Renting. excessive electricity bills due to EPC not reflecting change of heating.

TIMBO

Good evening. 
We moved to a Ground floor flat with an EPC that stated it would cost £900 PA  to heat . The actual cost is nearer £1,900 PA .
The EPC states that the property has economy 7 radiators , in reality it has a 7.6KW  hot water central heating system. 
We are not technically minded  it was only identified when an inspection was made by the council in relation to servicing an improvement notice.
Can we claim the excess heating costs incurred as we feel the EPC was part of the tenancy agreement?.
Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Tim

user1977

For starters, EPCs can only ever give very rough indicative costs - obviously they're going to vary depending on how long you have the heating on, what temperature you like, what happens to energy prices, etc. So £900 may well be completely wrong even if you did have E7 heating.

MaryNB

The EPC does not account for lifestyle factors. For example someone who works in the office during the week, lives alone and is comfortable with 18 degrees is going to use significantly less than a family of 3, where some members are home during weekdays and they're more comfortable with 22 degrees. 

ETA: When was the EPC done? Is the £900 stated on the EPC or did you calculate that using the estimated usage and recent energy prices? Not that it will necessarily make it more accurate but it's another factor showing useless it is as estimating your own energy costs. 

canaldumidi

EPCs are notoriously unreliable. There are too many variables, the inspectors are poorly trained, many factors are 'assumed'.

"Can we claim the excess heating costs incurred as we feel the EPC was part of the tenancy agreement?." No.

" 7.6KW  hot water central heating system. " - so this is an electric boiler? You must have realised heating/hot water was all electric which is just as notoriously expensive?

"an inspection was made by the council in relation to servicing an improvement notice." Was this during your tenancy and as a result of a cmplaint you made to the council? that is the history and outcome there?

Section62

TIMBO said:

The EPC states that the property has economy 7 radiators , in reality it has a 7.6KW  hot water central heating system. 

We are not technically minded  it was only identified when an inspection was made by the council in relation to servicing an improvement notice.

Can we claim the excess heating costs incurred as we feel the EPC was part of the tenancy agreement?.

What did the council think was the difference between "economy 7 radiators" and a "7.6KW  hot water central heating system"?

Is this just down to interpretation/misunderstanding?  Is "economy 7 radiators" the exact words used on the EPC? (e.g. rather than "storage heaters")

lookstraightahead

TIMBO said:

Good evening. 
We moved to a Ground floor flat with an EPC that stated it would cost £900 PA  to heat . The actual cost is nearer £1,900 PA .
The EPC states that the property has economy 7 radiators , in reality it has a 7.6KW  hot water central heating system. 
We are not technically minded  it was only identified when an inspection was made by the council in relation to servicing an improvement notice.
Can we claim the excess heating costs incurred as we feel the EPC was part of the tenancy agreement?.
Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Tim

Do you only get your heating bill once a year? 

TIMBO

In response to the question raised.
The EPC stated "Electric storage radiators , secondary heating Room Heaters, electric". 
Our heating bill was monthly but we were under the impression the excessive costs were due to a fault with the system or a result of the other faults with the priority such as windows that do not seal, mould and damp etc. We have been in constant  communication with the letting agent  to resolve but they refused to act.
The council designate the current heating system  "space heating" they state it is double the cost of running night storage radiators on an economy tariff.
thank you 

canaldumidi

'Space heating'just means a system for heating the space (the air in the room). Could be a boiler, storage heaters whatever

The bottom line is that when you viewed, you saw how the house was heated. You saw there was/wasn't storage heaters. You have to take a bit of responsibility for your life and decisions, despite the rush nowadays to blame someone, anything, else for things you are unhappy about.

As explained, EPCs are inherantly unreliable, and the estimated cost PA they give are dependant on multiple variables. Someone who likes a cool house and is out all day, might have the heating on for 2 hours a day. Someone who is at home all day and enjoys sub-tropican temperatures will have the heating wacked up to max 12, 18 even 24 hours a day.

Their bills will vary hugely!

So no, you cannot claim back based on the tenancy agreement.

macman

What sort of central heating do you have? There's no way that mains gas CH would cost double that of E7 for heating and DHW.
However, if it's an electric boiler system, running on a single rate tariff, then it could well cost double, and then some.
The fact that you describe it as a '7.6kW' boiler makes me think that it's the latter.
You also need to check that, if this replaced E7, then the metering has been altered to single rate. if not, you are running it entirely on peak rate E7, unless you are nocturnal.
As others have pointed out, you can hardly fail to distinguish an E7 storage heater from a wet CH radiator even with the most cursory inspection; it's nothing remotely 'technical'.
It's not impossible that the EPC was simply wrong, of course: most are done in about 20 mins and might as well be drive-bys. 

kungfu_navs

how did you work out the price PA? have you been there a year ?

boxer234

My rental house is poorly insulated and freezing in the winter I was quoted a price based on the last tenants usage which was around £1600 PA.  I said no thanks I give meter readings each month and it’s much lower granted I don’t put the heating on a lot I just freeze.