Ridiculous Electricity Bill

Windofchange

Not sure if this in the right place, but please move if not. We moved into a new build rental property in November of 2018. The place is part of 16 other new build flats and houses as part of a new development, and we are the first to occupy this unit. The landlord is the sort who just ignores all your calls, mails, texts etc and hopes you go away. On moving in, he refused to let us have access to the utilities cupboard to check the meter readings - it's all under lock and key, and he said they were doing plant work in there so it's dangerous etc etc. As such, I was unable to get a reading on the electricity meter, but he assured me it had all been zeroed when we all moved in. 7 months later, I alongside the other tenants have finally got access to this area. My meter reading is something like 9000 Kw hours which equates to about £1500, A neighbour got a bill last month for £2600 for the 6 months to date - electricity only, none of us have gas.

I have so far paid £70 for usage from November to April - this was an estimate and not an actual reading. Weird thing is we have smart meters so not sure what is going on there. I am expecting at some point that I am going to get a demand from the utilities company for a lot of money, and I don't know what I can do to fight it? What I suspect has happened is that he has been using the electricity supply for the years that it took him to build all the flats and houses, and actually hasn't zeroed anything. He is then just holding his hands in the air and saying everything is zeroed, your problem.

We had a contractual agreement through right move for a check in and inventory that never happened, so one possible course of action is to sue / take it up with them. What is the process that he would have had to have gone through with the utilities company to zero a meter? Can he just do it and phone them up, or do they need to have come out and have a registered engineer to do it? Assuming a large bill does land shortly, what is my chance of getting this cancelled / reduced? I'm not sure it's even possible to use £1500 of electricity in a small house in 6 months? Maybe with a cannabis farm!?

Robin9

Have you been getting bills in your name? Did you ring the supplier when you moved in and give them readings ? What tariff are you on ?

Meters do not get zero'ed - brand new Smart meters will be 00000 on the day they instal but on change of occupancy other than you and the previous tenant readings meters nothing happens to the meter itself.

What bills have you had since November ?

£70 for usage from Nov to April you have to agree is stupid - that does not even cover the daily standing charge. For a all electric flat with storage rads £150 a month is more realistic.

Windofchange

We moved in and awaited our first bill as right move in our tenancy contract stated they would sign us up with a certain provider which we could then change on day one if we wanted to. I therefore sat back and awaited my first bill having filled in the paperwork etc with them.

About 4 months into being here, I got a final demand addressed to the landlord's building company stating that unless he paid £70 then the bailiffs would attend etc etc. Got hold of his office lady who said oh dear and leave it with her. A month later I got the same demand for £70, but addressed to me which I paid. I agree, I no doubt owe more than £70.

I have taken photos of the meter readings for the past 2 months, and we are using about 4-500 Kw hours a month. As per my initial post, I couldn't give anyone any readings for the past 6 months because he had it all under lock and key. This is what is so dodgy. I'm now expected to believe that I have used some 9000 kw hours in 7 months. I'm on one of the big utilities standard year tariff.

Smodlet

It sounds to me as if your LL may have told the energy company to put the bill for the £70 he owed into your name; if so, you have certainly paid for that much of his usage. You must have proof of when you moved in to show your provider so I think the only other thing you can do for now is to read your meter every day, if you can, or at least every week to prove what you are using now.

Of course, you will have used considerably more during the winter months, if you were there then, but your current usage might give your provider some indication of whether you realistically might have used 9000 kwh in the time you have been there. I strongly suggest you talk to them and be prepared to spend some time on it. If you find you are getting nowhere with the monkey, ask to speak to the apprentice organ-grinder and go up as many levels as you have to.

The only other recourse would seem to be the legal one as your LL sounds like a right shifty so-and-so to me. Good luck, oh, and change to a cheaper tariff just as soon as you can; I don't think standard tariffs have exit fees but do check.

culpepper

If they are smart meters, cant the energy providers look back at the usage information and count the usage only from the dates the tenants moved in? Then anything before that time must be payable by the Landlord.

Robin9

culpepper wrote: »

If they are smart meters, cant the energy providers look back at the usage information and count the usage only from the dates the tenants moved in? Then anything before that time must be payable by the Landlord.

They will only be truly Smart if they were installed by the present bill payer - on change of tenancy they cease to be Smart.

Simby

I am not sure that the bill is entirely ridiculous 7 months is 214 per month.

Op surely you put at least 150 away per month to cover the bill when it came. Normal usage you would expect 150 per month or more if you kept the heating and hot water on 24 /7 , so likelihood is your usage is at least 1050 in 7 months

The meter should still be smart if you are with the same electric company? So the electric company may be able to help?

But you also don’t know that you will be charged for before you moved in, call the company and find out, inform them of the date you moved in and ask what date they put the bill in your name and if they were given a reading.

AlexMac

Good advice from Simby ...

Simby wrote: »

...call the company and find out, inform them of the date you moved in and ask what date they put the bill in your name and if they were given a reading.

