Stuck with expensive bills!!!

chiyoko87

I have recently separated from my partner and moved into a rented home with my 1yo twins. In the property there is a gas card meter and a water meter the landlord wasn't aware the previous tenant had fitted. I've spoken to gas board and meter will.be £160 deposit to change but water board will not remove the meter. The bills are a fortune. The boiler is old so you have to run the water for ages before it heats so it costs money on the water. My children are too young to shower so baths ate expensive too. Is there nothing I can do? I've got water savers but old.taps etc so doesn't work. Please help me if you ca

McKneff

what amount are the bills from the water board, do you pay the water board direct or the landlord.

Has the boiler had a service recently



Use the running cold water by collecting it and then using it in kettles, pans for cooking or even coooling the bathwater after you have got the hot water in. Watering the garden, washing the car.

Savemecash

Hello, if you had good credit at your last house, you might want to swap back to your old energy provider and then ask them to change the meters.

I have a rental property with meters in and first of all EDF said the tenant had to pay £500 to change to standard gas and electric meters (which is prohibitive) and now this year they have agreed to swap them free of charge. So, it depends who you get on the phone.

You might want to approach your landlord for a new boiler. When I fitted new boilers in my rental properties the tax man gave me (up to) a £1500 tax break on my rental income. Your landlord may be eligible for this if they put an energy efficient boiler for you.

Sadly, the other alternative is to move to a new home.

Good luck!

macman

You can't revert to RV water billing if you move into a property where a meter is already installed. Have you checked the meter against the bills to make sure that your DD is set at a realistic level for what you are actually using? You don't actually say what you are paying, or using. 'A fortune' doesn't tell us much.
A PPM will be costing you the same as the supplier's standard tariff., so up to 6% more than an online discount tariff-not dramatically higher. Try another supplier to see if you can get a lower deposit, or none. However, some suppliers will still charge you around £50 for a meter change. You may need your LL's approval to switch to a credit meter though.

Wywth

Savemecash wrote: »

...I have a rental property with meters in and first of all EDF said the tenant had to pay £500 to change to standard gas and electric meters (which is prohibitive) and now this year they have agreed to swap them free of charge. So, it depends who you get on the phone...

You are correct that EDF does not charge for a change of meter, although will require at least 28 days before a customer can ask for a change, which will then take another couple of weeks.

This has been their policy for as long as I can remember. They, nor no other supplier, charges £500, so your tenant was having you on. (perhaps they added an extra '0' by error?)

Full details on what most of the suppliers charge are available here:

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/news/how-to-switch-from-a-prepayment-energy-meter/0014939/

System

Don't water metres accurately charge you for the amount of water you use? You're basically asking the water company to remove the metre as you want to pay less for the actual amount of water you are using. That is why they have said no.

It's different with gas as there are different tariffs so you pay more if you are on one of them

macman

That isn't why they've said no! The water utility is require to follow the regs, which say that a meter cannot be removed once installed and the tenancy/ownership changes.
The water co. makes exactly the same income whether you are metered or on RV billing.

System

macman wrote: »

That isn't why they've said no! The water utility is require to follow the regs, which say that a meter cannot be removed once installed and the tenancy/ownership changes.
The water co. makes exactly the same income whether you are metered or on RV billing.

Surely that can't be true? If you are on a metre which makes your bills cheaper than being on standard rates how can the water company make exactly the same income?

macman

Yes, it is true. The revenue that each water co. can raise annually is regulated. So if more people install meters and income drops, they raise other charges to compensate.
PS: it's a meter, and it does not always make your bills cheaper.