Am I legally allowed to phone British Gas and switch from meter to normal bills?

Carrot007

As people have mentioned the difference of the PPM is going to be nearly negligable so you need to look elsewhere for the solution, and in a student flat you may find yourself paying the entire bill if you get a credit meter, just because no one else will.

Things to consider.

1. Again as people mentioned how are things heated? Eg, Heating, Water (shower,bath,taps), Cooking. If it's all electric it does not sound too bad.

2. You (the people in the house) should be the only one contacting the supplier. it is possible the previous tennants left a debt and the landlard has been getting you to pay it off to avoid hastle of sorting it out. The keys should be issued to you and are nothing to do with him. It sounds very dodgy. (although It may not be, he might just be very controlling).

Norman_Castle

We're running a few light bulbs, a fridge/freezer, a couple of stereos, we charge our phones, laptops etc.

Bath, shower, hot water, cooking?.

Wywth

Pat_Butcher wrote: »

I am one of three students living in a small ex council flat in east london. Ever since we moved in we have had to top up a meter to get electricity, and over the four months we have lived here the bills have been phenomenal.. We're running a few light bulbs, a fridge/freezer, a couple of stereos, we charge our phones, laptops etc.

We have had to top this meter up every couple of days, ten pounds each time and its costing a hell of a lot of money when added up. I have several other friends in different flatshares that all seem to pay a total of 20 pounds per month between all of them. It's got to the stage where none of us can afford our bills, so I phoned up British Gas and asked what was going on.

I was expecting them to tell me that our landlord has been taking a cut of what we're paying or that we've been paying off someone else's debt, but apparently neither of those were the case.

They told me that in December alone we used £99 worth of electricity, and £133 in november! This is an obscene amount, as we don't even heat this flat as none of us can afford to with these rates.. Also, one of us is rarely here as he often stays at his girlfriend's flat.

The guy on the phone said that I needed to give them my details so that they know who is currently living in the flat, so now it is technically in my name.

I have been wondering what would happen if I call them again and ask them to take us off this meter and let us pay cheaper monthly bills like normal households? Is my landlord likely to kick up a fuss and could he evict us/ get me into trouble? He has been very controlling over it so far, and has instructed us to use two new top up keys that he has given us over the time we have lived here (Its this that made me suspect he was making money out of us somehow)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I can confirm that it would not be illegal for you to call British Gas in such a situation

I would also advise you that BG are under no obligation to provide you any form of credit.

This link may provide additional help:
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/news/how-to-switch-from-a-prepayment-energy-meter/0014939/

If you do plan to change the meter, I suggest you give the LL (or agent) a call too, just so they are aware; that wouldn't be illegal either

macman

As I understand it, the LL has got the account in his name and then given you the meter keys? That is not how it is supposed to work-you are supposed to register for an account when you move in and you will be sent a new key. The utility accounts are not his responsibility when the property is occupied, be they PPM's or credit meters.
I am wondering if there is old debt on the meter for which you are now paying? Scroll through the meter screens and all will be revealed.

Pat_Butcher

Ok, firstly thanks for all the replies, I can confirm that recently we have been switching off the shower when its not being used and that has saved a bit, but it hasn't made a vast difference.

The fact remains, that this isn't a reasonable amount to pay for what we're using- I have several friends in different flatshares that leave lights on etc, and they're running all the same things as we are and their bills consistently fall around the 20 pounds a month mark. Might I remind everyone that we can't even afford the heating here! We literally freeze ourselves every day to avoid racking up costs.

My parent's bills didn't even come to this much when me and my sister (both now moved out) lived at home, and we were obviously less considerate about turning stuff off when not being used, as we were not paying for it, the parents were..

I'm thinking of switching providers to EDF, because according to my flatmate, we were originally with them when we moved in before my landlord changed the electricity meter key. The bills were a lot less back then. My parents are also with EDF

So can anyone possibly shed light to why, if meters are not more expensive than bills, we are paying so much more than people in other flatshares that we have spoken to? Once again, they are all students and run exactly the same stuff as us, some of them have more people living there as well.

Our landlord is a snake I might add- he never answers his phone when we ask him to do us the courtesy of fixing broken appliances. The only way I managed to get him to respond was the mention of having a word with the National Landlord Association about him, to which he claimed I was "blackmailing" him. Its going to be extremely difficult negotiating this with him.

