Does anyone else live in a house that has a business electricity account ?

MSYC

We live in a house that has a small section at the front of the house that is acts as a retail showroom so we inherited a business account when we moved here. Our gas is under domestic though as the shop area only makes up about 10% of our home. It is our only home but we have been told by Eon that because we have a business tarriff, we won't be able to receive the £400 support that is supposed to go to all households. Does anybody else have this dilemma?

MWT

It is supposed to go to 'all households that have a domestic electricity account', not 'all households'.

So you are in a wider group that includes Park Homes and those who pay for their energy via their rent etc. all of whom will not get the £400 distributed via the energy suppliers.

There has been a promise that there will be another fund to help with this, but no details yet.

If it is possible/practical you may want to consider changing to a domestic account, but check your business contract terms carefully as early termination of a business account is often expensive...

... on the other-hand if the business contract is fixed at a good rate you may be better off hanging on to it for now...

MSYC

Thank you very much for your reply. I do understand it stipulates the £400 goes to domestic electricity accounts but this is our home and we do have domestic gas account...it's just how the energy bills were split when we moved here. However, the government should support all households...people who have multiple homes will receive this for each house and we only have this one house and have to pay high energy costs like everyone else. I was just hoping someone else might be in this same situation and have some advice. I may look into changing our electricity to a domestic tariff but I suspect that they will be a clause preventing us to do this. 

QrizB

Is the showroom still used as a showroom, or is it now part of your house?

If it's being used as a showroom, are you using it or is it let to a third party?

MWT

MSYC said:

I was just hoping someone else might be in this same situation and have some advice. I may look into changing our electricity to a domestic tariff but I suspect that they will be a clause preventing us to do this. 

As I said above, there are many people in your situation for a variety of reasons, we just don't yet know exactly how they are going to be helped...

There was some news today about support for business energy accounts that may be of some assistance though...

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-outlines-plans-to-help-cut-energy-bills-for-businesses

You have a few issues to deal with, first, watch for any announcements about the alternative support for those without domestic energy accounts and see if you qualify...

Second issue is what rate are you currently paying for electricity, when does the contract expire and would you be better off on a domestic account under the new cap anyway? - some people have tried to stay on business accounts over the last couple of years because they were getting better rates than they could get on domestic accounts for example...

Then as per QrisB check if it is actually possible to change to a residential account as a lot depends on the actual use of that showroom...

MSYC

The room at the front of the shop is still being used as a showroom for me but the electricity is wired for the whole house.

MWT

... and the electricity kWh cost and standing charge on the business account? ... also are you still under contract and if so when does it terminate?