Landlord and mahooosive leccy bill

[Castiel]

i dont think you guys realise how cold the recent winter was, and your using electric heating.

if your landlord has any sense he wont pay a penny of it. you cannot prove it was the boiler, therefore you dont have a leg to stand on.

With electric heating and electric showers?
We use that in a small 2/3 bedroom house which has oil heating, so twice as many using no oil should use more.
Is the house economy 7? If so are you in an economy 7 band and tarrif?

Exactly, our electricity bill is currently around £90 per month and that is for a family of 2 adults and 1 child. We have Gas central heating and Hob with an electric Oven. So £60 for 4 adults who are all probably running PC's etc independently of each other, and also having their Heating and Hot water supplied by electricity seem incredibly cheap.

Our bills are based on quarterly meter readings that we supply each quarter.

We are currently in the process of fitting Solar Panels to offset our electricity usage somewhat, in fact it should cover the majority of our usage.

 

[div0]

i dont think you guys realise how cold the recent winter was, and your using electric heating.

if your landlord has any sense he wont pay a penny of it. you cannot prove it was the boiler, therefore you dont have a leg to stand on.

My point is that he's probably been using more than he thinks, each month. I wouldn't be surprised if he measures it for this month, and finds that they actually use more than £60, even in summer. So they've probably been underpaying all along.

 

[Destination]

Also, you do know with economy 7 if you don;t use the storage heaters at night, you pay 3 times for all the stuff you actually use during th day, did you all shower prior to the tarrif timer changing over?

Did you cook during offpeak? If you didn't use it at night, and then used the energy during the day i am not at all surprised its massive.
Also the immersion heater that malfunctioned, turnign that on at all during the day, let alone it not knocking off, that must have been an incredible use of power just to heat the water initially.

 

[Mansize_tissue]

My point is that he's probably been using more than he thinks, each month. I wouldn't be surprised if he measures it for this month, and finds that they actually use more than £60, even in summer. So they've probably been underpaying all along.

I highly doubt that because our usage matched the estimates for the first few weeks of living here, and we were overing paying the estimates just to be on the safe side. Also, if anything, since living here our energy usage has dropped as we've become more conscious of what we've been using.

 

[Castiel]

Despite the very cold winters we managed to survive with very little use of the storage heaters in the house. In fact, only 2 were used and even then it was only occasional so this wouldn't have impacted the bill as much as you might think. Also jumpers are your friend. We cannot prove it was the boiler, no. But anyone with any sense would realise that it would be impossible to run up a bill like this with, what most consider, less-than-normal electricity use.

Also the leccy guy managed to get to the meter with a great deal of time and effort. It was not impossible for us, no. But, all of us being very busy with our degrees, prioritised our work over trying to get to our electricity meter.

Also yes, Hikari Kisugi, it says economy 7 electric tariff DD on our bills.

Economy 7 tariffs are on average about 18p-26p/kwh during the day and 5-9p kwh at night, while your actual bill is a little high, I doubt you will find that even with the boiler in full working order that £60p/mth was realistic for 4 adults living in the same house.

Economy 7 can be pretty extortionate if it is not used in the correct way, which I suspect is partly the case here.

The bottom line is that regardless of the boiler issues you are responsible and will simply have to pay up. You would be better trying to come to an accommodation with the electricity supplier rather than your landlord over the bill tbh.

 

[Macro]

But, all of us being very busy with our degrees, prioritised our work over trying to get to our electricity meter.

Really? You all worked on your degrees to such an extent that none of you could spare 5 or 10mins every 3 months or so to read the meter? Were you really locked in studying to that extent you did nothing else for a year? Really?

It's your time of course and your choice what you do with it, but trying to blame anyone other than yourself for not doing something as basic as reading the meter is daft. Even if the boiler was faulty a regular meter reading would have highlighted it straight away.

The landlord's not going to foot the bill, for all he knows you had the lights, heating, along with several TVs and PCs on all day every day.


It's a shock to the system but probably best chalked up as a lesson learned and something you won't get caught on the hop with again.

 

[dowie]

I don't see how its the landlord's fault - he doesn't have a crystal ball - he might be responsible for repairs but there is some responsibility on the part of the tenants to report faults for him to repair. If the electricity bill is in your name then you're liable for it AFAIK. Unless he's been notified of the fault and refused to repair it for 2 years I can't see how you can really hold him responsible.