What are your suggestions- Should I just go ahead and switch providers? and now the British Gas one account is in my name how do I get it out of my name? I don't want to be responsible for it, I just got talked into giving my details.

victor2

You could just go ahead and change providers, but first find out how much you are actually paying per kWh. Changing might not make the difference you think.
Talk to BG about it being shared accommodation and getting all the tenants listed. They already have your name so little to lose there - or get one of the other tenants to call them and see if they'll talk to him.
You should find out how much electricity you are actually using though. Switching the shower off when not in use really won't have made any noticeable difference. With a bit of investigative work involving taking meter readings at different times should give you an idea what you are using and when.

fozziebeartoo

Pat_Butcher wrote: »

Ok, firstly thanks for all the replies, I can confirm that recently we have been switching off the shower when its not being used and that has saved a bit, but it hasn't made a vast difference.

The fact remains, that this isn't a reasonable amount to pay for what we're using- I have several friends in different flatshares that leave lights on etc, and they're running all the same things as we are and their bills consistently fall around the 20 pounds a month mark. Might I remind everyone that we can't even afford the heating here! We literally freeze ourselves every day to avoid racking up costs.

My parent's bills didn't even come to this much when me and my sister (both now moved out) lived at home, and we were obviously less considerate about turning stuff off when not being used, as we were not paying for it, the parents were..

I'm thinking of switching providers to EDF, because according to my flatmate, we were originally with them when we moved in before my landlord changed the electricity meter key. The bills were a lot less back then. My parents are also with EDF

So can anyone possibly shed light to why, if meters are not more expensive than bills, we are paying so much more than people in other flatshares that we have spoken to? Once again, they are all students and run exactly the same stuff as us, some of them have more people living there as well.

Our landlord is a snake I might add- he never answers his phone when we ask him to do us the courtesy of fixing broken appliances. The only way I managed to get him to respond was the mention of having a word with the National Landlord Association about him, to which he claimed I was "blackmailing" him. Its going to be extremely difficult negotiating this with him.

What are your suggestions- Should I just go ahead and switch providers? and now the British Gas one account is in my name how do I get it out of my name? I don't want to be responsible for it, I just got talked into giving my details.

£20 sounds incredibly low to me.....I'd be inclined to think YOU are paying a more accurate amount.....painful though it is

Are your friends paying by DD/SO?

If so, maybe they will have a large outstanding amount when they get their bill????

If they are pre-paying, and really only using £20 a month, I think we all need to be taking energy-saving lessons from them!

macman

I assume that you didn't mean that you used to leave the shower running when it wasn't being used?!
You cannot begin to address the issue of your bills until you actually know what you are using-which means cyclng through your meter registers and monitoring the actual kWh usage. Forget about what you are spending in £££'s, what matters to address this issue is your kWh consumption. I asked if you have checked if there is debt on the meter from a previous account, you haven't responded. I'm dubious about a key that your LL has provided.
It's not possible to compare cost with different properties, with different people, running different 'stuff'. All the clues you need are on the meter.

Pat_Butcher

Hey macman, sorry I forgot to reply to that question- I asked British Gas on the phone if we were paying debt on previous tenants behalf and was told that this wasn't the case.

And no, we didn't leave the shower running, just switched on at the wall, which we no longer do.

I'm still puzzled as to how we are paying a normal amount, remember I've spoken to a lot of different people and they all pay about a quarter of what we do. Even my parents bill was less with two children that left bathroom lights/ extractor fans on etc.

OK, so I looked on the meter and there are two screen displays that interest me, the first is:

"4872.58 kwh" - Can anyone tell me what that means?

Also it says "Charge p/w £0001.19" What charge is that?

SwanJon

Pat_Butcher wrote: »

OK, so I looked on the meter and there are two screen displays that interest me, the first is:

"4872.58 kwh" - Can anyone tell me what that means?

Also it says "Charge p/w £0001.19" What charge is that?

Sorry I've not been back sooner.

The screens on the meter all have a letter (number on the older meters) - these letters will help youwork out what the screen is telling you.

xxxx.xx kWh looks like a reading, but there are a few screens that look like this (e.g. G, H, J).
Charge p/w (Screen F) is the standing charge + any debt recovery. From this I can see that your meter is not recovering any debt.
Your price per kWh will be on screen I, and with this and some readings you can do your own calculations of what your electricity is costing.