standing charge - is this true?

Wywth

fishykippers wrote: »

Hi, I have the same problem but with Gas. I am a tenant with a private landlord and moved into this property in October 2012. There is no gas appliances in the property and has been all electric (from what I can gather) for 5 years. Because there is a gas meter outside I had to give EON the meter reading on moving in. It was the same reading as per the 2 years prior, as the lady at EON confirmed. Everything has been quiet until recently when I got a bill for £18.33. Now, I know that isn't much but I am on benefit and every little counts! I phoned EON and was put through to Collections Dept and explained that I have no gas in my home. She said that it was an estimated bill for gas usage, then changed it to "its a standing charge" when i challenged her. Apparently, she said that from 1st Jan 2013 EON have had to introduce standing fees on gas meters?? I have never received any letters stating this though? Its not even a key meter. Today, I have received a letter from the Utility Debt Services, intending court action. I feel sick and worried. What can I do? Any suggestions please??

Are you sure you did not receive a communication from Eon explaining the new charges? Everyone else affected did.
I would suggest you put in a complaint to Royal Mail and perhaps the police.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-564043/One-postal-worker-day-caught-stealing-mail.html
If they don't know about it, what chance have they of catching them?

The bill will explain the make up of the charge.

If it's onto a DCA, it sounds like this bill has not been paid for quite a long while now.

I suggest you contact Eon and come to an arrangement to pay your debts.

Then find the best deal(s) for you:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity

Wywth

superbigal36 wrote: »

Our business continually gets £0.00 bills from our suppliers where we are on no SC tarriffs and not consuming power.
We still get calls all the time offering to get us a better deal as well

What sort of business is it that doesn't use any power? :huh:

You might still be able to save - some energy suppliers pay fixed discounts (rather than a percentage) for payment by DD, paperless billing, etc. They can end up paying you.

molerat

fishykippers wrote: »

Hi, I have the same problem but with Gas. I am a tenant with a private landlord and moved into this property in October 2012. There is no gas appliances in the property and has been all electric (from what I can gather) for 5 years. Because there is a gas meter outside I had to give EON the meter reading on moving in. It was the same reading as per the 2 years prior, as the lady at EON confirmed. Everything has been quiet until recently when I got a bill for £18.33. Now, I know that isn't much but I am on benefit and every little counts! I phoned EON and was put through to Collections Dept and explained that I have no gas in my home. She said that it was an estimated bill for gas usage, then changed it to "its a standing charge" when i challenged her. Apparently, she said that from 1st Jan 2013 EON have had to introduce standing fees on gas meters?? I have never received any letters stating this though? Its not even a key meter. Today, I have received a letter from the Utility Debt Services, intending court action. I feel sick and worried. What can I do? Any suggestions please??

Speak to your landlord, explain the situation and ask them to either get the meter removed or take responsibility for future bills.

Wywth

molerat wrote: »

Speak to your landlord, explain the situation and ask them to either get the meter removed or take responsibility for future bills.

When a property is let, it usually states the services connected and who is responsible for paying for them.

The tenant could make a request as you suggest, but the LL is not obliged to agree.

fishykippers - do you have a copy of a valid CP12 (Landlord's Gas Safety Certificate) for the property?

lstar337

fishykippers wrote: »

What can I do? Any suggestions please??

Pay the debt first, that will save you getting into a lot of bother.

Then switch to a supplier with no standing charge.

molerat

Wywth wrote: »

When a property is let, it usually states the services connected and who is responsible for paying for them.

The tenant could make a request as you suggest, but the LL is not obliged to agree.

fishykippers - do you have a copy of a valid CP12 (Landlord's Gas Safety Certificate) for the property?

If the T was choosing not to use a service provided by the LL then maybe but having to be responsible for what seems to be the LLs half arsed job (as in cheaper) disconnecting the gas supply is not on.

Wywth

molerat wrote: »

If the T was choosing not to use a service provided by the LL then maybe but having to be responsible for what seems to be the LLs half arsed job (as in cheaper) disconnecting the gas supply is not on.

That's entirely up to the LL - he may want the option of installing gas appliances in the future or even the option of tenants having their own gas appliance.

When I was a student I rented a 5 bed property with some college friends. Well it was actually 2 x 2 bed properties knocked through. It still had 2 sets of meters from the original setup, which were actually next to each other where the wall had been knocked through.

We knew about this from the first viewing, so it was no surprise. What we didn't realise at the time is that meant we got hit with double the standing charges (which were the norm back then)

Well, as you can imagine, we were not best pleased to arrive at our rented property at the beginning of October to face a huge utility bill, when we knew all the power was turned off over the summer. (Our tenacy agreement started in 01 July)

We contacted the supplier and they were surprised to here we had 2 sets of meters and we should talk to the landlord about that. We spoke to the landlord who said we were made aware of the setup before we entered into the TA and he didn't want it altered.

So we went back to the supplier to inform them of our discussions, and they said they had also had some discussions internally and that they would be round to remove one of the meters whether the landlord liked it or not, One property - one meter was their policy.

Not wanting to surprise the landlord, we advised him of the decision of the supplier. He said he would sort it out with them.

He told us he explained to the supplier he wanted the option of reconverting the current single dwelling back to two separate dwellings at the end of the tenancy (or at any later date he may decide upon). The supplier relented.

End result - we kept 2 meters and had to pay the resultant 2 standing charges