No Heating Bill For 6 Months - Advice Needed

IslandLife

Dear Forumites,

I purchased a 1 bedroom flat, which has a community heating system. This means that our heating and hot water are centrally billed via our private estate management company. I moved into the property in November/December 2024. 

Our estate management company are having issues generating bills for this system, they have said they want to make sure the numbers are right etc etc for the past few months.

The issue here is that we do not know how much we are being charged, and this unknown number continues to pile up.

I have spoken to the estate management company they say the bill is coming in a few days. This has been the repeated line for the last few months. My neighbours have received the same line from them.

The estate has had residents living in it since July last year, and they are yet to receive a heating bill. The energy supplier is EDF energy, and verbally we were told the rate is 25p per unit during the day and 22p per unit at night. We haven't received any of this information in writing.

What action would you take here? I am keen to get this sorted

Mark_d

Knowing that you are consuming energy, I would ensure that I'm saving £150 per month to be able to pay the bill when it arrives.  There's nothing more you can do at this stage

IslandLife

Mark_d said:

Knowing that you are consuming energy, I would ensure that I'm saving £150 per month to be able to pay the bill when it arrives.  There's nothing more you can do at this stage

Yes, I agree it's the best I can do, I am saving a large amount each month for it, but how long is piece of string?? My neighbours are approaching 1 year without a heating bill. I think we're reaching the limits of patience.

Mark_d

It's far from ideal but if you pay £150 per month into an instant access savings account, then you can earn more than 4% interest.  The longer they take to bill you, the more interest your earn.  It's not an ideal situation but you're not exactly losing out by holding on to your money for longer.

MeteredOut

Alongside pushing for an actual bill, i'd separately be pushing to get written confirmation of the unit charges and standing charge.

How is heating split amongst households - does each have its own meter, or is it split pro-rate by, eg, size of each flat? If the former, have you been taking readings?

IslandLife

MeteredOut said:

Alongside pushing for an actual bill, i'd separately be pushing to get written confirmation of the unit charges and standing charge.

How is heating split amongst households - does each have its own meter, or is it split pro-rate by, eg, size of each flat? If the former, have you been taking readings?

Each flat has a meter, I have not been taking readings. That's a very good point, I am going to start taking readings. Do you think monthly would be enough or should I do fortnightly readings?

The limited communication we've had from the estate management suggests they are having issues accurately calculating the bills based on these readings which I believe they can automatically access via the "tech"
 behind them.

Robin9

IslandLife said:

MeteredOut said:

Alongside pushing for an actual bill, i'd separately be pushing to get written confirmation of the unit charges and standing charge.

How is heating split amongst households - does each have its own meter, or is it split pro-rate by, eg, size of each flat? If the former, have you been taking readings?

Each flat has a meter, I have not been taking readings. That's a very good point, I am going to start taking readings. Do you think monthly would be enough or should I do fortnightly readings?

The limited communication we've had from the estate management suggests they are having issues accurately calculating the bills based on these readings which I believe they can automatically access via the "tech"
 behind them.

Just checking -  we are talking about a heating meter ?

Do you also have an electricity meter?   Is this being billed OK ?

IslandLife

Robin9 said:

IslandLife said:

MeteredOut said:

Alongside pushing for an actual bill, i'd separately be pushing to get written confirmation of the unit charges and standing charge.

How is heating split amongst households - does each have its own meter, or is it split pro-rate by, eg, size of each flat? If the former, have you been taking readings?

Each flat has a meter, I have not been taking readings. That's a very good point, I am going to start taking readings. Do you think monthly would be enough or should I do fortnightly readings?

The limited communication we've had from the estate management suggests they are having issues accurately calculating the bills based on these readings which I believe they can automatically access via the "tech"
 behind them.

Just checking -  we are talking about a heating meter ?

Do you also have an electricity meter?   Is this being billed OK ?

Yes it's a heating meter, it's called a Heat Interface Unit 

I have control over the electricity supplier and billing, and that's all ok.

FreeBear

IslandLife said: The limited communication we've had from the estate management suggests they are having issues accurately calculating the bills based on these readings which I believe they can automatically access via the "tech"

Depending on the make & model, many heat meters can be read by a wireless receiver. Others have a thin cable connecting it to a computer that may be up to 1000m away. I have an L&G T230 heat meter connected to my (gas) boiler and it is hooked up to the home automation system by a short cable. Get to pull a reading off every 5 minutes (that is going to shorten the battery life considerably, but that's my problem).

It is worth downloading the user manual for your heat meter - Pressing the button multiple times can pull up different registers, and it is quite easy to get yourself confused.

Robin9

As from April 1st you can raise disputes about Heat Networks with the Energy Ombudsman

MWT

Robin9 said:

As from April 1st you can raise disputes about Heat Networks with the Energy Ombudsman

I guess the 8 weeks from initial complaint period starts from 1st April as well though?