Fitting prepayment meters in rented property

michelle_stt

Hi everyone.

Bit of background. My husband works full time and we have three children. We have been having problems catching up with our gas and electric charges. They just don't seem to be going down.

Council tax and rent have NEVER fallen in arrears or been paid late. We have lived here three years this year.

British gas want us to have prepayment meters installed.
Obviously I want to ask the landlord but feel rather ashamed

How would I approach this and is he bound to get less than impressed? I fully understand I would be liable for all replacement costs upon leaving the property.

Thanks in advance.

dinkylink

Don't do it, it'll end up costing you more and will get the alarm bells ringing with your landlord.



Have you looked at the range of free energy saving measures that you can get done such as loft insulation/cavity wall etc? This will also add (a small bit of) value to the property which presumably your landlord would appreciate.

phill99

Remember that if your arrears get to a certain amount, BG can forcibly install a pre payment meter so you wont have any choice.

dinkylink

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/domestic/grants-and-support-England


As a bit of background, I rent out a property and my tenants managed to get better loft insulation installed for free through some scheme a couple of years ago, which obviously I was fine with.


They did however also ask to go on a pre-payment meter and I said no. I would imagine your ;landlord would say no also as once they are installed they are a nightmare to get rid off and would make his property harder to rent out if you moved out.


Incidentally, a few months after I turned them down the old back boiler in the property finally gave up the ghost. I had to replace it with a modern much more efficient boiler which I imagine saves them quite a lot of money each month in fuel bills anyway.


What is the boiler like in the property?

michelle_stt

Thanks for the replies.

The boiler looks brand new.

Would it really cause alarm bells?

Surely everyone struggles at some point we have been model tenants. Never needed repairs or damaged anything and rent is paid on a set date every month via direct debit. All other utilities are upto date and paid for. We just cant seem to get straight with gas and electric.

fairy_lights

Have you shopped around for a cheaper tariff? British Gas don't offer the best value for money.
http://www.uswitch.com/

dinkylink

Well maybe not. I guess it depends on you landlord. For me personally I saw it as not a very good sign.


Regardless, I still don't think its a good idea as if you want to stay warm it will cost you more money. And I presume as you have kids keeping warm will be a priority. Can you actually see yourself reducing the amount of time the heating is on if you get a prepayment meter installed?


I have colleagues/friends who have used prepayment meters before and they were constantly complaining that they literally ate money.


As summer is round the corner is there a chance that you can catch up on payments whilst you don't need to use the heating as much?

dinkylink

I guess to change supplier you would need to pay up any arrears...

ognum

dinkylink wrote: »

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/domestic/grants-and-support-England


They did however also ask to go on a pre-payment meter and I said no. I would imagine your ;landlord would say no also as once they are installed they are a nightmare to get rid off and would make his property harder to rent out if you moved

Not always true, I bought a property which had pre pay meters, I simply called the supplier, arranged a date and got them removed, 5 min call, 1 hour wait, 15mins to change. I then let the property with the normal meters

michelle_stt

You're right. To change supplier we cant owe any debt to them.

We have a direct debit set up for Gas (last payment for £71 was on the 15th) but they have said we aren't able to set it up again for electricity.

Yes keeping warm is definitely a priority, over winter our bill was shocking and we kept it to a minimum. So no, we wouldn't use less because we were on a meter

British Gas are being quite pushy with it though.

dinkylink

Has the property got loft/cavity wall insulation? As I said, these can often be installed free of charge through some scheme or other and whilst they won't make a huge difference they should help a bit.