Is she paying too much?!

[finleysmummy]

An elderly relative, lives with another relative. The relationship has broken down.
It has come to light that our elderly relative has been paying them £250 a month for the last two years for their gas and electricity.

She lives in a very small studio type annex, one small shower room (rarely uses shower just strip wash), no washing machine or dishwasher. Usually only uses microwave or kettle and tv. She does have underfloor heating in a very small area but this only kicks in when temps drop.
This amount was set up to be paid to the other relatives as direct debit.

We live in a 4 bed house with 4 people and do not pay this amount.

Before we help her raise this issue with them we would be grateful to have some rough ideas of what people pay for a studio/ one bed flat for one person.

Any estimates would greatly support in helping her with this.

@finleysmummy does the elderly relative want your involvement?

How much care are the family providing? Taking her to medical appointments, shopping, cleaning? Does she need any personal care?

Sorry to hear you think it is a cheek.

Elderly relative was asked to move in to theirs to save her on rent and to offer care.

Due to the breakdown in relationship she has no care provided. She pays about 400-450 a month in bills and then her own food and shopping on top of this.

Obviously this is cheap rent for a studio property however, the purpose of her moving was not to pay rent.

We are also only asking as ourselves with a larger property and other relatives do not pay this amount. Perhaps we are lucky.
I posted here for the sole purpose of getting people's estimates as obviously we didn't want to query that payment if that is the going rate for a studio.

Does she need care?

This is exactly it. She moved from her previous home under these circumstances. Rent was not to be paid but a contribution to household bills which she is more than happy to pay.

Unfortunately, I seem to be getting a lot of stick for asking comparisons on utility bills, simply because I do not know what the average rate is for a small property. The other bills are irrelevant in my question as i am simply looking into the gas/ elec side. There is a whole realm of other things going on in this situation.
Thabk you so much for your post of understanding.

It sounds high just for gas and electric but if its got underfloor heating that may be the culprit. Second only to immersion heaters in fuel guzzling.

@finleysmummy so she sold her house and gave them the capital to buy this house?
Was this done legally so she has a recorded interest and are the family aware that if she needs a care home it will be counted as an asset?

This.
If its rent it should be labelled as such, not hidden as a 'share of gas and elec'.

Whether other people think it's 'a bargain' or not is neither here nor there- OP asked a specific question and we don't have enough info to say whether the elderly person is being treated fairly.

If they agreed to split bills, I'd say £400-450 is probably less than half of the total cost of bills for most properties, so probably a fair share. It might be that elderly relative paid the whole utilities bill, whilst other relative paid whole CT bill, for example, rather than each individual bill being split between them.

You can't expect to claw back on the bills that you think your elderly relative overpaid, whilst ignoring the bills that they underpaid.

How is she being treated unfairly?

She is not paying rent but yes, has to contribute towards her bills and food. That is fair. I hope your relative realises when she moves into a new flat, she will have to pay rent and all associated bills etc? she will be paying more.

@finleysmummy that is high.

https://www.unbiased.co.uk/discover/mortgages-property/ownership-improvements/what-s-the-average-cost-of-running-a-home-in-the-uk

Average bills for a one-bedroom flat
A one-bedroom flat is one of the cheapest ways to live when you discount rent.
The average electricity bill for a one-bedroom flat using 1,800kWh every year is £51.82 a month or £621.88 annually if you pay by direct debit, according to British Gas.
The average gas usage for a one-bedroom flat is around 7,500kWh over a year, which comes to an estimate of £552.98 a year, or £46.08 a month.

To answer your actual question OP, that’s more than we pay for an extended 3 bed house.

Way too much. Three bed here with sunroom for me, DH, DD15 & 2 x DS13-10 half the week. I'm disabled & at home nearly 24/7. I've always got an appliance running. We have a dishwasher, air fryer, daily showers for 3+ people, multiple phones to charge etc & our gas/elec DD is £137!

@finleysmummy - way too much if it just covers Electric/Gas. We live in a 3 bed semi-detached and our monthly bill, currently, averages out at £135 per month over the year. Only 2 of us living here and both retired, so we are home a lot.

But if the relationship has broken down and her savings are all invested in the relative's home, you must be having a nightmare, trying to disentangle things. Hope it can be done, without causing too much strife

We have a similar family situation. It has been a mess from start to finish. Everyone relied on honour and treating family fairly instead of properly drawn up agreements. Relative has lost everything apart from a small pension, is bouncing between living with us and another family unit and trying to get into over-55s council accom. with housing benefit while trying to explain where all of her assets have disappeared to. I have no idea how care would be paid for if/when she gets to this stage.

I hope you are able to get a resolution.

It would be viewed as deprivation of assets if the money had disappeared into the family member's home. Potentially they could be required to sell up (or remortgage) to make the money available to pay for care.

Depending on where you live in country a studio in a shared house will be between 400-900 per month. The 900 per month being London: this includes rent and bills.

I think you need to say what she is paying in total per month. I would say if not in London 500/600 is what I would say is fair per month.

We pay £180 for a 3 bed semi detached

Is council tax included?

2 bed flat and I pay £35 electric and , under a tenner gas per month

Although I'm out of the house a lot

Those figures are averages - so all those professionals out all day who own one bed flats will bring those averages down. This lady is home all day everyday

Why would she not be paying rent any more? Is the person she’s moved in with expected to house her for ‘free’?

OP I don't have a studio but I have a 2 bedroom flat with 5 people and frankly excessive use of gas and electric, we would still struggle to exceed £160 a month in costs.

I hope this helps to illustrate that £250 a month is extremely excessive for this arrangement.

Oh and we work from home so are in all day every day. There is always somebody at home.

I am a social worker for adults, predominantly older adults. You don’t need to wait for an adult social care assessment - you can absolutely do your own research into different housing and care options. If you state what kind of care this relative needs then I could advise what the best housing and care options are