help with electric

zerno

Ok. I'm hoping someone could help with this.

I live in a one bedroom flat with my partner and one year old daughter. Yesterday the landlord pushed a bill under our door for £481 for 6 months worth of electricity. This was worked out via a meter reading at 0.7p per unit.

Now my first thought is that this is ridiculously high for 6 months...would i be right in that assumption? We have the usual set of appliances and our oven is electric so nothing major running all the time.

Also i was not present when the meter was read, was given no written record of what it stood at when i moved in and have not been given a statement. Simply a typed note from the landlord saying this is what is owed, the price per unit and the units used...

can anyone help?

:S

spiro

This bill means you have used 68714 units (kwh) in 6 months if you have quoted the figures correctly which is VERY high. In terms of the unit price, you say he is charging you 0.7p, as an example with British Gas standard tariff paying by cash/cheque you would be paying about 10p (14 times more) per unit (kwh) or £6871.40 based on the figures you have quoted.

dogshome

Hi zerno - The bill your L/lord has given to you is too simple to make sense. There are several factors that make up a bill apart from the power you have used.
A Daily Standing Charge or X number of units per Quarter at a higher price
Various types of discount for D/Direct payments/Online billing or Early payment by cheque,
which are applied before VAT is calculated
ECO 7 heating has different prices for Day power and Night power

Landlords are not allowed to directly add 'profit' to Elec. bills, and you are entitled to have sight of the actual bill from the supplier.

What does it say in your tenancy agreement about payment for Electricity ?
Are you in the only flat in the building, or is this bill shared over other Flats ?
How do you heat your flat?

zerno

the bulding consists of two floors. the ground floor is an estate agents, the next is a two bedroom flat that has been vacant until this week and then us in our one bedroom place.

in regards to heating we have wall mounted electric heaters and boilers which are electrically heated, usually with only enough hot water in to run one bath.

I haven't yet spoken to the landlord concerning the bill as i wanted to get some other thoughts/opinions.

obviously i'm extremely worried as there is no way i can afford to pay this bill in one hit, we already make it to the end of the month with only a little bit of spare cash!

macman

0.7p per unit makes no sense. How many units have you been billed for? You need to have sight of the bill.
Assuming the meter is accessible to you, take an immediate reading now and then monitor the daily consumption until you can get this resolved.
You really shoud have made your own record of the opening reading when you moved in.
And why is the landlord only billing you after 6 months?
However £80 per month is not that high given that it included heating your flat through the coldest winter for years. That's about £2.60 per day

zerno

unfortunately with hidnsight it would have been a sensible thing to do. but this being the first time i've lived away from home it didnt really enter my mind to do that spent more time worrying about how we were going to move everything in :S

macman

OK, so how many units have you been billed for?
What does your AST say about the responsibility and arrangements for paying utility bills?

zerno

ok. the bill form the landlord says

meter reading @ check in (7/11/09) 64608
meter reading @ 18/5/2010 71464

difference 6856

@ 0.714 per unit £489.51

i can't seem to make sense of the maths :S

macman

Are the readings actual or estimated? Assuming actual, the usage is as your calculation, 6,856 units. At around 10p each that should be around £680. The unit cost you are being charged (based on £489.54) is 7.14p, not 0.714p.
So if your consumption is correct, you are being charged less than the going rate.

spiro

macman wrote: »

Are the readings actual or estimated? Assuming actual, the usage is as your calculation, 6,856 units. At around 10p each that should be around £680. The unit cost you are being charged (based on £489.54) is 7.14p, not 0.714p.
So if your consumption is correct, you are being charged less than the going rate.

Agree about the unit price. Even at £680 that is not too bad for 6 months through the coldest winter in 30 years.

With an all electric flat you should have been putting away about £100 per month in readiness for the bill regardless if you were paying the landlord or an energy supplier.

zerno

unfortunately putting away £100 a month is an incredibly difficult task as being the sole earner in the family i pay for everything. after all our expenses are gone there is very little (if anything) left.

which is one of the reasons i check in here all the time, trying to find ways to cut down :S