Administration Charges

anni999

Hi, I have received my first gas bills since buying my flat in February. Because it's taken them so long to sort out I have received 3 bills at once. The trouble is there is an administration fee of £32.89 on each bill. This totals £98.67 in one go!! Funny because my gas consumption only totals £70.32 on its own! In future it will be one bill a quarter but that is still £131.56 a year in administration charges.

I was just wondering what major gas companies are charging for their administration fees these days?? Does everyone have fees like mine?

Thanks.

undaunted

Have you entered into a contract agreeing to pay such "administration fees" on each bill?

Unless you have & as you say it's their fault the bills have all come at once not yours I'd challenge them personally. It appears that you have upto £98.67 to gain if they are incorrect, what do you have to lose by trying?

KimYeovil

I have never heard of administration fees being charged to a domestic contract. Major (and minor) gas suppliers charge fees of £0 per quarter. You have to find out what they are as they are not admin fees.

(They can't be independent gas transporter fees as those are less than £50 per year.)

molerat

Are they Standing Charges ?

anni999

They are definitely admin charges...I have emailed them to raise the issue to which they replied:

"The administration fees on the invoices cover the costs incurred by both GVA Grimley and Vital Energi in producing the invoices and heating statements. There is a charge each quarter to cover these costs as the invoices are issued to residents every three months. Unfortunately on this occasion some tenants have received more than one invoice at once due to the delays experienced in the management handover process."

I just don't see how they can justify this cost for 'reading meters'. Unfortunately I cannot change providers as there is one boiler for the whole block of flats and the managing agent charges us. I think there are about 300 flats on the whole site so they are charging nearly £40,000 in admin charges for reading meters which incidently are read remotely so they don't even have to come to our flats!! I also pay over £1000 a year in service charges to the managing agent which I thought might cover administration costs?!?! erghhh!

KimYeovil

Aah, unfortunately you are *ahem*ed. If you buy directly from the supplier you are fine but all these management companies are a law to themselves and can charge whatever they like. To make matters worse you will probably find the unit rates they charge are not particularly cheap either. How many kWhs did you get for the £70.32?

Premier_2

The management company shouldn't be making any profit from the re-sale of the energy.
If necessary, you should ask them to justify how it costs over £30 to produce each invoice / heating statement. :eek:

You may also want to explore your right to manage (along with other residents) if you think you can do so better than the existing company.

Terrylw1

Agree with Premier, this is a con.

Suppliers don't do this, but your management company is scamming you all. Thats ridiculous!

Are you the tenant or owner of this flat? If so and there is nothing in your agreement to state you have to pay them for utilities, you might be able to pay direct and get your Supplier to take them off the bill.

Suppliers sometimesw charge for copy bills if you lose them but it's never that high!

angie2612

dont know whether this is legal.......just got my gas and electricity bill from my caravan site where i have a static caravan and admin charges have been added to each bill....
gas bill was only 9 units...but then standing charge was added and Vat and admin charge of £12 making it a total of £54!!!
same with electricity
thats an admin charge of £24 in total on a 6 month bill.....think theyre having a laugh!!
any responses?
angie2612

spiro

angie2612 wrote: »

dont know whether this is legal.......just got my gas and electricity bill from my caravan site where i have a static caravan and admin charges have been added to each bill....
gas bill was only 9 units...but then standing charge was added and Vat and admin charge of £12 making it a total of £54!!!
same with electricity
thats an admin charge of £24 in total on a 6 month bill.....think theyre having a laugh!!
any responses?
angie2612

As stated above the owner of the site is reselling the energy to you that they have paid for. By law they can not make a profit but they can charge reasonable costs, in you case this could include maintaining the cables and pipes from the main meter to your van.