garage that has 3 phase power wired in so this explains 3 meters.

We don't have our own supply, but each of the 7 rehearsal rooms has it's own 3 submeters and the landlord reads the meters and drafts up a bill. We don't have access to the meters as they are in the locked garage. After some arguing I professed that either the meter was faulty or he had miscalculated/misread the meters as I find it hard to believe we can use 35 units in 6 hours, after wriggling and saying "he doesn't make mistakes" dropped the bill to £400 which is similar to what we paid 2 years ago for the same amount of time (24 months). However in that time period we rehearsed 4 times a week for 4 hour stretches and didn't turn the wall sockets off between practicing.

As it stands he has taken a reading today and again in a weeks time to work out what our weekly average is and tack it on to our monthly bill. Obviously I am not going to run the dehumidifier while he takes his readings!

From all sources I cna gather, it is not unusual for a 2-3 bedroomed house with occupants to use 35 units a week, whereas our 300 sq ft room that we use for 6 hours a week is drawing the same? I'm not way off my rocker here am I?

Regards,

Dan

Magentasue

Dan_Nailed wrote: »

we had used 3711 units in two years. This works out at 35 units a week on average (3711 / 104 weeks)

We have run a small dehumidifier this winter and I plugged it in to an energy monitor for a few days. It averaged 28kwh or units a week.

Dan_Nailed

OK, bearing that in mind, if we do not run the dehumidifier the equipment WILL get damp. We have come in and found moisture on the drum kits and cases, obviously on a £5000 drumkit this is not a good option. The building apparently has developed damp over the years (I have only been there four years, my drummer for nearly 12) and the landlord maintains that we're the only people who need to run a dehumidifier out of all the tenants.

I've been advised elsewhere(albeit no one savvy in terms of law) That I should work out how many units the dehumidifier costs and bill the landlord for that amount as his building is damp?

Magentasue

Dan_Nailed wrote: »

I've been advised elsewhere(albeit no one savvy in terms of law) That I should work out how many units the dehumidifier costs and bill the landlord for that amount as his building is damp?

Doubt it unless it was written into a letting agreement. I don't think a landlord would have to do that even if you were living there. Maybe find somewhere else?

Dan_Nailed

Well the rooms are advertised as rehearsal spaces, if they're now damp surely they're not fit for purpose? There must be something somewhere clarifying this...

I've been pushing for a move but it's finding somewhere that's the right size, most places are about 900 sq feet ish, and while I've found places much cheaper per sq ft we'd still be paying more than we are now. Need to wait for the recession to strike on a small business and claim their space I think!

Magentasue

Dan_Nailed wrote: »

Well the rooms are advertised as rehearsal spaces, if they're now damp surely they're not fit for purpose? There must be something somewhere clarifying this...

Doubt it. Even if you could pursue that, the landlord would probably only have to provide a second hand dehumidifier. Just as they might provide a heater - you'd be responsible for the running costs.

Premier_2

Dan_Nailed wrote: »

Well the rooms are advertised as rehearsal spaces, if they're now damp surely they're not fit for purpose?...

rehearsal ... not storage

Dan_Nailed wrote: »

I've been pushing for a move but it's finding somewhere that's the right size, most places are about 900 sq feet ish, and while I've found places much cheaper per sq ft we'd still be paying more than we are now. ...

You tend to get what you pay for in this world.

Dan_Nailed

well at the minute we're paying £8.66 for a damp room with an !!!!!! landlord so I shudder to think what somewhere decent would cost!