Can anyone help?

laurastudent

I am currently living in a shared student house, four bedrooms (the front room is used as a bedroom). Our electricity and gas supplier is NPower and within the past week we have received an electricity/gas bill totaling £998.29.

Needless to say this is quite a shock. According to the gas company, they have underestimated the bill since we moved in (July 09) and the only actual reading they have gotten while we have been living here is from the end of Feb 2010. This confused us as they have been to read the meters before, they are both in the same place, so why didn't they read the gas?

Another confusing point is that on the bill it reads it as July until January 23rd. They didn't come and read the meter at that time, they did it at the end of last month/beginning of this month! According to the bill, the total for the gas alone is £750. In our house the only thing we are aware that runs off gas is the heating and possibly the water, as the cooker is electric etc. Since we moved in we have only had the heating on from the end of OCtober/beginning of November, so this would add up to a good amount of it being spent on 3 months of heating. Is this right?

They also claim they have only received 78 pounds payment from us, however we have paid well over £200. Does anyone know why this isn't included?

Sorry this is a bit all over the place. We were just wondering if anyone would be able to tell us if this is normal for a bill as this is our first time paying bills at university. All help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Premier_2

You moved in in July and you have a bill dated end of Feb. Presumably you also had a bill about November, which would have been estimated. How much was that for?

1. I know it sounds crazy, but it's quite usual for meter readers to only read gas or electricity meters, not both.

2. The bill you had previously would have stated it was estimated. You really should have checked that estimated reading against the meter and advised the company if grossly inaccurate.

3. £1000+ for 6 months is quite expensive, but easily achievable with 4 students who are not in control of their consumption.

4. When you moved in the property, did you take meter readings and provide these to the supplier? If not (and the last outgoing occupants didn't supply a reading either) they would have estimated the start reading .... which means you could be paying for the previous occupants consumption.

5. Easy way to calculate your bill is to begin with the start reading and calculate total consumption since you've been in property. Deduct what you have already paid and the balance is what you actually owe. Presumably you have paid by DD, SO, Cheque etc so it'll be easy to identify any missing payments and in case of dispute, your bank will be able to run a trace on those payments and the supplier should accept this as proof of payment. The funds will probably be in the suppliers suspense account if you have paid them correctly.

6. Keep a better eye on the meter (and so the consumption charge) in future so that you get no more nasty surprises.

laurastudent

Ahh see i didnt know that bit about them only reading one meter.

We did get a bill in November and that was around £200-240 which we paid. however we hadn't had the heating on AT ALL before November.

The landlady had given them meter readings before we moved in so we didnt need to do that.

We have been controlling it though, the only one who doesn't really pay much attention is the boy but having to live with three females who go mental if he leaves things on he's soon knocking them off lol

It's not really the electricity thats a problem it's the fact the majority of this bill is for gas. We haven't had it on high, even the guy who checked our boiler said we had it on very low, and it's only got put on in november.

Thank you for your advice though, the heating has been knocked off the minute we got the bill. I'm sat here with 5 layers on to keep warm lol.

duggo1

If you didn't read the meter yourselves you have no idea if the landlady was honest and provided an accurate reading, so there's not much you can do now except pay up.

kjsmith7

I used to live in a 4 bed house and believe me most of my student friends and I had high bills - the property is larger than a lot peoples family homes and the boilers, whilst serviced as a legal requirement, as not always top-of-the-range or the best they could be. Plus, even if you aren't upping the heating, whenever you're away others may be. Also, if the heating was left on, even on a timer, for a few hours a day when (if?) you all went home from Christmas, then this could have also pushed the bill up to the bad weather.

Best thing to do from here on in is to check the meter whenever you get a statement.

mattcanary

For your information, when I was a meter-reader last year covering most of Norfolk, we did read both gas and electric for some suppliers (Eon, Scottish & Southern, BGas) but only the electric for some others (NPower, EDF). This is because the company I read meters for (MeterU) only had the contract to read the electric meters for NPOwer and EDF. They don't have the contract to read the electric now either, but that's another story. Extremely daft but true - thanks t6o the privatisation of the industry

Premier_2

mattcanary wrote: »

...thanks t6o the privatisation of the industry

As far as I remember, before privatisation we always had a different meter reader for gas and electricity. They used their own meter readers from their own respective boards.

spiro

Premier wrote: »

3. £1000+ for 6 months is quite expensive, but easily achievable with 4 students who are not in control of their consumption.

Plus the coldest winter in 30 years.

charis18uk

One thing I would always advise all students is wherever possible if your living in shared accommodation make sure your not the poor fool who puts their name on the bills. Fair enough if everyone's name goes on but don't be the only name on the bill.

If you are the sole named person then you are solely liable. If all the names are on your all equally liable. If three people do a bunk and can't be found the fourth foots the whole bill.

Student house days, glad they are past me, I was always the one going round hassling for others share of the bills.