All utilities in 1 place?

Letting_Agent

I am a landlord and letting agent and manage approx 400 properties and was wondering if anyone knows of a Gas & Electric supplier that would take over the supply of them all (not all at once of course) to make it easier to sort out problems when tenants dont inform them etc ... and also to make a bit of revenue for myself?

I have tried to get some info from Utility Warehouse on numerous occasions but never get any calls back.

Thanks in advance.

Regards

Gary

Joyful

British Gas have a multi tenancy team that deal with Landlords who have multiple properties.

DVardysShadow

I suggest you post on the Housing Forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16 where there is a lot of expertise on rental property.

Terrylw1

Yes, they've all done it prior to privatisation anyway.

The old process was called "bulk billing" whereby you get an account manager/central billing team away from the rest of the billing areas. They send out all the bills with an invoice on top. You pay one payment and they split it for you over each account.

In terms of business, lots of businesses operate this way e.g. BT who have tons of sites which the suppliers gain a contract for to switch them all over.

Your problem is your tenancies. If you allow your tenants to pay for the utilities, you can't stop them switching.

If you want kickbacks like letting agents do, they are based on individual landlords being grabbed. You can agree a bulk contract to obtain something.

Its a question of revenue though, how much would you generate in utility costs, which the supplier care about.

If your tenancies allow switching, the supplier will be less interested as they can't lock you in.

PasturesNew

Letting_Agent wrote: »

... to make it easier to sort out problems when tenants dont inform them etc ...

If I ignore all the rest of your post .... just this bit could be a simple piece of information on the booking in form/inventory and booking out form/inventory.

Current supplier: _______________
Meter reading: _________________

DVardysShadow

Terrylw1 wrote: »

If your tenancies allow switching, the supplier will be less interested as they can't lock you in.

Even if tenancies have clauses forbidding switching, they are unenforceable.

Terrylw1

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Even if tenancies have clauses forbidding switching, they are unenforceable.

Yeah, I meant where the landlord accepts responsibility for utilities and bills the tenants separately.

dacouch

http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications/2012/5/Telecom-Plus-plc/SHP_ADJ_186418.aspx