Bill of around £1,000 - please help!

happystudent

Hi everyone.

I am a student and went to a 'middle company' as was part of my tennancy for ultilities (gas, electricity and water).

It seemed a good idea at the time. For the 6 bedroom house, we paid about £45 per month each - £270 a month for bills. We were told we would be reimbursed at the end of the tennancy if we did not use all our allowance and this seemed a 'no hassle' good deal!

It seemed expensive for me, but as we would get money back we did it anyways. 5 months into the tennancy I left, and found someone to replace me.

The tennancy ended in June/July 2011.

In January (2012) I recieved a 'overusage bill' for about £90, for my 1/6th of the 5 months I was there (it was calculated pro rata).
I also was not to recieve my £45 deposit back as this also went towards to overusage (so about £135 in total)

To avoid confusion I wont include the deposit money.

So right, so if I take this figure, £90 and divide by 6 this is £15 per person per month extra. (as there are 6 tennants)

£15 x 6 people = £90 for the house per month 'over usage'

x 12 for the tennancy term = £1,080 'over usage'.


However, is this extreme considering what we have paid?

£45 (per month per person) x 6 people = £270 per month for the house utilities.

£270 x 12 months = £3,240 for utilities that we have already paid.

Is it possible to go over by this much? I'm sure we werent sensible with things but we were not extreme.


Okay so I complained, by email, asking to see a calculation of all this (the bill just had the figure and overusage). 7 days later - nothing.

I am pretty peeved. The customer service agent on the phone did no data protection, and were rude... and also I posted on this forum and got a threatening email from MSE investigtor as the company had 'complained' about my post. (I warned everyone off the company as i was slapped with the over usage bill 6 months after the tennancy ended). I deleted the post as I cant be bothered with any hassle and legal stuff and I wont mention the middle company names.


Any advice? I will pay the bill as I dont want late/interest charges which are explained in their T&C's, but how will this look if after 8 weeks I take this to the financial ombudsman?

macman

Do you not have the meter readings to check your billed usage against what you actually used during your tenancy? Without those figures you can't dispute anything. Saying you weren't 'extreme' does not tell us anything.
But you are correct in saying that they need to supply you with the figures to support their excess billing.

happystudent

We have rough meter readings but we cant see on the account the readings from over a year ago.

So for the last part of the tennancy January 2011 to the end of June the electric meter was 43650.2 to 45833

Is that normal or would that explain a large bill?

macman

That's why it's essential to take and record your own readings from day one of the tenancy. So in about 6m you've used 2,183kWh-at 10p per unit that is about £218, plus standing charges and VAT. A yearly usage of around 4,000kWh would be fairly average for a property with gas CH and DHW. For a student property, it's probably quite low.
But where does it say that all your over-usage is for electricity-what about the other 2 utilities?

happystudent

Well the water is 'Consolidated Metered' whatever that means so I dont think we had a meter to check. All it says is this list (NET, VAT AND TOTAL) :

Water management fee - 01/04/2011 - 30/06/2011 - £11.58 - £2.32 - £13.90
Water bill - 10/03/2011 - 30/06/2011 - £283.43 - £0.00 - £283.43
Water management fee - 01/01/2011 - 31/03/2011 - £11.71 - £2.34 - £14.05
Water management fee - 01/10/2010 - 31/12/2010 - £11.71 - £2.05 - £13.76
Water bill - 23/09/2010 - 09/03/2011 - £400.64 - £0.00 - £400.64
Water management fee 01/08/2010 - 30/09/2010 - £7.85 - £1.37 - £9.22
Water management fee - 01/07/2010 - 31/07/2010 - £3.86 - £0.68 - £4.54
Water bill - 01/07/2010 - 22/09/2010 - £183.43 - £0.00 - £183.43

The gas meter was taken at the begining of the tennancy so the end reading of '14980' really means nothing (and the account says we cant see readings from over 1 year ago - and this is 6 months after the tennancy was ended as well) So I dont have acsess to that and didnt think to write it down, as it was saved online.

But for the electric with the readings above I'm looking at the bills given between those dates the end figures are 'net' 'VAT' and 'Total':

Electricity bill 01/06/2011 30/06/2011 £66.16 £3.31 £69.47
Electricity bill 01/05/2011 31/05/2011 £96.25 £4.81 £101.06
Electricity bill 01/04/2011 30/04/2011 £69.63 £3.48 £73.11
Electricity bill 01/03/2011 31/03/2011 £81.32 £4.07 £85.39
Electricity bill 01/02/2011 28/02/2011 £75.81 £3.79 £79.60
Electricity bill 01/01/2011 31/01/2011 £70.18 £3.51 £73.69


Just seems high to use so much per month?

I guess this teaches me that we cant just pass it over to a company and expect things to be okay - I thought we were paying slightly higher rates so they can sort this for us. I didnt think I'd have to double check readings etc - Live and learn! I just don't like poor customer service, and they were very rude on the phone.

macman

Why on earth are you paying a 'management company' to pay your water rates?!
If the electricity billing above corresponds to the usage of 2,183kWh given above, then you would appear to be paying in excess of 20p per kWh-that's about double the standard rate.

happystudent

It was part of our tennancy to use the management company - we didnt think we could go elsewhere because our landlord said we needed to - and we really liked that house. We were told that that evening 5 other sets of students were coming to pay deposits and sign up for the house, so we thought £45 per month was expensive, but we would be reimbursed for what we didnt use. (Only now do we discover that the reason for this is because they probably get comission, and that landlords often say rubbish like that).

We didnt think to dispute it as they really sell it as a good option for sharing bills and as students we didnt really understand prices. Just out of halls where bills are included we thought a 'pay monthly' type thing would help as some may not have been able to afford a high bill quaterly. My complaint has finally been 'assigned' online so I'll be curious to see the unit prices, and their explanation. Wish I could 'name and shame' but I dont want any complaint emails!

Thanks for your help anyway! Shan't be ripped off again!

macman

But you can pay monthly on any utility account taken out 'direct'-you just agree a monthly DD fee. Similarly with water rates-you just pay 10 monthly installments.
Insist on seeing a proper bill with the unit costs broken down.