Is this right?

ANGLICANPAT

An elderly friend has gone into a nursing home for good. The property is to be put on sale in a month or so once its sorted and emptied --it may take a long time to sell , for various reasons --so friend asked me to get gas and leccy disconnected till its sold , so as not to pay out the £3 a week standing charge . SSE tell me this isnt possible , he has to pay ST unless he removes the meters. Is that normal practice these days? Seems very unfair to me.

edit. Even if its true I guess theres nothing to stop him moving to a non ST tariff if we can find one, is there?

matelodave

Try Ebico for an non SC tariff

Bark01

There are moves a foot to answer this.

Ofgem has basically said if someone isn't consuming they shouldn't be charged a Standing Charge. Legally this isn't currently workable apart from deemed tariffs. Its currently being worked on but I imagine we will see something in a few months but its only likely to impact deemed tariffs.

stator

Pay the standing charges. You will put off buyers if everything is disconnected, how will their engineers check the electrics and gas appliances etc?

[Deleted User]

No its not right.. You could be charged £60 for a gas meter removal and another £60 to have it re installed. If you switch to Ebico for zero standing charge , it may take more than 6 weeks to go thro, then any new puchaser would have to mess about switching away from Ebicos fairly high tariffs.

ANGLICANPAT

you have a point stator .. Thanks all, Ill ring Ebico in the morning and see what they have to offer - I suppose Ill need to say a certain amount will be used, otherwise they may not take him on at all. It wouldnt be worth their trouble.

ANGLICANPAT

Thanks sacs, I hadnt thought of that either , Ill check how high Ebico are on zero tariff before deciding the best route.

Hedgehog99

Whoever is doing the clearance may need to use a vacuum cleaner or work after dark, so surely it's worth just leaving on?

JC_Derby

Electric can be de-energized whicih is basically just removing the meter, which current supplier can do. However they may chage for that and reinstalling the meter. That is cheaper than a disconnection which the DNO would have to do and would include digging up the pavement outside the property and permanently disconnecting it.

C_Mababejive

Your best option is to leave those meters in. If that involves paying some sort of standing charge so be it. Anything else will be too stressful and troublesome..in the longer term.