Advice for asking energy company to install smart meters or submeters for building with 5 flats

Robin9

Do all the tenants have easy access to where the existing meter is. ?   Although the consumer units may well be in the flats is there a series of main switches adjacent to the meter ?  If so turn them off one at a time and check that the appropriate flats looses all its supplies. By the time you confirm all 5 whats left - does the meter reading still increase ?

I don't see how a private prepay sub meter will help . Prepays generally have a key or card - how/who would administer that system ?

Farrella

BobT36 said:

Are the tenants all currently paying for the common areas, too? 

No, tenants paid a fixed amount which based on average use for a standard 1 bed flat....but they are based on old electricity prices so now landlord is losing a lot of money.  And tenants find it hard to beleive how much prices have gone up since 2020.  To make all of them pay what they really use, prepay meter is best solution...or at least have a submeter.

[Deleted User]

Farrella said:

At the moment the bill is monthly reading off main meter divided by 5.

Hi,

that's good for a high user, but maybe flat 2 using twice as much as flat 4.

dogshome

The entire set-up is a Mares Nest - The shops are, or should be paying 20% VAT on their supply, whilst the flats pay only 5%.

When was the the present 20p per Kwh established?

In todays market that is a fair price, but 18 months ago it was a rip-off

[Deleted User]

This problem is not going to be addressed by the OP reading well-intentioned but ill-informed responses on this forum. The property (ies) need to be surveyed by a competent person. That person will look at what is possible in terms of the existing wiring etc. 

MWT

[Deleted User] said:

This problem is not going to be addressed by the OP reading well-intentioned but ill-informed responses on this forum. The property (ies) need to be surveyed by a competent person. That person will look at what is possible in terms of the existing wiring etc. 

The problem was caused by the landlord not doing it right in the first place, it should be no surprise that the mind-set continues...

Care will also need to be taken not to break the rules on re-sale of electricity if they head down the path of the private pre-pay meters...

Farrella

dogshome said:

The entire set-up is a Mares Nest - The shops are, or should be paying 20% VAT on their supply, whilst the flats pay only 5%.

When was the the present 20p per Kwh established?

In todays market that is a fair price, but 18 months ago it was a rip-off

Tenants used to pay less.  The landlord usually subsidised the bills a little bit.  But now with the energy prices shooting up it's gone out of hand, hence the need for change.  I looked at Metro Meters instead of Topupmeters...they seem retty straightforward and decent value.  Anyone have experience?

Robin9

The landlord's first step must be to put some money up front -  get an electrician in and look in depth as to how every single flat get it's supplies and work out what alterations are needed.

If you go down the private meter line the landlord is still going to have the challenge of how he splits the cost. The only fair way for the tenants is pay one of the suppliers - EDF, EoN etc directly

MWT

... and just in case it was in the back of the mind... the private meter route is not going to allow the landlord to recover any of the past costs of the electricity, as they are not allowed to make a profit on the resale of power...

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2005/10/11782-resaleupdateoct05_3.pdf

It would be better to just do the job once and do it right, getting the supply properly split with meters for each flat and then they pay the energy supplier direct as Robin9 suggests...