Help!!! £1000 British Gas Electricity Bill!!!

MoneySavingSpender

jinky67 wrote: »

do you charge your tenants for bills? maybe you should usage sounds very high

The rent is inclusive of Council Tax and Utility Bills due to the house share situation and based on previous experience of bill splitting and people moving in at different times tends to equal nightmares.

MoneySavingSpender

ultrapop wrote: »

Have you had a gas meter changed over the last 18 months?

Same thing happened to me as I received a £1500 bill, after making 5 separate phone calls over the past 6 months, at last a clued up representative told me the newer meter runs 2.8 times faster that the older type gas meter, and they have not recorded the update on their system!

By the way, the phone call was made 3 weeks ago and they still haven't sent me the amended bill yet, so I got a payment reminder as a result. I rang them again yesterday and was told it is still being looking into.

Hope this helps!

Would the gas meter be tied into the electricity meter? which is an old rotary thing that spins faster when someone has a hair dryer/microwave/oven/leccy heater on....

eryn_kathleen

I had a similar experience with EDF Energy, and they were happy to spread the higher cost over 12 months. It just means that I can't switch suppliers until I've paid off the arrears.

If you haven't already, you may want to introduce a clause in the tennents' letting agreements that only utility bills which are within reason will be included in their rent. That way if you get another high bill (one that isn't caused by low estimated bills, but by actual usage), they'll have to pay up!

zorber

learn from this as if the electric bill is included in the rent the tenants arent going to be bothered or watch what they use, some one has had an electric fire going or have left the emersion heater on. Get an electric meter fitted to each of the tenants rooms and either monitor useage or get an old coin meter and make them pay for the rooms but share the cooking and washing electric by how you are currently doing it. When they realise just how much they use they may be more careful. (you can put the lighting circuit on the meter too)

Cardew

ultrapop wrote: »

Have you had a gas meter changed over the last 18 months?

Same thing happened to me as I received a £1500 bill, after making 5 separate phone calls over the past 6 months, at last a clued up representative told me the newer meter runs 2.8 times faster that the older type gas meter, and they have not recorded the update on their system!

By the way, the phone call was made 3 weeks ago and they still haven't sent me the amended bill yet, so I got a payment reminder as a result. I rang them again yesterday and was told it is still being looking into.

Hope this helps!

We are talking about an electricity meter and electricity bill in this thread!

Wake up in the back row please;)

Gal

If its a dial meter as it sounds like you might have by your - Rotary spinning faster comment. Has it been read properly recently or in the past. They are often misread by Meter readers and members of the public as well.

For example the first dial is it on 3 or just under 3? the second dial is it on a 8,9,0 or 1.

If the first dial is on a 3 but the second is on a 9 then the first dial becomes a 2 because the second hasn't gone all the way round yet. - That is what confuses people. Maybe someone else could explain it better.

It may be a case of its been misread in the past by meter readers or your both reading it wrong now - 10,000 units is a big jump - Which could be explained by the type of meter you have.