 

[the_r_sole]

so now you've been overpaying what the monthly payments were?!?
i would hate to be your landlord/electricity supplier - you do realise that using the same amount of units two years ago doesn't cost the same now?

 

[Mansize_tissue]

Economy 7 tariffs are on average about 18p-26p/kwh during the day and 5-9p kwh at night, while your actual bill is a little high, I doubt you will find that even with the boiler in full working order that £60p/mth was realistic for 4 adults living in the same house.

Day time: 17.66p for the first x units then drops to 11.05p
Night time: 5.34p

Hikari Kisugi, as I said we used 2 storage heaters for 2-3 months of the year at most. And, yes, they charged during the night so took advantage of the cheaper tariff.

so now you've been overpaying what the monthly payments were?!?
i would hate to be your landlord/electricity supplier - you do realise that using the same amount of units two years ago doesn't cost the same now?

Obviously I realise this, this is why we agreed with our electricity supplier to pay more than the previous tentants to account for possible price rises during the year.

I don't see how its the landlord's fault - he doesn't have a crystal ball - he might be responsible for repairs but there is some responsibility on the part of the tenants to report faults for him to repair. If the electricity bill is in your name then you're liable for it AFAIK. Unless he's been notified of the fault and refused to repair it for 2 years I can't see how you can really hold him responsible.

He was told of a damp problem as a result of a likely boiler fault. A valve was fixed, but the real (thermostat) problem was overlooked and was only fixed much later.


I admit that we are to blame for a large portion of this as we would have realised sooner having read the meter regularly. But the landlord shouldn't have applied what was only a temporary fix to the solution by fixing the valve rather than the thermostat.

 

[drunkenmaster]

You'd need to check several things, firstly if a electricity provider incorrectly bills you after a certain amount of time they can't ask for the extra money afaik, I can't remember how long that is though, I think 6 months is possible but might be a lot longer. So you need to look into that, essentially the elecy company might not be legally entitled to some of the leccy you used as they billed you incorrectly for too long.

Secondly, check your agreement with landlord, is there any stipulation for things like you informing him of problems, or him being liable for checking appliances/general things around the house every X months.

IE if it says you are to inform him of any problems and will be liable for any costs associated with a delay to telling him, you've got no where to go, if it says he's got to make an inspection every 3 months AND he hasn't done so, then the responsibility would fall on him.

I'd give the leccy company a call, tell them you had a broken boiler and ask for all the meter readings they've taken for a couple years, then you might be able to see where the spike in usage came from, if there was any that is.

Secondly, you're on the wrong tariff with completely the wrong thinking.

Not using storage heaters costs you a LOT more than using them, the whole point of economy 7 and storage heaters is to fill them up cheap overnight rather than using electricity at 4 times the cost throughout the day.

You're previous tennants probably did what they were supposed to, boiler barely on, storage heaters filled at night and thats why they had low usage.

What rating is the boiler, it could easily be a 3-4kw boiler, run that for 3-4 hours a day at 26p kw/h thats where your cost likely came in.

You could also ask a plumber/builder to have a look at "guesstimate" if the boiler was faulty for long or not, if theres any warranty on the boiler if its new I really have no experience with that but maybe if the boiler is under warranty then the owner can claim any excess on the bill from them.

The main problem appears to be though, incorrect use of heating, avoiding what you thought were expensive storage heaters, and instead using the much MORE expensive electric heating.

Assuming the boiler is fixed you need to again, get info from the leccy company and see how much you are using now, compared to then.

Theres also the last thing, the estimate might have smeg all to do with the previous tennants, they might have had a £60 estimate yet themselves had a £1000 bill to pay the difference when they moved out. Not checking your own readings is pretty lazy, your landlord and you should have made a note of the reading when you moved in, you should be able to check it now, and you should be able to check it in 3 more days and see roughly if it works out, figuring in that you'll be using a lot less heating than in winter.

 

[Mansize_tissue]

Cheers drunkenmaster, I'll try to get all the readings from EDF as soon as possible. Also, by not using the storage heaters how would this equate to a higher cost than if we were using them?! We didn't substitute not using them with any other sort of heating, we just wore more layers. Also we shouldn't be using a lot less heating now than in the winter because, even then, we used hardly any and we used the 2 storage heaters properly.

