Extortionate Gas bills?

JosieH_2

Hi

I live in a brand new 2 bedroomed house. There are two occupants in the house, myself and my boyfriend. The insulation is very good- to the point where when we got home from work we had to open the balcony door most days until end of october.

As part of our rent we are made to pay a flat rate fee of £40 a month. I think this is extortionate for the size and quality of the flat, but the company who we rent the flat from refuse to let us pay our own gas bill (although we had to organise the electricity by ourselves).

Would anyone else say this is a particularly large amount? I have just graduated university and started a graduate job so i'm not entirely sure if this figure is right, but it sounds very expensive. it would mean that our gas bill per annum is £480.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Battleaxe44

I have just averaged my gas bill for the last 12 months, two of us in two bedroom semi detached, it comes out at exactly £480.00. I am home most of the time and during the winter I had the central heating on 24/7, I also have a gas cooker and do a lot of cooking

macman

House or flat?
What do use gas for CH, hot water, cooker? For gas CH, £40 is very reasonable.
But assuming you have access to the meter, can you not check your own usage and see whether that represents £40 a month?
Flat rate arrangement for gas seems very strange indeed-what happens if you run up a massive gas bill in excess of that?
Do you have your own independent CH bolier, or is it supplied centrally along with other flats?

JosieH_2

We have gas central heating and that is it. Everything else is electric. Our meter read that we had used 292 units since august. I don’t know if this is a normal amount. Myself and my boyfriend are both trainee accounts and work long hours and were also away on business a lot over the winter so our gas usage was small, we didn’t have the heating on in the morning only the evenings.

If we under use gas we get no money back but if we over-use we have to pay extra.

Our gas supplier is corona, which is a gas company for commercial businesses, but previously it was British Gas. Every time I have tried to raise this issue with the letting company, I either get a non-commital or angry response.

Cardew

It is certainly not extortionate, not even high. However that isn't the point.

Landlords/letting agents are not allowed to make a profit from selling energy.

The normal reason is the letting agents get a 'kickback' for putting you with a company. Most reports seem to involve Southern Electricity or Utility Warehouse(they are usually agents for this firm) However they would normally do the same with Electricity.

I assume you do have a gas meter in the house? If so I would demand to see the gas account.
Whilst the letting agreement might stipulate that you must use company x for gas(and that itself would be unusual) I am pretty sure they cannot charge you a flat rate without giving you a breakdown of your charges.

macman

JosieH wrote: »

We have gas central heating and that is it. Everything else is electric. Our meter read that we had used 292 units since august. I don’t know if this is a normal amount. Myself and my boyfriend are both trainee accounts and work long hours and were also away on business a lot over the winter so our gas usage was small, we didn’t have the heating on in the morning only the evenings.

If we under use gas we get no money back but if we over-use we have to pay extra.

Our gas supplier is corona, which is a gas company for commercial businesses, but previously it was British Gas. Every time I have tried to raise this issue with the letting company, I either get a non-commital or angry response.

So effectively you have to pay a minimum charge of £40 a month, even if your usage is little or zero (as it may be over the summer months). That's absurd!

Cardew

292 units is approx 3270kWh(in a new house you will have a metric meter). That is tiny consumption.

With the cheapest firm(Ebico) that would cost you £120.

Premier_2

It depends on the actual set up.

There's a rule that says a LL cannot make money from reselling energy
If your property has a unique meter then you should only be required to pay for what you use (although that does not mean you can choose the supplier or tariff). What's more it does seem strange if this is a main supply meter (i.e. not a LL's sub-meter) why the LL doesn't want you to be fully responsible for any usage as per the electricity.(which would allow you to change supplier/tariff)

However, if the property does not have a unique meter then it sounds like you have a communal supply. Either that is a separate part to the maintenance charge and the total is billed equally (or pro rate in some defined way) to each flat or is included in the maintenance charge (and will only be shown in the maintenace company's accounts)

Either way, it would seem odd to pass this onto a tenant and should simply be included within the tenant's rental charge.