Showers

dogshome

Curioser and curioser - There is a Gas meter in the flat, but the landlord still insists that gas is paid for by a levy across all tenants.

Is this gas meter in the flat in fact a sub-meter from the main meter for the building, to measure each individual tenants Gas use so that they can be individually billed on the reading from the meter in their flat - Is it still recording the Gas useage for the flat ?

Wit Elec & Gas, a private supplier such as a Landlord or Management Co. are not allowed to add profit to Gas/Elec they re-sell - They can add a margin for administering the bill, but this has to be reasonable

teajug

dogshome wrote: »

Curioser and curioser - There is a Gas meter in the flat, but the landlord still insists that gas is paid for by a levy across all tenants.

Is this gas meter in the flat in fact a sub-meter from the main meter for the building, to measure each individual tenants Gas use so that they can be individually billed on the reading from the meter in their flat - Is it still recording the Gas useage for the flat ?

Wit Elec & Gas, a private supplier such as a Landlord or Management Co. are not allowed to add profit to Gas/Elec they re-sell - They can add a margin for administering the bill, but this has to be reasonable

No the gas meters has never been read not even by the annual gas people that does the annual gas safety checks.

Fire_Fox

teajug wrote: »

Just checked his charges and it appears that he pays £45 a month for engery and his pays his electricity separately to the energy company. He does not know what to do about this as he always thought that the shower would come under within remit of his service charges. Can he insist that the landlord to either connect the shower to the gas combinations boiler or put back his shower.

£45 for gas alone? How is this billed/ calculated, have you seen the invoices? I don't see how the combi boiler can be used to work this out without reading the submeter. Either there is some scam going on here or your friend has misunderstood. What does it say in the tenancy agreement about what is included in the service charge?

Can't insist on how the hot water is supplied no, can insist that the charges are reasonable and the landlord is not profiteering from reselling energy. Easy way to have cheap showers is to switch the water on for wetting and rinsing and off whilst soaping up.

teajug

This was brought up with the landlord account department last year and their repay was that individual meters inside the flats are check meters, but these are to check meters. It also said in writing the landlord owns the meters and are there to check when required to see that appliance can be set up correctly. The landlord also said that the gas pipework does not conform to what is required for metering by private suppliers also it the landlord policy not change it at this time.

Tenants are obliged to have their own electricity supplier and pay their own bills. It would have been much more economy for him to have the gas and electricity with the same supplier. Therefore the issue of the electricity was brought up with the landlord at the same time as the gas meters. Also there was a concern about the metering cupboard been left open by cleaners in the common lobby area of the block of flats where the main electricity supply intake cupboard is situation and this was happening quite often by the cleaners?

The landlord accounts wrote back saying that the caretaker manger advised that there was no intake cupboard it lobby area of the block, however, I have seen the intake cupboard and it has got big letters saying ‘Electricity keep out’, which goes to show how much these manager knows about the block of flats that they are paid handsomely to look after.

dogshome

That the Gas meter in the flat has never been safety checked or read, is just for the moment not a consideration - What does matter is wether or not it's recording
the amount of gas used in the flat - A couple of readings 24 hours apart will quickly establish this.

If it is recording, it is the ideal tool to measure the correct/incorrect value of the £45 monthly charge.
Are these flats simply rented from the Landlord, or are they owner occupied with an appointed Management Company to maintain the building ?

teajug

I am told that nearly all the flats are rented, but I understand that there a 4 are sublet to tenants.

what I cannot understand why the landlord has gas meters in flats that tenants cannot use to get their own gas supplier. Would it because the gas pipes between the external meter (we have checked and cannot see any external meter out side the block) dose not confirm to what i required or metering by private suppliers.

I am perplexed by that statement, how it the gas getting to their tenants flats, are they saying that the pipework that is taking the gas supply to tenants flats is not safe.

dogshome

With all the flats haveing Gas meters which are supplied by one Main meter for the building, it seems that when the building was constructed the developers were putting in a Gas system whereby the landlord could charge each tenant for their exact use by reading the sub-meters in each flat.

This type of construction does not come cheap - The gas distributor for the area puts in the main meter free of charge, but all those sub-meters are paid for by the landlord.

For reasons not yet known, the Management Co.appear to have abandoned the 'fair' method of chargeing for Gas by reading the sub-meters, and opted for a monthly levy, which may or not be based on the size of each flat.

Obvoiusly, having someone visit each flat to take a meter reading each Qtr has a cost, so maybe the Management Co are simply trying to cut the overhead, BUT landlords are not allowed to profit on re-selling gas, but with a fixed monthly levy it's nigh impossible to judge wether they are.

As previously posted - Check to see if that sub-meter is working - If it is keep weekly records of it's numbers for 13 weeks and compare them to the cost of the £45 month levy x three
If you post the numbers here someone will give you an appx. cost of what has been used.

Also take a look at the lease document - It's possible the L'lords have changed the system to something they are not allowed to do

spiro

Under rental rules LLs have a number of ways to calculate the energy charges for each flat. I dont know these in detail but if each flat has its own meter then the LL should be using that so charges are farily split.