Management company's utility bill admin fees

horrifiedbillpayer1

This topic was raised then closed back in 2011 but management companies are back adding expensive "admin fees" to utility bills. In my case the management company charges £9.20 every month to produce a monthly gas bill. I have requested a quarterly bill only to be told "no". I am not permitted to setup a contract directly with the supplier who advised they billed quarterly and not monthly. So this appears to be a total management rip off.

DullGreyGuy

£9.20 for the building/developement or for each household?
How is the bill split between households? How many are there?

Gerry1

Do you have your own boiler, or is this a building or area heating system?

Scot_39

Have Ofgem actually announced anything from their examination into charges - rates and other - on domestic community heating.

I remember a few posts from those on such heating arrangements - saying there was one happening - but too late to protect some from the worst of the excessive rates seen during the worst months of the crisis.

Chrysalis

I sympathise with anyone unable to contract directly.

I seen a LL blogging about how he includes energy in contract, which he budgeted for something like £50 a month if I remember correctly, now bear in mind this was electric only and they were bedsits, it also had fair use clauses, one tenant got evicted for heavy use of a gaming PC, another for GPU mining.

Another LL also had his own electric contract, but fitted meters in each room, he made the point he is not allowed to profit, but apparently is allowed to add costs for his efforts, he didnt go into details of these costs, but same issue ultimately for the tenants, they cant shop around, agile, swap meters etc.

I have only lived in a HMO once, and in that case, I had my own meter and dealt directly with my supplier (who was Npower).

DullGreyGuy

Chrysalis said:

Another LL also had his own electric contract, but fitted meters in each room, he made the point he is not allowed to profit, but apparently is allowed to add costs for his efforts, he didnt go into details of these costs, but same issue ultimately for the tenants, they cant shop around, agile, swap meters etc.

I sympathise but, depending on the setup, can see how it is not a 30 second job and therefore a company will need to have the cost of their staff covered for the time and effort they put in. 

Our estate has a £9.5k management fee (cleaning, bins, electric, insurance etc is on top) but only water is a shared bill (the electric is for the car park lighting, lift etc not our own use). There is one resident in the block that is at least weekly sending emails to complain about one thing or another... always wonder how much of the £9.5k is just hers.