My rented flat was charged business electricity rate

aaron.tran2506

Hi all,

I just moved into my new flat in February, the letting agent probably changed names on bills for me because I didn't do anything and still received council tax and water bill under my name.

However, the one thing I didn't receive under my name was electricity bill. I never received any electricity bill through post and suddenly, last week the agent emailed me saying "Please find the attached bill from the landlord of an outstanding payment for your utilities." The bill is from SSE, covering a period of about 30-45 days and it was £350!!!!

I notice the bill has several abnormalities.
First, the bill was not under my name but it was under a business name "OMNIA STUDENTS LTD" and with a complete different address from ours. Then in page 2 of the bill, the electricity charge was listed as "Invoice for site address: A" (with A being my rented flat address). From researching, I found this Omnia is also another letting agent, but different from the one who I rented the flat from (they are called Hunters).

Second, the electricity unit rate i was charged is business rate, and with 20% VAT. I used 1500 kWh, for that usage, Bulb would have quoted me £172 for that instead of the bloody £350 business rate from SSE the landlord is charging me.

So I have a few questions.
1. Is it legal for the landlord (or agent, whatever) to charge me the business rate for a residential flat?
2. Am I allowed to change supplier to get a cheaper rate?
3. As the bill is not in my name, technically I am not responsible for paying that, am I correct? This will be handy if the landlord (agent) doesn't allow me to change supplier.
4. if i was allowed to change to domestic rate, can SSE backtrack and recalculate my entire usage of 1500 kWh with the domestic rate and update the bill?

Thanks a lot guys

Finchy2018

It's probably a fixable error. I had a tenant change our work office electricity supply into their name one before.

Ask your agent for the metre readings or they will be on your check in report and call the supplier to set up your account.

Biscuit_Tin

aaron.tran2506 wrote: »

Hi all,

I just moved into my new flat in February, the letting agent probably changed names on bills for me because I didn't do anything and still received council tax and water bill under my name.

However, the one thing I didn't receive under my name was electricity bill. I never received any electricity bill through post and suddenly, last week the agent emailed me saying "Please find the attached bill from the landlord of an outstanding payment for your utilities." The bill is from SSE, covering a period of about 30-45 days and it was £350!!!!

I notice the bill has several abnormalities.
First, the bill was not under my name but it was under a business name "OMNIA STUDENTS LTD" and with a complete different address from ours. Then in page 2 of the bill, the electricity charge was listed as "Invoice for site address: A" (with A being my rented flat address). From researching, I found this Omnia is also another letting agent, but different from the one who I rented the flat from (they are called Hunters).

Second, the electricity unit rate i was charged is business rate, and with 20% VAT. I used 1500 kWh, for that usage, Bulb would have quoted me £172 for that instead of the bloody £350 business rate from SSE the landlord is charging me.

So I have a few questions.
1. Is it legal for the landlord (or agent, whatever) to charge me the business rate for a residential flat?

The landlord is permitted to resell as long as no profit is incurred
You cannot dictate to the landlord what supplier or tariff he uses
As the landlord is operating a business, then it is correct that the landlord is billed on a business tariff (although VAT should be applied at the reduced rate of 5% if the main use of the energy supplied is domestic)

aaron.tran2506 wrote: »

2. Am I allowed to change supplier to get a cheaper rate?

No, not if you are not the account holder

aaron.tran2506 wrote: »

3. As the bill is not in my name, technically I am not responsible for paying that, am I correct? This will be handy if the landlord (agent) doesn't allow me to change supplier.

The landlord, as the account holder, will be liable to the supplier for the payment of the supplier's bill
You are probably responsible under the terms of the tenacy agreement you entered into to reimburse the landlord for the cost of that energy

aaron.tran2506 wrote: »

4. if i was allowed to change to domestic rate, can SSE backtrack and recalculate my entire usage of 1500 kWh with the domestic rate and update the bill?

Thanks a lot guys

Not really applicable for the reasons given above.
In the unlikely event you should have set up an energy account in your own name, then as you didn't do so at the time the tenancy started, the best you could hope for now would be to be charged at the suppliers deemed tariff, which is not cheap from the likes of SSE.


For the sake of clarity, references to landlord above may refer to the landlord's agent where applicable. (but I can find no trace of any uk business called OMNIA STUDENTS LTD )

aaron.tran2506

Biscuit_Tin wrote: »

For the sake of clarity, references to landlord above may refer to the landlord's agent where applicable. (but I can find no trace of any uk business called OMNIA STUDENTS LTD )

They are called Omnia Space, or a part of Omnia property Group, that's what I just found

aaron.tran2506

Finchy2018 wrote: »

It's probably a fixable error. I had a tenant change our work office electricity supply into their name one before.

Ask your agent for the metre readings or they will be on your check in report and call the supplier to set up your account.

What I suspect is, they probably deliberately didn't change electricity bill to our names. Because if they had done it for council tax and water bills, why left out the electricity?

aaron.tran2506

Biscuit_Tin wrote: »

For the sake of clarity, references to landlord above may refer to the landlord's agent where applicable. (but I can find no trace of any uk business called OMNIA STUDENTS LTD )

The agent I rented the flat from is called HUNTERS, but the electricity bill, which HUNTERS told me is "from the landlord", is billed to OMNIA. So what kind of business relation is this do you happen to know?
Did HUNTERS rent the property from OMNIA and then sub-let it to me?

D_M_E

From what you have posted, you have used an average of about 34 units a day - you need to get the original reading from when you moved in and a reading for the end date of the period being billed and check carefully what you are actually being charged for.

They could be trying to bill you for some or all of the previous occupier's usage as well as your own.

There is also the possibility that the meter they are using to bill you may not be the actual one supplying your premises.

Biscuit_Tin

aaron.tran2506 wrote: »

What I suspect is, they probably deliberately didn't change electricity bill to our names. Because if they had done it for council tax and water bills, why left out the electricity?

People cannot change energy supplies into another's name. If that were possible, I'm sure we'd all be doing it to avoid paying for what we use ourselves.
Where appropriate, it would be for the new tenant to contact the energy supplier and set up a new contract and account in their own name.

Council tax is different. It's a tax, not a contract.
As a tenant, you are liable by law for the tax (assuming it is not a HMO)

dj1471

Biscuit_Tin wrote: »

The landlord is permitted to resell as long as no profit is incurred

And so long as the tenancy agreement allows for it. OP what does your tenancy agreement say about energy supply, if anything?