Gas charges in apartment blocks?

Tar.Aldarion

Was wondering what you guys that have a communal gas supply with individual meters in your apartments pay for your gas? As you don't get bills from Bord Gais etc but from your landlord. Seeing how ours compares.

We pay 8 cents per unit which used to be the total of what we paid, including vat, carbon tax etc. Now we are getting a 10e charge per month new (they tried to charge 20 at first). Which brings our bill up 120e per year (a significant increase for our meagre gas use), but if ours is not too dissimilar to others then that's fine. Would like to know as I've always just had a personal gas account before and while the unit cost was less we had all the individual charges applied on top.

Or if you get a personal bill, what does it work out for you gross divided by units used?

The_Morrigan

I would have thought if you have your own meter then you are entitled to your own bill. I have never heard of a set up like this before, infact I'm struggling to understand how you are billed.

Is your LL charging you 10 euro per month regardless of usage?

0ph0rce0

About €1100 a year for the Gas.

€10 a month sounds like a bargain to me even if you don't use it :pac:

ted1

the annual standing charge is 91 euro.

so if you had your own account you'd be paying 91 euro without using any gas.

120 isn't to bad for everthing

Tar.Aldarion

Hey guys sorry for the misunderstanding, I get charged 10e per month now on top of my old bill, which is 8 cents per unit. So my bill has gone up 120e this year compared to last year.

I do have a meter but the landlord is the one who decides the price. He gets charged for all the apartments with one main meter and we have individual ones that show how much of that total usage each of us used. So the landlord decides to charge us 8c per unit + 10e pm arbitrarily. I just wonder how that compares to your bills etc. If you remove the standing charge, what do you pay per unit gross with all taxes inclusive? I suppose it's annoying to work out so i don't know if I get charged similarly to other people. I suppose the standing charge of 91e vs 120e isnt too bad for a year. Annoying if others get charged less per unit however.

Cuddlesworth

The reason why that is weird is because its just as easy to hook each apartment to its own meter, as it is to install one and put in additional private meters.

Do you have access to your meter? I'd check to see if it is actually private like he says it is.

tinkerbell

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Hey guys sorry for the misunderstanding, I get charged 10e per month now on top of my old bill, which is 8 cents per unit. So my bill has gone up 120e this year compared to last year.

I do have a meter but the landlord is the one who decides the price. He gets charged for all the apartments with one main meter and we have individual ones that show how much of that total usage each of us used. So the landlord decides to charge us 8c per unit + 10e pm arbitrarily. I just wonder how that compares to your bills etc. If you remove the standing charge, what do you pay per unit gross with all taxes inclusive? I suppose it's annoying to work out so i don't know if I get charged similarly to other people. I suppose the standing charge of 91e vs 120e isnt too bad for a year. Annoying if others get charged less per unit however.

That sounds like a pretty strange set up to me .... It should be Bord Gais sending you a personal bill, not the LL deciding on a cost to charge you ...

The_Morrigan

That all sounds very dodge. Do you get sight of the bill the landlord receives?

Thoie

Are the communal areas also heated by gas? The landlord may be splitting the cost of the communal areas between all apartments. By having a single meter at source, there should be a single standing charge, thereby reducing costs for everyone. Let's say there are 5 apartments, each using 100 units each. The communal areas also use 100 units. Each apartment ends up paying for 120 units?

It's still a weird setup.

Tar.Aldarion

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

The reason why that is weird is because its just as easy to hook each apartment to its own meter, as it is to install one and put in additional private meters.

Do you have access to your meter? I'd check to see if it is actually private like he says it is.

I read my meter and give him the figures (it's in my apartment), I'm not sure if I have access to the main one. I really don't know why we don't have an account with bord gais each.

tinkerbell wrote: »

That sounds like a pretty strange set up to me .... It should be Bord Gais sending you a personal bill, not the LL deciding on a cost to charge you ...

