Student bill splitting company

ariarnia

chris_n said:

ariarnia said:

you really need to get out of that contract or you could be paying more as a split bill than what your share of the bill would be even with some defaulting.

you need to get everyone together to agree whats going to happen. then get it in writing to everyone (email is fine) in case you need to chase anyone after via small claims.

if it was me i'd use the time since they moved in to now to estemate normal use (then add a bit for winter heating). then right before the student loans get paid (still sept jan and april?) ask everyone for the next terms share.

at the end of term work out what the bill was and what everyone owed and recon it from there (give people a choice of a refund or putting it towards next term if you 'accidentally' over estemated by a bit). then if you under estemate then your not completely out of pocket and if you over estemate then everyone has a bit of unexpected cash at the end of term. win win

Who are they going to get a supply from and what are the rates going to be is the first thing to establish. I think they are over a barrel! 

several people have been talking to the op about the energy issue but the other issue in the op was people defaulting on the bill if they didn't have the bill splitting company doing the bit in the middle. which was what my post was addressing. 

if they get out of the contract by paying the exit fee then they should be able to set up a residential supply by phoning octopus or edf or whoever and going on the standard variable (cap). most likely the only reason there on a commercial rate now is because of the middle management company not being eligible for a domestic account. we've seen the same problem before. student houses (even purpose built student blocks) are eligible for residential account but are set up on commercial rates because of agreeing to a managed service. get out of the managed service and stop having to pay the commercial rates. 

macman

EssexHebridean said:

macman said:

Void the contract: the £100 fee for doing so will be much less than the inflated rates that they will otherwise pay for the remainder of the tenancy. Those prices are way above the EPG, the gas alone is double.

But the OP will also need to come up with a way of ensuring that all housemates pay their share - otherwise they could end up being stitched with the entire bill - or at last a sizeable part of it. 

True, but they're now adults and will probably have to do the same split arrangement when they are graduate flat sharers, so time to start learning how these things work.

Ozro

Hi can anyone give me some advice please. My son was with Glide a student bill splitting company. They are absolutely awful. However we recently received a final statement and a refund, my son having left the property.  6 weeks later we now have more communication from them, saying oh dear sorry but they refunded us too much and now we owe money back to them - can they do this?  They have sent him a further reconciliation statement on the gas and electric but honestly you cannot follow it, which I think they do on purpose?  I want to just leave it and see what happens but I do not obviously want my son to get a CCJ against him.  

ArbitraryRandom

They can - they have 6 years to pursue a debt in the UK. 

If they're writing letters (rather than emails) then ignoring it is a bad idea - but you can ask them for further evidence/clarification to establish if the bill is actually correct. 

Did you son take meter readings while in the property? If so, if he knows what he paid over the year and knows the rates charged, then you should be able to work out for yourself if there's a balance on the account... 

Ozro

Hi, they will only be sending emails as they do not have my son's home address only the student address he was at which related to these invoices.  They have not explained exactly where they miscalculated just advised that they have. They are also trying to take payment from his card on the app but which has since expired.  It is very confusing to try and work it all out and surely this is their error. They sent a final statement issuing the refund including the deposit.  Can they really ask for a payment back due to their error?

MeteredOut

Ozro said:

Hi, they will only be sending emails as they do not have my son's home address only the student address he was at which related to these invoices.  They have not explained exactly where they miscalculated just advised that they have. They are also trying to take payment from his card on the app but which has since expired.  It is very confusing to try and work it all out and surely this is their error. They sent a final statement issuing the refund including the deposit.  Can they really ask for a payment back due to their error?

This has already been asked and answered. Yes, they can.

Does your son have the final bill? If so, it should not be difficult to calculate if it is correct based on the readings. Is he disputing the final bill? I assume he provided a final reading when leaving the property?

ArbitraryRandom

Yes, if they made a mistake and your son does actually owe them money then they have 6 years to recover the debt. 

They can't take him to court without being able to serve papers, but they can sell the debt onto enforcement agents who will seek to trace your son and it could have a negative impact on their ability to secure financial products (letting agents, credit cards, mortgages) until the debt is either settled or becomes statute barred in 6 years. 

Again, your son is entirely within his rights to ask them to explain the bill to 'prove' the debt is owed - and if it's a very large amount that would put your son into hardship then he could ask for a payment plan over 12 months. 

Ozro

Hi thank you, that is disappointing - they are not a very reputable company at all. they make their bills extremely difficult to understand so you have no clue really if they are correct and we did delete everything as we assumed "final account" meant that and he has vacated the property.  Also it is not just him it was split between 5 people, my son left the property first so he himself did not enter the meter reading.  We will probably respond with them asking for clarification but they are extremely difficult to get hold of and don't really answer emails. Last time we waited on the phone for them for over an hour.  This is only for £89 but doesn't seem fair we have to pay back due to their error, especially as my son is a student and it took them 6 weeks to advise us of their error

ArbitraryRandom

Ozro said:

This is only for £89 but doesn't seem fair we have to pay back due to their error, especially as my son is a student and it took them 6 weeks to advise us of their error

And if the error had been the other way, with them owing your son money, would you equally say it's been too long and it's not fair they should have to pay? 

Ozro

Well arbitrary random, your tone is a little insulting bearing in mind you have no idea how difficult it has been to deal with this company and the fact that we did wait over 3 months for them to work out their final statement whilst holding on to his deposit and an extra months payment.   I could direct you to the reviews they have and may be then you would understand the frustration and the fact they tie students into ridiculous energy deals knowing that their knowledge might not be up to scratch about these things - he was paying over 2 times what the energy price cap was!  and before you say being a student is no excuse and they should read up about it - once you have some students in your house sign up with them, then if you join the house, you do not have a choice!!