Communal Hallway Electricity

Ramble66

Our communal hallway elect contract is up for renewal. It is a landlords supply with EDF energy and we are charged a ridiculous service charge. We are a converted Victorian house of 3 flats with 3 hallway lights.

I own 50% of the freehold as does the owner of the flat above me. I live in my flat, he rents his out.

As I am a freeholder and live on the premises do I need to have a business electricity account? It seems crazy.

Thanks in advance.

gorillathebino

Ramble66 wrote: »

Our communal hallway elect contract is up for renewal. It is a landlords supply with EDF energy and we are charged a ridiculous service charge. We are a converted Victorian house of 3 flats with 3 hallway lights.

I own 50% of the freehold as does the owner of the flat above me. I live in my flat, he rents his out.

As I am a freeholder and live on the premises do I need to have a business electricity account? It seems crazy.

Thanks in advance.

Think it can entirely depend on what company you go with. Through my previous employment I worked for several landlords/factors and I asked a few of them about the communal electric bill and how it is managed.

In most cases they needed a business account as they were making a profit from the building through their service charge. A couple of people where the landlord lived in the same building as they rent out they managed to get around it somehow and got a standard account and through mutual agreement with neighbours they split the bill equally and no profit would be made.

deshepherd

Years ago I owned one of 4 flats in a building where we (the flat owners - 999 year leasehold) owned the management company that held the freehold. We maintained a central fund that built up money for major items (e.g. external painting) and also to cover the electricity for the communal hall and stairs. Result was we had an electricity account where the electricity usage (about 3 light bulbs on switch that turned them off after a couple of mins) was a fraction of the standing charge. However, one of the flats was owned by someone who worked for SWEB (yes, it was that long ago), who were our supplier and he checked up and proposed to us that he'd get the communal supply rewired into his meter as the increased cost to his bill was still less than the 25% standing charge he had to pay from the exisiting setup. Naturally we all agreed!

idlebloke

Any more info on this?

I am in the same position as the OP. It is only in recent years that these companies have jumped onto this money making opportunity and I am sick and tired of paying this nonsense charge. When I last spoke with EDF about it I was told that some companies will treat it as a normal domestic supply, but I am yet to find one that does.

Wywth

idlebloke wrote: »

Any more info on this?

I am in the same position as the OP. It is only in recent years that these companies have jumped onto this money making opportunity and I am sick and tired of paying this nonsense charge. When I last spoke with EDF about it I was told that some companies will treat it as a normal domestic supply, but I am yet to find one that does.

I don't think any electricity supplier will make much money from a supply that only powers a couple or three communal light bulbs.

Are you using energy saving lightbubs? They only use about 20% or less of the electricity a convential bulb uses.

Are the lights on all night? If so, you would probably be better off on an E7 tariff (if you are not already)

If the electricity is primarily used for residential purposes (albeit communally), then you should only be charged VAT at 5% notwithstanding you may be on a business tariff.

Have you looked at Ebico? They charge the same amount (excl. VAT) whether residential or (small) business?
They will also replace a single rate meter with an E7 one for free if needed to take advantage of their E7 tariff

Andy_WSM

I would switch all the lights to LED lighting (CORN bulbs if that's the cheap way of doing it) and put the supply on one flats domestic supply.

Split the cost of making the change and putting in LED lights between the flats and each flat puts say £5 a year into a kitty for the householder who's supply is used.

Simple, no?

idlebloke

Thanks for the answers.

In theory it should be a whole lot simpler. It's residential and that's it....they shouldn't be making up any of this rubbish and then calling it a business, end of!!

I'll check out Ebico. Thanks for the heads up