SSE charging me standard tariff business rates for apartment which is 4x residential tariff

MWT

EMJ_85 said:

The profile class was changed not the meter, so it is now showing as a residential meter and this was done in May last year, 6 months before i moved into the property so it is showing as residential.

If the meter is already registered as residential then call Octopus and ask to switch to them on a residential account and SVT, if you explain your current situation you should be able to get them to accept the switch.

Not much you can do about the billing so far though, this should have been sorted out the day you moved in, right after you registered with SSE...

wild666

It seems like the property was originally a business and it hasn't been registered for change of use. Are all the other flats paying the same business rates? 
Similar happened to a friend years ago and he refused to pay and when he asked people in the other flats they said they had higher bills than what they expected but paid them. When they contacted their suppliers they were told it was a business rate they were on so they all complained. When it was all sorted many were given thousands in refunds, some as much as a few years of energy usage.    

MWT

I'd still say the first order of business is to stop the pain by getting a switch to a domestic supplier, once that is done there is time to pursue complaints with out the continued high bills...

EMJ_85

MWT said:

I'd still say the first order of business is to stop the pain by getting a switch to a domestic supplier, once that is done there is time to pursue complaints with out the continued high bills...

Because i'm disputing the bill, will the current supplier allow me to switch, won't they block it?

MWT

EMJ_85 said:

MWT said:

I'd still say the first order of business is to stop the pain by getting a switch to a domestic supplier, once that is done there is time to pursue complaints with out the continued high bills...

Because i'm disputing the bill, will the current supplier allow me to switch, won't they block it?

Have you refused to pay it or are you simply disputing it?

You can also remind them that they are not permitted by the terms of their licence to supply domestic customers on a domestic meter profile, and if they will not/cannot transfer you to a domestic tariff then they must permit you to switch away from them...

You can also toss in the Ombudsman route as your next step if they will not assist in the switch, so make it clear this is an official compliant if you have not already done so to get the clock ticking...

EMJ_85

I said I wanted to make a complaint and they said its worthless so I did say I won't pay my bill. Not sure if that was correct but I was pretty annoyed by then.  They have set up a complaints procedure and I will hear back from them soon. 

EMJ_85

Complaint still on going with SSE Business, SSE Residential wouldn't transfer over the account or would SSE Ovo so the account was stuck with SSE Business.  So was on the phone for 7 hours over today and yesterday being passed around the 3 companies and various teams within them.

Called Octopus and was switched across within 5 minutes onto a residential tariff, at least the supply going forwards is resolved, just need to progress with the complaint. 

macman

On your first bill, did you not notice that the VAT was charged at 20%, not 5%?

EMJ_85

macman said:

On your first bill, did you not notice that the VAT was charged at 20%, not 5%?

I didn't get my first bill until May, change of tenancy didn't go through properly when i moved in the property end of December.  I probably wouldn't have picked up on the VAT charge if they billed me correctly in January.

Samy12

I am having the same issue now as well. @EMJ_85 did you ever get this resolved?

Moved to a flat in July, tenancy documents said to contact sse - which I did through the online form.

In August- not having heard anything, I contacted sse just to find out that this flats meter was on sse business. Contacted sse business, and notified them that it's a residential property. And that i had moved in.

A few months pass, and in November I get a bill with business rates on them similar to the ones in the post. These are way above the ofgem caps.