Underfloor Heating Back Billing

CamFlo

We have been in our Appartment complex now for nearly 3 years. It was a new build when we moved in. Late last year, we received our first underfloor heating bill since we moved in (the entire complex received these), seeking back payment for the entire period we had occupied the property. 
We have pushed back on paying the full costs, citing often back billing regulations limiting this to 12 months, but their position is that they supply "heating", despite the charge being measured against kWh. 
Do we have a leg to stand on to continue to challenge this?

Phones4Chris

AFAIK they won't be an "Energy provider" as recognised by OFGEM, so I doubt it. Who is the company billing you? Do they belong to/are registered with any "professional" bodies? I suspect you will have to pay but you should be able to negotiate a payment plan if you want one. You may need to seek some advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau(x).

rp1974

Have you kept the money that you would have paid for either electricity or gas in the past three years,to pay for this "heating"?.
Might you be under some sort of district heating scheme?.

dogshome

Seems you are in a building with a 'District Heating Scheme'  -  No boilers in the dwellings, just one big one in the basement

So the buildings owners are not supplying you with Gas or Electric that are both heavily regulated and have the Back-billing rule, but heat over which there is almost no regulation and the only rule on late billing is the Statute of Limitations which allows them to go back for up to 6 years

DHS's are common in Germany where the occupants pay a fair price, not so in the UK where developers are attracted to install DHS systems as they can charge what they like

matelodave

As others have said, if you've got a district heating system then there aren't similar back-billing rules like there are with gas and electricity. Likewise there aren't any constraints on the charges so district heating is often more expensive than mains gas, although usually cheaper per kwh than electricity. Service charges tend to be a lot higher so the overall annual cost can work out to be significantly higher than gas, oil or even LPG.

You must have some info on the heating arrangements in your apartment and I suspect that you've got a heat meter somewhere that measures how much heat you have been consuming - that's how they know how much you've used in kwh. 

How did you expect to be paying for your heating or were you hoping that it was free or in the building/service charges.You need to look back at all your agreements and documentation for when you took over the place to establish what the situation is or was. If you'd been expecting to have to pay then have you been requesting that they bill you or putting the money away ready for when they did actually get around to it.

However that doesn't prevent you from asking for time to pay and requesting  to pay it back in installments over a year or so (although you'll also have to pay your current  consumption at the same time.) It might be an idea for you and the rest of the tenants to get together and present a united request - do you have a residents committee.

MWT

CamFlo said:

We have pushed back on paying the full costs, citing often back billing regulations limiting this to 12 months, but their position is that they supply "heating", despite the charge being measured against kWh. 

Do we have a leg to stand on to continue to challenge this?

Not much of a leg to be honest.

You knew the bill was coming at some point so you should have been putting money aside for it.

You will have a heat meter in your apartment so the amount you have used should be no surprise, but did they disclose the per kWh charges to you when you moved in, or does the meter display a cost as well as the consumption?

Back-billing rules don't cover you for this, and personally I would have been chasing for the bill long before this rather than letting it build up.

Cardew

There have been many complaints about people in new builds receiving their first bills a long while after they moved in; and as said above you don't have the protection affored to gas/electricity supplies.

You must have managing agents for the complex and they should at least arrange for time to pay.

When you say the entire complex received these bills, didn't anyone attempt to sort the matter out in the 3 years?

What is happening about people who left within those 3 years? Is their 'debt' being passed on to ????

MWT

Cardew said:

What is happening about people who left within those 3 years? Is their 'debt' being passed on to ????

I was wondering the same thing...

It would be good to know that they haven't simply calculated their charge rates based on the billable accounts only and hence recovered their potential loss through increased kWh/standing charges...

A question for the Management Company I guess...