Indeed that is why I am wondering if I am getting ripped off, as I have no idea with this current setup. I have lived here over a year before he threw on 10e pm charge, who is to say he doesn't up that? Although I spoke to him and he promised it would not go up. He claims that bord gais wont even tell him how much to charge per unit or how much he should charge tenants and that along with the bill for units that he gets a capacity charge, which we now pay. He says he "did not know about the charge before" which makes no sense. He is the one getting the bill. It is 12 apartments, each paying 10e now suddenly, so 120e per month, surely you notice if you are not getting that for all the years you are renting the places out...

The_Morrigan wrote: »

That all sounds very dodge. Do you get sight of the bill the landlord receives?

No, no sight of this bill. He didnt even tell me he was putting up the bill, there was suddenly jsut an extra charge on it.

Thoie wrote: »

Are the communal areas also heated by gas? The landlord may be splitting the cost of the communal areas between all apartments. By having a single meter at source, there should be a single standing charge, thereby reducing costs for everyone. Let's say there are 5 apartments, each using 100 units each. The communal areas also use 100 units. Each apartment ends up paying for 120 units?

It's still a weird setup.

There is no communal heating at all. AFAIK he says there is a "capacity charge", when I ring bord gais they say the don't know what this charge is. He said when he rang they say they don't either, but that he has been arguing for months over it as there is some charge that is on the bill anyway for quite a lot. He says if there is a bill of 250e for units that this "capacity charge" is over 200e. He has now reworded capacity charge on my bill to say standing charge.

The_Morrigan

I'd be telling him where to stick his arbitrary costs...no bill no money.

Tar.Aldarion

The_Morrigan wrote: »

I'd be telling him where to stick his arbitrary costs...no bill no money.

I got him to remove the charges for the months where he tried to charge us a 20e capacity charge... do you think I should just ask for the bill that he gets and work things out myself?

The_Morrigan

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

I got him to remove the charges for the months where he tried to charge us a 20e capacity charge... do you think I should just ask for the bill that he gets and work things out myself?

Yup tell him you either want a copy of his bill for your records or you want your own account.
Noone should be paying a bill they have no sight of, how can you tell if it's correct etc.

Tar.Aldarion

Yeah will do, it was ok before because 8c per unit all charges inclusive was grand, it was cheap and I could choose to not use gas but now I have this random fee that showed up which is not acceptable.

ted1

Your meter will be in m3, is he multiplying this figure by 8 cents or is he conveying to kwh? Roughly multiply by 11 then by 8 cents.

Fyi: he is probably in a large residential user tariff. They pay a capacity charge
http://www.bordgaisenergy.ie/help-and-questions/home/gas/tariffs/ but get gas a good bit cheaper,

tinkerbell

Google Bord Gais gas tariffs, you may even be getting ripped off with the 8c charge depending on your usage.

kerrycan

8 cent per unit?? sorry I know this is an old thread but I'm trying to work out my gas bill, we're new to Ireland and just received our first gas bill its 94.45 for 3 weeks and the rate is 3euro 5 cents. seemed high to us considering we have a smallish 2bed apartment but we only have the radiator on in the living room and bathroom, we dont heat anywhere else, came across this and saw your paying 8cent per unit is this right or am I missing something lol?

Tar.Aldarion

You are reading your rate wrong, yep it's 8 cent. It's 6c + charges generally. The there is a standing charge. So my landlord just says 8 cent + standingcharge.

You must have it on a lot? I wouldnt pay that for months in a 1 bedroom place

kerrycan

It says 'present - 2351. Previous - 2322. Rate - 3.05. Amount € - 88.45. Standing charge -6. Total due - 94.45'
We have it on for around an hour in the morning mainly the water for showering, don't tend to have it on in the daytime and then after around 7 we'll put it on and have it on at intervals until 10.30/11
It's the first time we've had a gas bill so no idea whether its normal or not but if youre paying 8cents think we will go speak to the landlord and see whats going on

Thoie

kerrycan wrote: »

8 cent per unit?? sorry I know this is an old thread but I'm trying to work out my gas bill, we're new to Ireland and just received our first gas bill its 94.45 for 3 weeks and the rate is 3euro 5 cents. seemed high to us considering we have a smallish 2bed apartment but we only have the radiator on in the living room and bathroom, we dont heat anywhere else, came across this and saw your paying 8cent per unit is this right or am I missing something lol?

