Just moved into my first flat and feel like my landlords have set the gas rate extremely high

[thietkenhaxinh]

Just moved into my first non student flat in London a little over a month ago and got my first gas bill today. My flat has set my rate at 65.58 p/kWh, which is nearly 2.5x the average London rate of 27.2 p/kWh. This feels extremely extortionate and I was wondering if anyone else had ran into some similar issues.

 

[bloodygrace]

@thietkenhaxinh That can’t be right. The price cap is 6.89p. How you being charged 10x the price cap?

 

[carrico]

@bloodygrace Price cap only applies to domestic variable rate tariffs.

If the landlord is reselling energy then they are likely on a fixed rate and/or business tariff, neither of which benefit from the cap.

That said, they aren't allowed to resell energy for more than their cost

 

[theropod]

@carrico They arnt allowed to resell for profit, but it is entirely possible this is a 1:1 reflection of what they’re actually paying. The local chippy (a colleagues wife works there) has been whacked with a massive increase in their gas price (their fryers are gas powered so it’s a significant amount of energy). They’re paying 75p per kWh. It’s likely they’ll either close, or have to significantly increase their prices - and then close anyway as it will alienate a lot of their customer base.

 

[faithinmet]

@theropod Or sign a new contract, probs just been conned by a 3rd party sales company. There are ways to break a contract though

 

[maranathasoon]

@faithinmet How?

 

[theropod]

@maranathasoon Whenever I see “you can break contracts” it’s usually bullshit to be honest. Or the what you have to do to break the contract is the same as closing the business anyway.

 

[faithinmet]

@theropod Not always, but does depends. Sole traders is a lot easier, you just call the supplier and state you are no longer trading and fill in a B2D (Business to Domestic) form. There are no checks here for it’s on you as the owner to state you are not using energy for business purposes. That breaks a contract, once with domestic go bk to Business supplier stating you have decided to keep trading, things change. Absolutely fine you then move bk to business in a new contract that’s not crippling your business.

Ltd more difficult & yes would be closing the business, in name down would also break it. But in OP’s example this poor guy is going to close anyway so don’t see this route as that difficult, assuming of course he is a Ltd and not sole trader.

 

[theropod]

@faithinmet To be honest, that chippy is barely a business in the usual sense. I doubt it’s even properly registered anywhere. The colleagues wife (who works there) was pregnant and wanted to go on maternity leave, naturally. Turned out she’d never paid a penny in tax or national insurance, or ever been given a payslip in the 3 years she worked there. She didn’t even really know what her hourly rate was. They just gave her a bunch of notes out of the till once a fortnight.

Our companies Hr department gave some time for her to work out what her next steps were, as she was only entitled to the bare minimum maternity you can get from the government, which is piss all.

They also don’t take cards (and are very vocal about being cash only…) and all of their canned drinks are from multipack offers in supermarkets - or even Aldi branded ones.

I’m pretty sure they’ve only ended up on business rates for gas because they’ve had to clean their act up recently

 

[benthebeliever]

@theropod That is just nuts. A few years ago I remember paying 3p/kWh for domestic gas.

 

[theropod]

@benthebeliever I know. Frightening isn’t it. Domestic gas now is running at 20-30p, but the price cap is keeping it at around 10p.

Business is just free rein and a Wild West when it come to energy nowdays. Theres no government protection, and the prices they’re charging are just monstrous.

 

[resjudicata]

@thietkenhaxinh Who are you paying, the gas supplier? If so, that doesn’t sound right and there is a better rate to be had. Could you be reading it wrong and it needs dividing by 10?

 

[stl99]

@resjudicata It sounds like the landlord is paying the gas bill. I could be wrong

 

[zogy101]

@thietkenhaxinh When you say 'the flat has set my rate' ... what do you mean ... the flat is a building?

Do you have your own meter ... do you go to a shop and top up a key ... or pay online to top it up ... or is there a bill you can look at online.

 

[ausbob]

@zogy101 Looks like OP pays their landlord for it with rent on top. Assuming it's an all bills included situation.

 

[tradodox]

@thietkenhaxinh Make sure you’re not looking at the m3 figure as opposed to the kWh figure. It varies from place to place, but I seem to recall my m3 figure being about 10x my kWh figure.

 

[juelrei]

@thietkenhaxinh Sounds like you’re a bit confused. What do you mean by “your flat has set the rate”? when you move in somewhere you sort your own utility contracts out with the suppliers? And the average price of gas is nowhere near 27.2p

 

[galnaros]

@juelrei Apartment blocks tend to have agreements with energy companies to provide building-wide heating. One of which is Data Energy, and you can see their out of contract rates take the piss slightly on the standing charge: https://dataenergy.co.uk/about-us/natural_gas/. Have seen others that’ll jack the kWh rates right up when no contract is in place with the new tenant, which appears to be what’s happening here. Worst part? You cannot change to a provider of your choice, and they’re sometimes exempt from the price cap. It’s a broken, monopolistic market.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/dataenergy.co.uk?stars=1

 

[ryanjrhodes]

@galnaros From what I understand this is normally included in the service charge, though, which wouldn't involve the tenant getting a gas bill themselves? I was looking at a flat to buy that had heating/hot water included in the service charge as it was for the full building, so assumed this was the case.

We are in a block that's electric only (quite common) and deal with our utilities ourselves, so apologies if I misunderstand how that works.

 

[yehudim]

@juelrei I’m confused here too. You either sort it through the supplier or the landlord pays it and you pay a higher rent, but it’s a fixed rent, not depending on usage.