We're paying £90 a month for electric alone and it's still not covering it, is anyone else paying this kind of amount?

[LoveMyGirls]

We have gas as well which is costing about £100 a quarter. I just don't understand how our electric bill can be so high?

Gentleotter... I thought I read somewhere (MN?) that the electricy ombudsman had been done away with sneakily so we could no longer complain.

We have one of those fecking keyt meters for leccy. The previous tenet was debt riddedn, and they won;t let us chnge it pover We currently use 25-30 a week on it. Wankers.

fizzbuzz, that is what we pay

although i have managed to reduce the direct debits as we are in credit with gas and leccy, i took the meter readings and phoned them through last week.

Theiving gets in the power industries is what I think. Oil prices did come down a bit didn't they?

Have they passed it onto us...Oh NO! I don't know how they can get away with it. We spend well over 10% of our income on fuel...the definition of fuel poverty. But we will never make it onto the statistics as dp and I are in professional jobs so don't appear to count

We are struggling, so God knows how OAP's are coping. How many have to die this year before somethinfg is done?

heating or eating for a lot of people,isn;t it?

fizzbuzz, draughty Victorian house here too (crappy, rattling sash windows etc).

Every year we put up temporary double glazing on the worst windows. It's a bit like clingfilm which you heat seal (with a hairdryer). It only costs a few quid, it's a bit of a hassle at first but you really notice the difference.

Get down to Homebase or Wilkinson's asap (it can sell out quite quickly when it starts to get cold).

We also have a snake (draught excluder!) by the front door and I'm going to try and sort out a curtain too (preferably velvet or similar)

Yes, am going for the curtain option this year at our freezing front door.

We do have some sort of internal double glazing, but not the real stuff

Our electric bill is terrible, almost five hundred pounds a quarter!!! and this is every quarter not just through the coldest period!! Terrible, we only have electric, no gas or oil. I haven't got heating on now and have stopped using tumble dryer but NOTHING is drying as don't have any rads with heat!!! I am going to have to put a radiator on i think as i have had washing on one airer for about three days now!!

GentleOtter are you the landlord of the cottage that your son now rents out?

You are NOT responsible for your tenant's debt unless you have it in the tenancy agreement that the tenant's rent includes electricity. But you are definitely not responsible for any debt from his previous address!

The key meter is a "payment method" therefore you can choose to pay by Direct Debit as long as you come out ok on a credit check. How did they gain access to the cottage? Or is the meter outside?

I would demand to speak to a supervisor, and get the meter changed back. They will of course be reluctant but I would stand firm on it. You can cite the difficulties in topping it up and I guarantee it is collecting a charge for the previous tenant's debt.

They should have left you a booklet on how the meter works and there is a button to scroll through the settings, so it gives you the meter readings, the tariff and if there is a fixed charge to collect debt.

It may be that they transferred the amount owing from the previous tenant's address to the cottage address, it is standard practice as you have much more power to collect on an on-going account rather than a closed account ie fit a prepayment meter.

If you do know where he lives/works I would pass that information onto the electric people or give them the solicitor's details. I would not want his post coming to my address even though you are passing it on.

Hope this helps you.

Fizzylemonade - yes, we are the landlords of the cottage and as our son is working on the farm with us then we let him stay there. We pay the electric.

The meter is outside and the man from the electricity board just turned up - we had no letter, nothing. My son had gone back to the cottage at lunchtime and discovered the man.

We are not in arrears and we passed on the previous tenant's new address to the electric company - also his solicitors address and details. His mail is forwarded to him and I suspect the reminders are going there too.

It was never in the previous tenancy agreements that we were responsible for the electricity, phone or council charge - it was very clear that the tenant was responsible.

What a pickle. I will speak to a supervisor on Monday to have the thing removed and to find out who decided on the meter - neither my dh, son or I asked for this to be installed and we were all very surprised.

The electric is back on but my son says that the thing is gobbling through the £50 already and he only has the fridge and a light on.

Thank you for taking the time to help us

£3k a year on oil??!!!!

Do you live in a mansion? We pay about £360 a year for our oil!!

£90 a month seems a lot.

We pay £56 a month, have a 4 bed semi, use the washer and tumbler most days, have an electric shower and are in credit for the electric.

We have gas heating and cooker, pay £49 a month and are £233 in credit! I got my bill today and I'm going to phone them Monday and ask for £133 of that back again - I don't mind being £100 in credit to see us over the winter but £133 is half my Christmas shopping budget!

£165 a month electric but we do run a B&B so fair enough

Oil we filled up in JUne and paid £1100 and still have over half left but we have an aga and haven't turned that on yet and loath to do so.

