What can we do?

MStevens

Hoping someone can help me as I'm worried about my father, who has dementia. They live in affordable housing through a housing assoiation in a flat with carers onsite. I visited yesterday and found he has a really high bill for his heating from the housing association. Apparently they provide all of his heating and hot water from a boiler room for his flat but his bill for two months is almost £300! They were charging him 12p for every unit of gas which is a lot more than i pay at my own house, but then they are also charging him separately for hot water at almost £15 per unit. they apparently read all the meters remotely, and the hot water gets pumped around the whole building.

This seems really high but i dont think we can change the supplier. does anyone have any experience of anything like this??

CashStrapped

Did you mean 15p per unit for hot water?

Do they provide bills with the meter readings on them? Who is the energy supplier?

You need to confirm that the bill produced has used the correct meter readings. Are they smart meters? Can you chage tariff or are the tenants locked into one supplier as it sounds like it may be a communal heating system.

£300 for two months use during winter could easily be normal use. It depends on how your father has used the heating system. Has he set the thermostat too high? What are the insulation levels etc.

I would first take a manual reading of the meter (if you can access it) an ensure this the reading is in line with the bills produced thus far. I would then query why the KWH rates of gas and electric are so high with the housing association. As it may be a business energy contract the housing association may be locked into a deal they signed up to ages ago. Does no harm to ask them.

MStevens

No, the bill genuinely is £15 for each m3 of hot water!!

I do not know who supplies their energy but the housing association send out invoices to my father. When I went there you cannot read the meter as they locked the cases. I spoke to care staff on site and they dont think he has his heating on much and apparently lots of other people dont use it much as the building gets very warm in each flat anyway without it.

Robin9

If you've not already had one you need to meet the Admin Manager for the care home and determine how the bills are made up.

I think it would be unusual if there were individual meters for the residents rooms but that some apportionment is being carried out manually. This may result in a human error.

footyguy

MStevens wrote: »

Hoping someone can help me as I'm worried about my father, who has dementia. They live in affordable housing through a housing assoiation in a flat with carers onsite. I visited yesterday and found he has a really high bill for his heating from the housing association. Apparently they provide all of his heating and hot water from a boiler room for his flat but his bill for two months is almost £300! They were charging him 12p for every unit of gas which is a lot more than i pay at my own house, but then they are also charging him separately for hot water at almost £15 per unit. they apparently read all the meters remotely, and the hot water gets pumped around the whole building.

This seems really high but i dont think we can change the supplier. does anyone have any experience of anything like this??

There's nothing that can be done.

The price of the gas is considerably higher than you are used to paying because you only pay for gas - the figure your father pays also pays for the maintenance of the boiler/heating system (and may even include capital replacement cost of that system eventually)

There was another thread on here recently about the same thing - I'll see if I can find it.

Edit:
Here it is https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5405348

Edit:
Presumably the price of the rent is cheaper than it should be as your father is paying for the heating system and it's maintenace through the cost of the energy; normally the landlord will pay this i.e. it's part of the rent.
What you will find almost impossible to discover though is whether or not the rent is lower than it would otherwise be.

System

MStevens wrote: »

No, the bill genuinely is £15 for each m3 of hot water!!

I do not know who supplies their energy but the housing association send out invoices to my father. When I went there you cannot read the meter as they locked the cases. I spoke to care staff on site and they dont think he has his heating on much and apparently lots of other people dont use it much as the building gets very warm in each flat anyway without it.

Talk to other residents about their costs. Remember that a cubic metre of hot water is 1000 litres which is equivalent to 13 baths, 28 showers and 111 toilet flushes. You cannot make a like for like comparison with your own costs.

This link explains why district heating appears to cost more than heating in the home. Put simply, residents are paying for the costs of the district heating boiler and distiribution network. It is a bit like factoring in the cost of a new domestic boiler every 12 years or so into the unit cost of each supplied kWh.

https://www.betterenergyblog.co.uk/index.php/entry/what-price-heat