Astronomical energy bill in rented property

coralanne22

My flatmate and I moved into a new rental property 30th October last year. We encountered a number of issues with the letting agency on move in one of which was the meter was not in the apartment it was in a locked room in the car park to which I requested the key to do a reading on move in day. They didn’t supply me with a key for 7 weeks and then by this point I was receiving ridiculous energy bills which have continued to grow every month.

Property is a 2 bedroom flat. 2 bathrooms. One living/kitchen area. Both flatmate and I work 11 hour days so are out the property 8am-7pm.

Electric heating and a hot water tank.
Radiators are switched on 7pm-9pm in lounge on thermostat between 15-20°. Bedrooms are on thermostat throughout night to only kick in it temp drops below 15° and then to go up to 20.
Fridge, freezer on during day but nothing else.
Hot water tank has no controls on it so unsure how this works despite asking agency repeatedly to look into it. Never ever received any info to how it works. On/off switch on the wall and a sink/bath switch but this is all. 
Our usage just does not add up. 

- November: 1061kwh in one month
- December: 1353kwh in one month (also worth noting my flatmate and I both went home for 10 days over xmas to our families and nothing but the fridge/freezer was left on so Decembers usage should have been lower)
- January: 2326kwh in one month

If anything since November we have stopped using the heating as much due to the extortionate bills so theoretically it should be going down not up and up. 

Bulb told me to test smart meter by turning power off at the mains, taking a reading and then going out for an hour. Came back and meter hadn’t moved so they are assuming meter isn’t faulty.

I now have an electrician coming to test the appliances in the flat to see if something is surging the way electricity or using way more than it should be. 

My question is does anyone have past experience with this? When we moved in we were not given any manuals or information on how to use heating or water tank. Just given the keys and told off you go due to COVID.

Also discovered the EPC for the property was not given to us on commencement of our tenancy and looks to be expired on the government website. But property was previously a D and therefore I wouldn’t imagine yearly bills to be £3000 which is what we are currently on track for. Especially when we are never here. 

Really worried as there is no way we can afford almost £400 a month bills for electricity alone. 

Thanks 

Robin9

Can you describe your heating in more detail please ?

Are these radiators  a wet system, a panel heater,  panel heaters filled with magic dust or night store. ?  You have only quoted one consumption in kWh per month so I assume a single rate rather than E7. In which case they all are very expensive ways of heating a flat. Add to this electric showers and high bills will follow.

Read your meters daily and get look at your heater controls.

PS Bulb are not the cheapest.

Gerry1

Much more info needed !

• Is the meter number on the bill the same as that on the meter?  Has the smart meter gone dumb, e.g. do the readings show E or Estimated on the bill?
• A one hour sanity check on the meter is insufficient.  Do it for several hours in the evening when it's dark.  Switch off only at the consumer unit in the flat, not at the meter in the car park.
  Are you sure it's really a smart meter?  Do you have an IHD, the portable shiny toy?
  
• If you have panel heaters using daytime electricity, there's nothing more expensive.  Move to somewhere with gas central heating as soon as your contract allows.
• Bulb aren't the cheapest.  How much are you paying (inc VAT) per kWh and on the daily charge?  Switch away: start comparing using Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch'.

MovingForwards

In addition to the above questions.

With your hot water, can you go to the hot tap at any time during the day / night and hot water comes out?
If so, provide a photo of your water system / tank and controls.

Hasbeen

Op you appear to have panel heaters if you can switch them on 7 - 9.

Hot water tank? It may be a hot water cylinder with usually 2 immersion heaters one on top for quick hot water and one on bottom for heating complete tank.  Are the switches in the off position. As requested please supply photos to confirm.

Or something more modern. Any mfg names on it?

Did you just keep bulb as your supplier when you registered and supplied the first meter readings?

I would consider switching to a cheaper tariff. Look on the citizens advice or switch with which sites.

Are you now supplying monthly readings or if smart meter checking bills against readouts?

Any letters after the readings like A for actual, E for estimate etc?

You have moved into a flat with the most expensive heating system you can get.  Next time do some research and get one with gas.

tim_p

The lack of that opening meter reading is probably the basis for all your problems. Without it you have no way of knowing whether the previous tenant gave an accurate (or even any) final reading. Chances are you’re paying for their usage. Saying that, the overnight heating setting of 15 triggering a blast up to 20 could potentially cost a huge amount alongside a water heater running 24/7. Possibly a combination of the two issues. 

Tallerdave

EPCs are a pointless fanciful work of fiction. However, isn't it illegal to rent a property out without one? If so, a call to Trading Standards seems in order. 

PS: I would have had access to meter on day 1. Camping in their office until it was provided. When letting agents drag their feet, stop the rent payment - it gets instant results. 

coralanne22

Hasbeen said:

Op you appear to have panel heaters if you can switch them on 7 - 9.

Hot water tank? It may be a hot water cylinder with usually 2 immersion heaters one on top for quick hot water and one on bottom for heating complete tank.  Are the switches in the off position. As requested please supply photos to confirm.

Or something more modern. Any mfg names on it?

Did you just keep bulb as your supplier when you registered and supplied the first meter readings?

I would consider switching to a cheaper tariff. Look on the citizens advice or switch with which sites.

Are you now supplying monthly readings or if smart meter checking bills against readouts?

Any letters after the readings like A for actual, E for estimate etc?

You have moved into a flat with the most expensive heating system you can get.  Next time do some research and get one with gas.

Yeah it’s a hot water cylinder. I spoke to an electrician today and he said it should be fitted with a timer device and is not. I did speak to a plumber who said that without one it is unregulated. Do you know if that’s true? He said using around £10 electricity per day which would make sense as to why the bills so extortionate. 

I couldn’t supply meter readings for 7 weeks because they did not give me a key to the meter cupboard. The agency even know where my meter was until I asked on day one, and then couldn’t get hold of a key off my landlord for 7 weeks. So unfortunately I was not able to switch. And then cannot now switch until this dispute is settled with Bulb.

I did do research but unfortunately there aren’t many flats/ apartments in Manchester City centre with gas central heating systems fitted. Out of the 12 I viewed not one had gas. Like finding a needle in a haystack. Also never had these issues in my last property with electric heating so didn’t anticipate having this issue.

tim_p

Whilst an immersion (3kW) technically could use a tenners worth of electricity per day it would be nigh on impossible to do so unless you were managing to continually use the water as it heated it up. The only way it could really do this would be if the thermostat was faulty and was keeping the immersion heating all the time. You would literally hear the water boiling in the tank constantly.  The plumber would have heard it too. I don’t think this explains your bills. It would well be part of it but you need to look at everything else involved in heating the place. 

If the previous tenant was with Bulb then you might be able to find out what their closing reading was but I suspect you won’t get it and frankly you are going to be stuck with the bills you’ve got. At least do something about taking regular meter readings from now on, ideally weekly or better, so you’ve got an idea of current consumption and can see if it fits with the bills you’ve received so far. 

Robin9

The immersion shouldn't be an issue  - the tank is very well insulated and once up to temp it will hunt around its thermostat

welshmoneylover

Immersion heaters are expensive to run! Do you have a boost button on it?