Metered estate on LPG gas - advice please

[Randallthecat]

We are fairly far down the line of selling our current property and moving to a property on a metered estate with LPG fuel.
Our solicitor has contacted us today to let us know we’d be supplied by Flogas. Initially the developer told us it was marginally more expensive than mains gas.
Now I’ve looked into the company, it seems anecdotally it’s quite a bit more expensive than mains gas (some reports of 50% more expensive) but I can’t find a price. Apparently neighbours can all be on a different price point as well.
Anyone with advice please? I would be most grateful if anyone on a metered estate could let me know how it works and if it is expensive. I already pay £180 a month on a 5 bed house for electricity and gas - the thought of paying £270/month and electricity on top, as well as a more expensive house is making my eyes water. This could potentially be a pulling out issue.
Thanks

I don't know about metered estates but I do have flogas LPG.

It is more expensive than mains gas. You pay a standing charge, and then a price per unit. It's likely to be a 2 year contract and switching is really difficult because they own the tank.

If there is an issue with the tank/pipe to your house you will probably have to pay for the fix (even though they own the tank).

If you decide you want to change to another type of heating, they'll charge you about £600 to remove the tank. Or charge you every year a standing charge to not use the tank.

You'll pay more for electricity because you can't get dual fuel discount.

We have an LPG tank, large rural 4 bed detached. We pay £200 a month for the gas, and around £180 for the electric.

We have got a brand new Worcester combi boiler, have had cavity wall and loft insulation, and have the best glazing we could afford.

Costs a small fortune, and changing suppliers is an absolute nightmare. We're with Calor. When we bought the house 25 years ago, the LPG was 17p a litre.... it's now around 72p.

Oh that is expensive compared to our current gas/lecky price.
I feel a bit misled by the developer tbh, we were given to understand it was only a tiny bit more expensive.

Yeah lpg is a bugger, essentially each time the contract comes to an end you have to ring round and try to get a decent price and lock in again. However we were in solid fuel before so I still quite enjoy the novelty of heating on a timer and not getting up to a freezing house and having to sort the fire out.

Seems a red flag to me. What does the solicitor say. I wouldn't.

I live on a metered estate (25 houses) and we have calor. More expensive than mains gas. We currently pay 42p per litre and also a daily charge. Switching is tricky as to change supplier all householders need to negotiate under an umbrella contract.

I'd be very wary. Your costs will be higher and I would worry about having difficulty to sell the property further down the line.

We're the same, an estate LPG tank with calor. Tbh it's just something you either accept or not - we are not on mains and we share with 12 or so others. I did used to get miffed when calor wrote to us on conqueror paper (ie they have far too much spare cash so stop taking mine), but they've stopped that now. Yes it's expensive but I would say that when there are ever issues they do sort them quickly and the tank gets refilled automatically so we don't actually have to do anything. Oh you'll need an LPG specialist plumber, they don't all service LPG boilers

LPG here too. Price just increased from 37.6 ppl to 52.0 ppl.

As PP said no dual discount on Electricity but total freedom to switch and fix, when we are not going through the current issues with energy companies.

Hence my gas price has gone up by over 30% in 4 months, but I managed to get a really good 2 year fix with Octopus before everything kicked off.

The thing I hate most is the 2 year minimum contract on my LPG and that I am tied to one supplier (who owns the tank) so I can’t negotiate at each fill in order to get the lowest price.

Octopus fix for Electricity

I would be running for the hills.

I live on an estate with 2large LPG tanks which supply approx 50 houses, and about 100 houses which have individual LPG tanks in their gardens.
LPG is supplied by Flogas - I think it’s quite a competitive rate - I have 4 large bedrooms and 4 large public rooms … and last year heating cooking and hot water cost me £800, electricity averages out at £80pcm. We pay 29.58pence per cubic litre and an annual standing charge of £50 for the tank.
The houses with individual tanks don’t have quite such a good rate but not vastly different AFAIK.
We’ve had absolutely no problems at all in getting the boiler serviced and honestly it is not detrimental to house prices - they seem to go up got sale and sell really fast.

Thanks everyone. We are having to think about this carefully in the light of rising fuel prices. I just don’t want to be a captive market where there’s not any competition or regulation.