Communal supply - residential or business?

nwhitfield

I live in a victorian house, converted to five flats. We own our own freehold, and set up a company to purchase it years back. The communal supply for the hallway is billed to the company.

We've just had a notification from EDF that the price is being put up, with the fixed charge rising from 24p per day to 35, a 45% increase.

Having just done the accounts for the last year, I can see that we spent £97.96, and the daily charge will have accounted for £91.98 of that, at the present rate; so we're using under 50kWh every year. With the increase we'll see the the fixed charge alone come to around £135.

This, it appears, is because the communal supply is classed as non domestic (03 code on the meter)

I have spoken to two suppliers (Ebico and First Utility) who say they would be able to take on the supply, if the meter is reclassified, and in particular Ebico's no fixed fee would mean we save a huge amount - we'd be paying under £7 a year (there are two internal lights on a push button, plus the PIR porch light, and the entry phone).

In effect, if we stay with EDF on a business tariff, we're going to be paying about 20 times what we would with Ebico. It's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, but we manage the building ourselves, and it's another 120 towards maintenance.

However, EDF's business customer service people tell me that of course it's not a domestic supply, because "it's not as if people sleep in the hall." They suggested we sign some sort of declaration so we only pay the lower rate VAT, but that's already on the account anyway.

I'm guessing that, back before we bought the freehold, the landlord supply was just one of many billed to David Glass Associates, and no one thought to change it.

What rights do we have? Does this really have to be a business supply contract? I would have thought it's clearly a domestic premises, the company is our own, and we shouldn't have to pay so much over the odds. But EDF just say "No, can't be done"

I can't see a sensible justification, especially for a single building like ours. It's a massive chunk of extra change that the suppliers will be getting from many other people in a similar position to us.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

nwhitfield wrote: »

I live in a victorian house, converted to five flats. We own our own freehold, and set up a company to purchase it years back. The communal supply for the hallway is billed to the company.

We've just had a notification from EDF that the price is being put up, with the fixed charge rising from 24p per day to 35, a 45% increase.

Having just done the accounts for the last year, I can see that we spent £97.96, and the daily charge will have accounted for £91.98 of that, at the present rate; so we're using under 50kWh every year. With the increase we'll see the the fixed charge alone come to around £135.

This, it appears, is because the communal supply is classed as non domestic (03 code on the meter)

I have spoken to two suppliers (Ebico and First Utility) who say they would be able to take on the supply, if the meter is reclassified, and in particular Ebico's no fixed fee would mean we save a huge amount - we'd be paying under £7 a year (there are two internal lights on a push button, plus the PIR porch light, and the entry phone).

In effect, if we stay with EDF on a business tariff, we're going to be paying about 20 times what we would with Ebico. It's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, but we manage the building ourselves, and it's another 120 towards maintenance.

However, EDF's business customer service people tell me that of course it's not a domestic supply, because "it's not as if people sleep in the hall." They suggested we sign some sort of declaration so we only pay the lower rate VAT, but that's already on the account anyway.

I'm guessing that, back before we bought the freehold, the landlord supply was just one of many billed to David Glass Associates, and no one thought to change it.

What rights do we have? Does this really have to be a business supply contract? I would have thought it's clearly a domestic premises, the company is our own, and we shouldn't have to pay so much over the odds. But EDF just say "No, can't be done"

I can't see a sensible justification, especially for a single building like ours. It's a massive chunk of extra change that the suppliers will be getting from many other people in a similar position to us.

edf are talking !!!! in an attempt to keep your custom.

As long as there isn't a complex metering setup and all the bills are up to date, you can do as you like.

Ryune

Landlords supplies can be classified as either 01 (domestic) or 03 (business). Its not uncommon for them to be 03 as the majority in the country are managed by housing associations and the like (and so billed to a business).

In the end it doesn't really matter whether its 01 or 03. Switch it to Ebico and have them change the profile to 01.

nwhitfield

Thanks; it's a pretty standard setup; nothing complicated - entirely separate meter for the communal supply, and another one for each of the flats. We pay by direct debit quarterly at the moment.

EDF, however, point blank say "no" when I asked them if they can reclassify the supply as domestic. Ebico say that they can't take it over until it is changed.

So, for now, it looks like EDF have us over a barrel, unless I can move to another business supplier who will be willing to then change the profile to 01, so that we can jump again to a domestic one.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

British Gas have (or certainly did until 2010) a team that would deal with internal B2R transfers. It was handled by their residential sales team; the process was no different from switching R2R.