Pay a service charge?

smellymel74

Does anyone pay a service charge for reading their elec and gas meters and providing bills? If so, how much per month is this please?

im a tenant and my service charge is £25/month just for billing and metering services. Landlord trying to increase it to £30/month and I think it’s unreasonable. 

Thanks! 

QrizB

Is that in top of the standing charge? Or instead of it?

Exactly how are you billed? Do you have an account with an energy supplier, or is your landlord sub-metering the building supply to each of the tenants?

smellymel74

QrizB said:

Is that in top of the standing charge? Or instead of it?

Exactly how are you billed? Do you have an account with an energy supplier, or is your landlord sub-metering the building supply to each of the tenants?

The landlord is the supplier - she re-sells to me and I have a sub-meter. The £25/month (soon to be £30/month) charge is just for “metering and billing” - I have Automated Meter Reading (AMR) meters that read my meters (remotely) and provide me with bills (online) so the charge is intended to cover the online system as well as providing the service of metering and billing. 

And yes, the charge is on top of the standing charge. I get charged monthly.

QrizB

Ok, so your landlord isn't allowed to make a profit on reselling energy to you but they are allowed to recover their costs.

The "metering and billing" charge should be the charge made by the sub-metering company (the owners/operators of your AMR meters). If the metering company put up their prices, it's almost certain to be passed on to you.

Who administer the service? The company name might be on your bills? You can contact them to check that you're not being overcharged.

Also, what is your energy tariff (standing charges and unit rates)? Are they a commercial tariff or a residential one?

MWT

If the landlord can show that they are just passing on the charges from the company providing the metering and online services they yes, they can charge this fee, but it still comes under the general requirement that they cannot make a profit on the resale of energy.

Similarly you should not be paying more than your fair share of the standing charge on the shared supply, nor should you be paying any part of the green levies or VAT at a higher rate than 5%, so worth looking at the rest of your bill in detail.

... but keep in mind that if it is a commercial electricity supply, the standing charge and unit rate can be a lot higher than a domestic supply.

smellymel74

@Qriz that makes sense thanks. Yes it’s a commercial tariff as landlord is on a business elec contract. 

The monthly metering/billing service charge charge is from the AMR meter company - at least it was when I last asked the landlord to see evidence of my charges. I’ll ask again to check if their price has gone up but I’m guessing that the case.

If so, do I just have to pay it then? It seems excessive to me so wondering if I could challenge it on this basis. It could technically go up for ever otherwise! This increase (and the last) is higher than recent inflation rates.