 

[the_r_sole]

the company haven't issued any incorrect bills tho, you are on a contract with a fixed amount every month, i think you will find that the small print allows them to want the correct money for the actual amount used when meter readings are taken!

 

[Amos91]

Good luck getting it sorted with EDF. Had nothing but problems with them over gas estimates that was also a continuation from the previous tenants.

Looks like you will unfortunately have to foot the bill...

 

[Biohazard]

Flee to the behamas.

 

[Slade2]

I had a similar problem like this when I was a student also.

I would imagine you have a assured short hold tenacy agreement (AST) with the landlord. I would imagine like most AST`s you will be responsible for ALL utility bills while you are renting the premise. This is why you would have read the meter readings when you first moved in so you are not liable for any difference in readings from when the old tenant left and you moved in. This is common practice in the rental market.

I think you need to just explain the situation to the landlord and plead with him a little bit, explain that of course you are poor students and cannot afford to pay such a huge bill which was ultimatly out of your control.

If he plays hard ball then I am afriad you might have to pay it. Talk to the other people in the house and tell them.

I have to add that whoevers name is on the bill will be expected to pay this. I had one particular situation with a `friend`who I gave some cash to pay a bill when he was going into town and he didnt pay it. This was the final bill on the account and it went unpaid for like 18months and I was blacklisted for credit due to the last payment. I explain the situation to British gas at the time and they actually put a note on my credit record. I also managed to get the cash back from the dude that stole in from me. I was stilling being chased for the cash even after I paid British gas since they had `sold` the debt on.

I would also imagine you are underestimating your usage a little bit as well. What with the rising cost of fuel this is very quickly going to effect the cost of electric and gas very soon.

so, to some up i think your best course of action is to butter up your landlord and see what you can come up with. I have always been a model tenant when I have rented property becuase you never know when you might need a character reference.

 

[LOAM]

When do you move out ? If you are staying there next year why not get the utility company to increase your monthly payments to (plucks figure out of the air) £140pcm. Its still only £35 pcm each and it means you are banging in £80pcm against what you owe them, By the time you leave it should be at an amount that is manageable to pay off.

All that aside I agree with all of the people above though, 6 years ago my wife and I lived in a modern, 2 bed flat in Nottingham centre which had economy 7 storage heaters and no gas C/H. Like you our hot water was provided via an emersion heater boiler and we both worked full time meaning we were out of the house between 8am and 6pm. Baring in mind the house was well insulated and double glazed and we only had 1 pc and 1 TV between us, we still paid more than £60pcm for electricity and that was 6 years ago.

We pay £80 pcm now in a detached house (still only 2 of us) that is uber insulated and has gas C/H.

 

[Metalface Mark]

Exactly, our electricity bill is currently around £90 per month and that is for a family of 2 adults and 1 child. We have Gas central heating and Hob with an electric Oven. So £60 for 4 adults who are all probably running PC's etc independently of each other, and also having their Heating and Hot water supplied by electricity seem incredibly cheap.

Our bills are based on quarterly meter readings that we supply each quarter.

We are currently in the process of fitting Solar Panels to offset our electricity usage somewhat, in fact it should cover the majority of our usage.

What solar panels are you having fitted? How many?

 

[Metalface Mark]

I dont think the bills are particularly high anyway even with the added £1200 over two years, its not a massive amount, its only another £50 a month over that period of time, and paying £110 for electricity for 4 people using pc's (even if they are laptops, they dont charge themselves) with no gas would be a decent price.

My previous flat, two adults, two teenagers with laptops I was spending about £105 in electricty and that had gas heating!

If your thermostat had been broken and the boiler was on all the time (as you seem to be suggesting), then the bills would be far higher than £1200 over the time when the boiler was faulty, you wouldnt get just double your bills, you would be getting them multiplied many times over.

I think its just your usage, but i think what you want is for people here to tell you its not your fault so you can go charged to the landlord, he wont get involved in your bills at all.

 

[Hades]

A tip for the future. Take a meter reading on the last day before you move out. I'd suggest you also do that when one of the sharers moves out too, in case of any future disputes.

 

[Metalface Mark]

A tip for the future. Take a meter reading on the last day before you move out. I'd suggest you also do that when one of the sharers moves out too, in case of any future disputes.

And take a photo of it too, as the electric company seems to side with the new tenant rather than the old one, it took me 9 months to get my meter reading sorted out because the person who moved into my old house gave a false reading to get a bit of electricity cheap.