Paying for electric up front

Mabinogion

Hi
My daughter has her caravan sited locally where she lives and pays yearly from 1st March to the next year which was £998.00 for the year and their electric was paid quarterly by bill sent to her from the sites office.
As the new season is approaching she had the yearly invoice today ready for payment on March 1st and it has risen by £352.00 on the bottom of the invoice it says:


' As you will see the Ground Rent has been increased, the first £150.00 will go towards your electric bill, any surplus electric at the end of the season be refunded'.

Well as you can imagine my daughter was in shock at this as their site fees went up £100 last year.

They have been on this site for years as it is convenient for them and not too far from home ~ there is nothing on this site only a small park for children and walks around the area being in the Gwent valleys just mountain really.

Every quarter her electric bill only comes to about £5 as they don't use the caravan very much so in all over the year it doesn't even come to £20 and that has been every year like that.

So my question is ' is it right that she should have to pay £150 up front when she only ever uses £20 worth of electric for the whole year? or anyone else who doesn't use much electricity for that matter'

It seems greedy to me as they want your money in their bank gaining interest instead of yours.

This caravan park started off with nothing years ago and now has got bigger and 'greedier'. There are a few pensioners who are sited by my daughter and she says they cannot afford that sort of increase so will move from there which seems a pity as they enjoy their little garden etc.
Just wondering should you have to pay for something you haven't had.
Would like to hear your views please.
Thanks

pappa_golf

the electricity will be resold by the caravan park ,(who reads the meter?) there is a max figure they can charge for this (check up) , however you keep saying £5 and £20 , how can this possibly cover standing charges


a basic elec supply charge:
British Gas’s fixed standing charge is 26p a day for electricity so that is £94.49 per yr

Mabinogion

Hi
There are no standing charges as they pay more for their unit prices you only pay for the units you use so if you only use about 40 units I think she pay about 14p per unit so that would be £5.60 and that is every quarter, the warden on the site reads the meters as they are on boxes by the caravans.
Thanks

unholyangel

pappa_golf wrote: »

the electricity will be resold by the caravan park ,(who reads the meter?) there is a max figure they can charge for this (check up) , however you keep saying £5 and £20 , how can this possibly cover standing charges


a basic elec supply charge:
British Gas’s fixed standing charge is 26p a day for electricity so that is £94.49 per yr

Further to what OP says about her own situation, a standing charge isn't applied by all suppliers.

Nessun_Dorma

Mabinogion wrote: »

Hi
There are no standing charges as they pay more for their unit prices you only pay for the units you use so if you only use about 40 units I think she pay about 14p per unit so that would be £5.60 and that is every quarter, the warden on the site reads the meters as they are on boxes by the caravans.
Thanks

If she rarely uses the caravan, it might be an idea to sell it and save the money. Either that or rent it out in the summer.

Mabinogion

She won't sell the caravan as they do enjoy using it in the summer and you are not able to rent it out on this particular site the owners won't allow that so she will probably try and pay the extra as they put money aside every month to cover the site fees but at just a months notice saying it has risen by £200 and on top of that a another £150 for electric they won't use it's a lot to find in s short time. I just feel the site owners are in the wrong and shouldn't exploit their customers like they are it's just being greedy.
Thanks

wealdroam

Mabinogion wrote: »

As the new season is approaching she had the yearly invoice today ready for payment on March 1st and it has risen by £352.00 on the bottom of the invoice it says:


' As you will see the Ground Rent has been increased, the first £150.00 will go towards your electric bill, any surplus electric at the end of the season be refunded'.

Does that bold bit mean that at the end of the year, if you haven't used £150 worth of electricity, you will be refunded an amount equal to the electricity not used?

If so, yes it is annoying, but probably acceptable.

With interest rates being so low, your sentence about interest really isn't worth considering.

unholyangel

Providing you sister is able to cancel without being affected by the changes and that they're not trying to make changes to periods that your sister is already tied into, there's not a lot of options except accept their offer or cancel and go elsewhere.

But if you're saying they're getting greedier and greedier, surely it would be wise to look for another site as that will be much cheaper. Even visit sites and speak to owners about what the site management/owners are like, what their contracts are like etc. Especially if this happens regularly and is not a one off - else she'll just be in the same predicament next year.

Nothing to stop your sister trying to re-negotiate the terms though.

Nessun_Dorma

It's as easy as one might think, to move a static caravan from one site to another.

lincroft1710

Nessun_Dorma wrote: »

It's as easy as one might think, to move a static caravan from one site to another.

I think you've missed out a very important word!

If so, I wholeheartedly agree with you.

unholyangel

Nessun_Dorma wrote: »

It's as easy as one might think, to move a static caravan from one site to another.

I believe that is the first time static has been mentioned in this thread And given that OP explains why they chose that site, I'm erring on the side of it being a touring caravan.

But I suppose it would all depend whether they are hiking their prices above what competitors charge or whether they have perhaps hiked their prices because they underestimated the cost of complying with various regulations/duties and even with the hikes, they're still cheaper than others.