GentleOtter as long as you have paid the electricity for the time your son has been there I cannot see what the problem is at all.

Argue it, you have always paid, previous tenant behaviour should not be used but I do know that it is something we used to do in the Midlands. (when I worked oop Norf when a tenant left a particular estate in Manchester we used to cut the supply off!!!)

I posted above on Sat 04-Oct-08 11:57:52 about what eats electricity. Usual culprits are immersion heaters being left on so get your son to check that too.

Good luck.

Thanks Fizzylemonade - We have all the electricity receipts as proof that we were up to date with everything.
The water is heated by the fire and the only real energy guzzler would be the kettle but ds boils it only a couple of times and stores the boiling water in a flask.
The house is only tiny and there is no underfloor heating, electric radiators or anything. He has solar lighting as backup.

It is looking like we are the sitting duck for the previous tenant's debts.

Many thanks.

4 bed old house here, only pay £50 pcm each for gas & elec. BUt I have only just stopped working & starting to put heating on for an hour in the day.

HOWEVER - our supplier tried upping our payments 'cos we were £800 in debit - according to their estimates! We checked the meter & it turned out we were actually in credit, they just were trying to get more money off us!

Check your bills & your meters - they ALWAYS over estimate what you owe them!

3 bed house £100 a month combined.

We have pre-payment meters for both gas and electric, usually put around £60 a month on them, but obviously will go up when we need to use the heating.

Do you actually pay more for the card meters? I'm not really sure, I did inquire about getting them changed (they were there when we moved in) but they wanted a deposit etc which we couldn't afford (crap credit rating).

I would rather pay by dd tbh less hassle, but I'm not sure I could be doing with all these estimated readings and huge bills, always remember my Mum being shocked ny huge quarterly bills (so it's not a new thing) usually caused by estimates etc.

there is one electricity company that charges the same rate for each electric unit wheather you pay by meter / direct debit.

but all the big ones charge a bit more for a unit of electricity when you pay on a meter compared to direct debit.

have you kept notes of your meter readings?

if not do that for a while (ideally a year) then you know exactly how much electricty you use (so dont guess, and dont have the companys guess 'as a 3 bed house, occupied 5pm - 9am and weekends, with insulation' etc)

then you can put your exact useage into energy comparison sites and see excatly how much that excat amount of electric would cost you...

if you use Xunits per year at Yp (of course you get X units and Yp and then the rest at Zp, so do that too ) you can know how much you should pay (also add any standing charge, and take away a direct debit money off bonus thing etc)and divide it by 12 for your approximtae monthly direct debit payment.

I did that (and it has worked out exactly correct)... alsoi did it on a site were they then gave me £30 into my bank just for switching

I think the problems come when its based on typical readings rather that actual readings

Ds is just in and told me that he had one energy saver light bulb on last night and also had the oven on for half an hour. He then carefully unplugged everything so it was just the fridge on.
The meter has taken £10 over 12 hours.

GentleOtter I would get an engineer from the electricity board to come out and see why the meter is using so much. Could it supply any other building apart from the cottage? Tis a worry.

They will chat to you on the phone first and then if the mystery cannot be solved they should send someone out who walks through the house and assess the appliances etc.

AbstractMouse the general rule of meter reading by the electricity company when I worked for them was 3 out of 4 quarters were read if you lived in a town or populated area and 2 out of 4 quarters if you lived out in the country (more difficult to get to etc)

If they have access to the meter they can quite accurately "guess" the estimated quarter as it is based on the previous actual readings and consumption.

If they don't have access to the meter then you can ring in a reading. Even if you get an estimated bill and it is pretty accurate ring in the actual reading. It means that the computer has something real to guess your next bill.

The problem occurs when the bills are estimates after estimates and finally they get a reading producing a huge bill as they have no idea what you are really using day to day.

I have been in touch with the company today and it transpires that we were paying the outstanding debt for the last tenant (including his previous address debt).
The meter was set to take £15 off per week until this debt was paid. The debt was for more than £1000.
We have left the company to get this sorted out immediately and to remove the card meter.
We have been well and truly fleeced as I have paying the bill which included the debt.
I am angry beyond words.

Fizzylemonade, your advice has been hugely helpful and has ultimately prevented us from being landed with a huge bill that was needless. A massive thank you.

am glad you are getting it sorted, what a relief.

(((hug for lulumama)))

OMG I'm so shocked at some of these amounts.. I have been grumbling that my joint gas/electric bill has just gone up to £60 per month!! I thought that was a lot. Blimey.

I have d/washer, wash machine, tumble dryer, power shower, laptop on all the time etc

I haven't turned the central heating on yet though and we only have the hotwater on for about 1-2hrs a day