But I'm not sure I agree..

Simby wrote: »

I am not sure that the bill is entirely ridiculous 7 months is 214 per month....Normal usage you would expect 150 per month or more if you kept the heating and hot water on 24 /7....

Maybe your electrical heating is less efficient than our gas, but if you're in a new build it should have better thermal insulation than an older property, so should be reasonably thermally efficient. Whereas our 40-year old, 4/5 bedroom house is detached (so no thermal gain from adjoining properties or those below) but total gas and electricity only cost us £1,200 p.a / about £90 pm averaged over the year,and we're home all day as we're retired, we cook a lot and don't stint on the heating?

Simby

Good point Alex Mac every house is different.

I have gas and electric.. I spend virtually nothing on gas in the summer when the heating is off, ( just the standing charge and about 10 for cooking) and as I have an electric shower and a kettle for hot water to wash my face etc.. I do not ever put the emersion on, just have cold water in the taps in summer, so electric is pretty constant all year.

But in the winter my gas bill is about 150 per month and my electric about 70 .. but I run the heating from 6am to about 10 pm plus a gas fire in the living room , all through the winter. I do not run any heating at all in summer.

Ops post said November to April , so it really does depend on how they ran their heating and hot water ( e.g leave it off, run it 24 hours a day, run it one hour a day).

The usage they quote for the last two months is summer usage, so I don’t think the op is comparing apples with apples as the time in question is a much higher usage period.

Windofchange

Thanks for the suggestions gang. To address some of them:

1) I have been taking readings and documenting with time stamped photos every month - we have been using about 4-500 kw hours a month as above.

2) Yes, we would have used more in the Winter, but in the order of 7-8000 kw hours more!?

3) The landlord is definitely a bit of a shady character - he's been in the press over the years for failing to come through on promises made to the council, he's been bankrupted etc etc. Whenever I see him he is always looking for an exit. Doesn't want to talk, doesn't want to help etc. If the place wasn't so nice we would definitely have moved by now, but that's by the by.

4) I assumed with the smart meters that they would be read automatically too. My online account however just has estimated readings every two months. The next estimate bill is on the 26th of this month, hence I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to get a nasty surprise to come back from holiday to.

5) Yes, I have the money in my account to pay my electricity bills. This isn't a thread about how to get out of paying what I owe, it is simply trying to understand my options and rights in terms of defending myself against a crazy utilities bill.

6) The house is well insulated, and we have had the central heating turned off at the boiler since February. This is another thing that makes me think we have been screwed somewhere along the line. There are just the two of us here, and other than a TV and the usual white goods, we don't have a load of electronics etc running 24/7.

7) I will be switching tariffs soon - I think there is a £30 early termination fee, but that would pay for itself if I get a significant drop in my kw / hour charge

Regardless of all of the above, my neighbours have had the same issue - as per the first post, one got a bill for £2600 for 6 months, and the other £1300 for the same period. £2600 works out at about £450 a month in electricity for a 2 bed flat! This is why I am convinced there is something dodgy going on. They have disputed with the utility company, but I think they have stood by their bill and he's getting threatening letters. I want to be as prepared as possible for when it is inevitably my turn...

Windofchange

Simby wrote: »

Good point Alex Mac every house is different.

I have gas and electric.. I spend virtually nothing on gas in the summer when the heating is off, ( just the standing charge and about 10 for cooking) and as I have an electric shower and a kettle for hot water to wash my face etc.. I do not ever put the emersion on, just have cold water in the taps in summer, so electric is pretty constant all year.

But in the winter my gas bill is about 150 per month and my electric about 70 .. but I run the heating from 6am to about 10 pm plus a gas fire in the living room , all through the winter. I do not run any heating at all in summer.

Ops post said November to April , so it really does depend on how they ran their heating and hot water ( e.g leave it off, run it 24 hours a day, run it one hour a day).

The usage they quote for the last two months is summer usage, so I don’t think the op is comparing apples with apples as the time in question is a much higher usage period.

Yup, there would have been more useage for November to February before we turned the central heating off. We have a timer thing, and it was programmed to come on 4 times a day for about an hour each time.

The only thing I can think of which might have upped things significantly is that when we moved in we had no hot water on demand. The landlord had basically used someone from down the pub by the looks of things to do the installation, and they hadn't fitted it properly. Whenever we complained, he just ignored as per the above until I pretty much cornered him and told him to come feel the water out of our taps.Whilst this was going on, we needed to manually press a 1 hour boost switch on the boiler everytime we wanted a shower. The engineer who came round finally to put things right said that that would be an expensive way of doing things, but I'm not sure how expensive. We would maybe do that once a day for the 6 week period, so maybe about 50 pushes of that button - I would shower at work / the gym etc to minimise the need. It is possible that having to do that used a crazy amount of electricity I suppose, but to my knowledge, other units weren't, so it still doesn't explain their crazy bills.