Did you get a meter reading when you moved in? Does that tally with what's on the bill? If you didn't get a meter reading, it's possible you're paying for the last tenant's last bill. What supplier are you with? Take a look at bonkers.ie to compare tariffs. According to that site, an average household will spend between €850 and €1000 a year on gas, with winter bills being generally higher than summer.

Is there anything other than the central heating using gas? Cooker/oven/hot water?

The_Morrigan

kerrycan wrote: »

It says 'present - 2351. Previous - 2322. Rate - 3.05. Amount € - 88.45. Standing charge -6. Total due - 94.45'
We have it on for around an hour in the morning mainly the water for showering, don't tend to have it on in the daytime and then after around 7 we'll put it on and have it on at intervals until 10.30/11
It's the first time we've had a gas bill so no idea whether its normal or not but if youre paying 8cents think we will go speak to the landlord and see whats going on

Ring the gas company and ask them to explain the bill breakdown to you, alternatively go to their website, they typically have explanations available there.

ted1

So that works out at roughly 330 kwh
At 3.05c +.135% Vat =about 12 euro

.0305 is cheap who are you with ?
http://www.flogasnaturalgas.ie/comparerates.php

kerrycan

Yes we got a meter reading which was 2322 - the same as it says under 'previous', we cant find where the meter is to see if the 'present' number is correct though.
The cooker/oven uses electric so all the gas is including is heating and water which we only use for showering in the morning and theres only 2 of us. We even boil the kettle to wash up cuz the water usually takes to long to heat.
The thing is I don't even understand what company we are with, the bill we got was just a slip of paper through the letterbox not even got our names on it just our address and its headed 'xxxxxx (not sure if im allowed to put the name on here) Construction Ltd. Building and engineering. Gas supplied'. There is a website for them there but when I go onto it it just shows rental properties, and this is a different letting agents to the one we are renting through.
Very confusing!
Thanks for the replies.

ted1

kerrycan wrote: »

Yes we got a meter reading which was 2322 - the same as it says under 'previous', we cant find where the meter is to see if the 'present' number is correct though.
The cooker/oven uses electric so all the gas is including is heating and water which we only use for showering in the morning and theres only 2 of us. We even boil the kettle to wash up cuz the water usually takes to long to heat.
The thing is I don't even understand what company we are with, the bill we got was just a slip of paper through the letterbox not even got our names on it just our address and its headed 'xxxxxx (not sure if im allowed to put the name on here) Construction Ltd. Building and engineering. Gas supplied'. There is a website for them there but when I go onto it it just shows rental properties, and this is a different letting agents to the one we are renting through.
Very confusing!
Thanks for the replies.

Ignore it, ring your landlord and tell them you want the bills in your own name.

Is there a gas boiler in your apartment?

kerrycan

Well the letting agent is coming round this week to do a 'first month inspection' so I'll speak to them about it then. We don't even have details of how we're supposed to pay the bill. Really not happy as we didn't even have gas over the weekend we went in on Friday as it had gone off and they called the company who we've now had a bill off and told us a sensor was missing and it would be back on by the afternoon, didn't come back till Sunday and of course the office was closed no response to calls/emails so we had no heating or hot water and my husbands now ill presumably because we had to sit in the cold all weekend.
Yes we have a gas boiler in the apartment.

testicle

I have something similar here. The gas is not mains, it's a private supply and each dwelling has their own meter off it.

The_Conductor

Normally its a little over 9c a unit for the first 3000'ish units- falling to a little over 6c a unit thereafter (plus 91 Euro standing charge)

Tar- it would appear to me that you're not getting the cheapest gas around- but for low usage, you'd be hard pressed to do better.

It is an unusual arrangement- but not unheard of- what would normally be happening here- is the landlord or the Management Company have a special large retail user tariff- and are supplying you out of this tariff- but covering the upkeep, meters etc so they'd have to charge something towards that (even Bord Gais have their 91 Euro connection charge).

All-in-all, its not bad.

Tar.Aldarion

Yeah I cant complain 8 months gas was 250e, last year without the standing charge we would have paid 170 for the 8 months, so I suppose that was a ridiculous bargain.