Landlord Changing Heating Cost From Meter to Flat Rate

Craigdav1993

Hi there,

We have been living in a flat for over a year now. The heating is provided through an HIU (basically central boiler in the building and a unit that keeps some water ready for us with a meter showing our usage.)

We used to get billed 11p / kwH and used to spend around £40 a month just having 2 showers a day and no heating. (Also no hot water in taps or rarely as use dishwasher all the time)

They recently changed the meters as apparently faulty, the new meters are much more realistic and our usage has gone down a lot from around £40 a month to £10/15 monthly for 2 showers daily and no heating

Now the company in charge of the billing on behalf of landlord (who is an LTD) informed us the landlord will change the way we get billed with a daily flat rate + VAT instead of meter usage.

Is the landlord allowed to charge us a daily flat rate instead of meter readings considering we have a meter installed?

This means we would be spending around £45/50 a month vs a real usage of £10/15.

It seems very unfair having to pay a daily flat rate even when we will not be using any hot water and especially spending 3 times the amount of usage!

is this legal?

if a meter is installed can the landlord change the billing to a daily flat rate instead of meter reading?

please note the heating/hot water is supplied by the landlord and billed by a company on behalf of the landlord. (Aka we don’t have an account with the utility company directly.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

many thanks

yksi

What does your lease say?

Craigdav1993

yksi said:

What does your lease say?

Here’s the only section of the Tenancy Agreement which mentions utility bills

4 On the signing of this Agreement to have transferred to the Tenants name and to pay directly to the supplier all charges due during the tenancy for the following:-

a) water rates sewage disposal gas fuel oil and electricity supplied to the Property

b) Cable Television Services (if any) during the tenancy

c) Telephone charges and all rent in respect of the telephone during the tenancy and liked telephone line for the burglar alarm (if applicable)

d) The Council Tax which is the responsibility of the occupant or any other charge levied on the Property replacing the Council Tax and FURTHER to pay the same and to indemnify the Landlord from and against all liability in respect thereof including any liability which may be incurred by the Landlord as a result of the Tenant ceasing to occupy the Property as his sole or main residence

FURTHERMORE the Tenant consents to the Landlord or his Agent advising the council and service suppliers of the Tenant’s responsibilities and for the council and service suppliers to advise the Landlord or his Agent of any details pertaining to the accounts at the termination or sooner determination of the tenancy

pochase

What is the daily flat rate they want to charge you?

Also take into account that the gas price is going up. For how long have you been charged the 11p? If it was recently (since April) the new gas price they would be charging you would be in the region of 25p as gas is looking to go up by over 100%.

Are you paying a standing charge for gas or is this maybe worked into the unit rates? If so I would see more a 20p for gas from October.

Craigdav1993

The daily flat rate is £1.32p + VAT. The previous rate was 11p/kwH + VAT.

The rate has been the same since April 2021.

However how could it be possible that the previous meter was using 10/20 kWh daily whilst the new one is using 1/2 kWh?

No standing charge, we were just billed the 11p + VAT

 Many thanks!

pochase

A gas meter does not show KWh, a gas meter either shows m3 or ft3.

If your meter shows 2 units m3 you need to multiply by 11.2, and that is 22.4KWh.

BUFF

from the description "The heating is provided through an HIU (basically central boiler in the building and a unit that keeps some water ready for us with a meter showing our usage.)" I doubt that they have gas.

pochase

Good point, but than a reasonable new price would be easily 45p plus per KWh. And I seriously doubt that 1 to 2KWh electricity is enough hot water for two showers.

BUFF

The description is not 100% clear & leaves some room for interpretation but iirc an HIU takes heat generated centrally (by gas or renewables usually) & distributed around the building & transfers out of that what is needed to an individual flat - essentially a localised heat exchanger. So 11p/kwH could have been a reasonable price, however, the building will most likely be on an industrial supply contract so no SVT cap  & we all know that energy prices have jumped massively.

I imagine (perhaps the op can confirm) that they have a separate electricity meter/supply.

pochase

If this is centrally generated heat / hot water there would be no legal protection. It will all depend on the rental contract.

What does it state regarding the supply of hot water?

QrizB

To be honest, the way energy prices have gone recently £45 a month for all-you-can-eat heating and hot water doesn't sound that outrageous.