Landlord using my supply for communal lighting

Homersimpson

Does the sub meter serve only the communal areas? It may be that the original intention was for the landlord to pay for the energy that the communal service use as it may have been cheaper than having a seperate supplyand meter (and standing charge on the energy bill). If its not like this then this may be the cheapest option open to the landlord as if they want a seperate supply its likely to be expensive plus rewiring the communal circuits back to a seperate distribution board.

Oldernotwiser

Why is the lighting on in the communal areas 24/7?

davidgmmafan

I don't mean to sound rude here but if I had a penny for everytime I heard 'an engineer or a meter reader told me this' I'd never have to work again. Generally speaking they have no clue with regards to billing, hell why would they? Thier job is to do work concerning supplies or reader meters...

Ordinary lighting will use very little electricity at all, you can verify this by speaking to your suppliers energy efficiency tema or using one of the charities like the carbonsavingtrust (or something like that).

With all this confusion over the meters there is another possiblity nobody seems to have considered. Forty pounds is by no means a large amount for electricity these days, it could be that the meters ARE mixed up and your bill should be higher. Your supplier should be able to investigate this, but at the moment the extent of the case is some guy who knows nothing about billing told me it would cost ten pounds per month. Its hardly cut and dried is it?

Fire_Fox

flibblesan wrote: »

There is no 'personal vendetta' of any sort here. I'm very sure that if you found out that for the previous year you have been forking out money for electricity used by somebody else you would be quite cross about it and would want money back at the least?

Anyway I've got an electrician from E.ON coming out tomorrow to check everything for me. Apparently they have no record on their system of the second meter I found.

And as I stated earlier I have written to the agent. I have no direct contact with the landlord, who lives in another city.

You can be very sure about me if you wish, that doesn't make it so! As I stated earlier you need to write to the landlord as that is who you are contracted to. You have the legal right to ask the letting agent (in wrtiing) for an address at which to serve notices on your landlord.

DVardysShadow

flibblesan wrote: »

Have done. The E.ON guy came round and looked at everything. There is no separate supply for the landlord at all and the meter has been registered to the tenants living in my flat for the last 4 years. So the landlord has never been paying anybody for any electricity supply.

The second meter isnt from e.on, it's a sub-meter fitted by somebody else. My tenancy agreement makes no mention of having a sub meter or having to pay the landlord for electricity usage (which I assume is what normally happens when you have a sub-meter).

Anyway the problem needs to be sorted by the landlord. What a lovely mess.

The submeter now makes it easy for you to work out how much the landlord should be paying you. This problem is nearly solved if you negotiate for the landlord to reimburse you.

ali-t

Homersimpson wrote: »

Does the sub meter serve only the communal areas? It may be that the original intention was for the landlord to pay for the energy that the communal service use as it may have been cheaper than having a seperate supplyand meter (and standing charge on the energy bill). If its not like this then this may be the cheapest option open to the landlord as if they want a seperate supply its likely to be expensive plus rewiring the communal circuits back to a seperate distribution board.

This was the case when I arranged for a security entry system to be installed when I lived in a flat. It was going to increase the costs hugely to have a seperate supply and it would cost me less in ongoing costs to have the supply run from my flat than it would to pay my share of having a seperate supply installed.

From memory (it was quite a few years ago) we, the tenants, would have been responsible for paying for the road to be dug up and all of the installation costs in a very old tenement block with thick stone walls which increased the labour costs and additional equipment would have been necessary to undertake the job.

Less hassle and cost for me to take it in my flat.

flibblesan

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Why is the lighting on in the communal areas 24/7?

Initially they were on these push buttons with some sort of timer. One of them broke and the landlord had this replaced with a standard switch. Unfortunately it's been wired in such a way that if it's switched off then non of the remaining push buttons work. as the switch is situated on the first floor it would be dangerous to leave it off as it means people would have to navigate a narrow staircase in the dark.

Myself and the other flat residents have asked this to be fixed for as long as I've been here.

flibblesan

Homersimpson wrote: »

Does the sub meter serve only the communal areas? It may be that the original intention was for the landlord to pay for the energy that the communal service use as it may have been cheaper than having a seperate supplyand meter (and standing charge on the energy bill). If its not like this then this may be the cheapest option open to the landlord as if they want a seperate supply its likely to be expensive plus rewiring the communal circuits back to a seperate distribution board.

No, The sub meter is connected to my property. The supply comes in to the electricity boards meter, then into the sub meter into my property. I can understand this arrangement if the landlord was paying for the electricity then billing me himself for my usage, but this isn't the case. The electricity board meter has been registered to my flat for the last few years.

The sub meter is a really old fashioned type and I haven't got a clue how to work out the usage on it. The electricity board meter is electronic and tells me the charges etc.

Norman_Castle

If the electricity for your flat is supplied entirely through the submeter, surely that is what your bill should be based on.Is it possible that is why the submeter was fitted?.When you moved in who decided which meter is yours?.

Why is the lighting on in the communal areas 24/7?

Because the landlord is not paying for it!

£40 a month is actually very low even for a one bedroom flat.

I pay around £16 per month for a one bed flat.

I remember reading that 20% of the average households electricity bill was for lighting(using the old style bulbs)this is why energy companies are giving away low energy bulbs.They are a very cheap and effective way of reaching global emissions targets

If your four internal communal lights have 15w low energy bulbs.Thats 15wx4=60w.60w x 24 hours=1440 watts.Equal to running a 1400 watt vacuum cleaner for one hour every day.
If anyone who understands electricity consumption better than me believes this is wrong feel free to correct it.

Fire_Fox

Norman_Castle wrote: »

I pay around £16 per month for a one bed flat.

I remember reading that 20% of the average households electricity bill was for lighting(using the old style bulbs)this is why energy companies are giving away low energy bulbs.They are a very cheap and effective way of reaching global emissions targets

If your four internal communal lights have 15w low energy bulbs.Thats 15wx4=60w.60w x 24 hours=1440 watts.Equal to running a 1400 watt vacuum cleaner for one hour every day.
If anyone who understands electricity consumption better than me believes this is wrong feel free to correct it.

Since I posted it transpires this flat has a gas supply: £40 a month is very low for an electric only apartment.