Comunal heating and hot water in block of flats help please!!!

unsureandconfused

Hi

I'll try and keep this as short as I can. I live in a block of 15 flats rented from the local Council which has comunal hot water and heating. The system is set up that when the outside temperature reaches a certain degree, the heating system cuts out which in turn cuts out the hot water. It is normal to not be able to have a shower before bed. All us residents pay the same amount each week and have just had our new amount in for the year. This amount has more than doubled since last year without more usage, in fact in the last year, the system kept breaking down and the block has been 2 or 3 days with no heating and hot water at a time. At the moment, there has not been enough hot water to wash dinner dishes and we are all having tepid showers. it has been this way for 3 days with no sign of it being looked at.

There are 2 identical blocks of flats opposite me who also have comunal heating and hot water the difference being that theirs is on 24 hrs per day 365 days a year so if they choose to turn their heating on in this warm weather they could. They have also had their new amounts in for the year which works out at less than £1 per week more than I pay!!!

The Council don't want to know despite letters of complaint being sent. This massive price rise cannot be put down to inflation as it would mean over 100% rise.

Does anyone have any ideas what we can do?

thanks a lot

Terrylw1

One thing to consider is how this invoice is produced. Since you have a comparison to a similar block the question seems to be why is there such a difference, is it even linked to purchasing energy from a utility?

Are the other blocks private or council? It could be partly down to the other block being private owned and they have found the best price.

Councils tend to use energy brokers to perform large-scale contract switching so I doubt this is going to be the influencing factor since it would mean a lot of unnecessary costs to tax council and they're being told to cut down.

I wonder whether the council are just hiking prices to gain revenue due to all the cuts they are being told to make.

Domestic premises are covered by Maximum Resale Price (MRP) which states they have to charge only what they are charged.

So ask for the supplier they are using, what tariff and what their rates are. Also ask for a full breakdown of how they have cone to the charges.

It sounds more like somethings the council are doing unless they are on very poor tariffs.

unsureandconfused

Thanks for your reply. There is no actual invoice as such, just a letter from the Council telling each resident of the block how much the heating and hot water charge will be for this year. We are not entitled to see anything else we have been told that. According to the housing officer, the charge is based solely on the meter reading taken from that particular meter and is then split equally between the 15 flats.

All 3 of the blocks are Council owned - if they were private I could more understand the difference in prices.

I was actually wondering too if the Council are just levying this ridiculous charge to bring them in revenue but there again if they did it to my block, surely they would have done it to the other 2 blocks also.

The whole thing makes no sense whatsoever - how can our charge have more than doubled yet the other 2 blocks has risen by just over £1. I told this to the housing officer who said that she had calculated the charge herself based on the meter read and insists it is correct.

I do feel there is a con going on though!!

Terrylw1

Get the meter readings off her.

Meter readings being taken at unequal points in time can cause peoples estimates to go badly wrong.

Dividing by 15 is totally ridiculous and inadequate.

Any landlord knows they should sub meter which then records individual usage. You could be paying for the high usage of your neighbours here.

Councils are well known for being of a superior attitude and they are also often found to be highly inefficient.

If she won't disclose how your bill is created, escalate it upwards. You could also consult the CAB initially for advice.

You really need the readings she has taken for the last 2 years at the annual points.

The fact she won't disclose how she even gets to this figure shows she is an unscrupulous person!!!

DVardysShadow

unsureandconfused wrote: »

I told this to the housing officer who said that she had calculated the charge herself based on the meter read and insists it is correct.

If you want to give this a good run, in writing, put the amount in dispute and ask for all supporting calculations to justify the figure. If they want to take it to court, you can make them provide this info and if it does stack up,you can agree to settle. But you need to have a bit of bottle to do this.

unsureandconfused

Hi and thanks for replies.

I have started the complaints procedure about the charges and added to it that we were all left without hot water for 4 days last week which of course makes the whole matter worse. Its always breaking down but to have this happen right at they more than doubled the charges was just too much!!

I have asked in the official complaint for readings etc and will keep you updated