High electricity bill in a house share : dispute over the bill

Owen2346

Hi,
I've just recently received quite a high electricity bill from airtricity.
Used to be with the ESB, our bill was about 120 for Oct-Nov, actual meter reading. First bill from airtricity December - January was 129.99, that was based on an estimated meter reading.

Our bill from February - March came in at 574 euros.
I rang them straight away and gave them a meter reading which brought it down to 532 euros.

I'm guessing that a lot of the new bill is there due to a bad estimate back in Dec-Jan. But still, this is insane.

I live in a house share with 2 others.
As you all know it was a bitter cold winter, so keeping warm was a costly affair for everyone.

I have an open fire place in my room, where I burnt a lot of coal, brickettes and wood over the winter.
The other 2 tenants use 2000kw heaters to heat their rooms.
The heaters work out at around 25c p/h to run.
Fuel for the open fire is not cheap either.

I grew up in an old house with no central heating, I'm used to the cold and to fire places. I made my choice to use that instead of an electric heater.

Both of my housemates are students, IT students. They spend a lot of time in their rooms with their laptops working at their college stuff.

I put it to them that perhaps they could pay more for this bill, considering I paid for all the fuel I used in my fireplace and that they were using the heaters quite a lot to heat their own rooms, contributing to this gigantic bill.

1 refused straight out.
The other is going to give it some thought.

I'm really surprised at how unreasonable they are being.
But I really don't want to create a bad atmosphere in the house.

The account is in my name and is paid by direct debit, I can't change out of direct debit unless I give airtricity a 300 euro deposit. So for now I have arranged to make the payment by installments.

My questions are

Has anybody else run into a similiar situation ?
How did they deal with it?
Am I being completely unreasonable?
Should I let it slide? (I'm unemployed and will take a big hit paying this off, that's not saying that they won't either)

I suggested that maybe they want to pay a third of my heating expenses over the winter period. I was laughed at..

foggy_lad

The bill is in your name so they could move out tomorrow and pay you nothing, how you heated your own room is nothing to do with them even though a coal fire would have provided some level of heat for the whole house, but the way they may see it is they used a heater and whatever you used is not their concern and look for the bill to be split equally three ways.

MunsterCycling

Get the €100 deposit from them at the same time, if not then let them swing, just cut them off at the fuse box

dudara

Moved to Accomodation & Property as this is more advice on managing residential arrangements

dudara

not even wrong

Sorry but you are in the wrong, the standard is that all bills are divided equally among flatmates unless specifically agreed otherwise in advance.

Yes they probably could make some sort of gesture of goodwill in the circumstances but you shouldn't push it or make any demands.

tara73

it's a tricky situation, I would agree that the best would have been you braught this up beforehand, as you knew you would not be using the electricity for heating. but how you describe it you wouldn't have guessed such a high bill either, as it was an unforeseeable hard winter.

so I understand you don't want to pay the third of this bill. but I can't see your flatmates will understand that. so either you fight for it and probably fall out with them to get your money or you'll pay your third with gritted teeth.

as well I would observe the meter. could it be that it's faulty, did airtricity do some 'repair' works on it after you changed to them?

Owen2346

Thanks for the responses. (and for moving the topic to a more relevant place)

I initially didn't want to suggest that the bill be divided any other way than by 3.

But considering the size of it, I felt I had to.

Consider one of those heaters on for an average of 5 hours a day.
it comes to roughly 70 euros for a 2 month period. then mulitply that by 2.
I'm using 5 hours as an average, as one of them said he had it on everyday for up to 10 hours a day when it was cold.

The specific number is not possible to find, needless to say though, those heaters cost a lot if overused.

I made sure to let them know that I wasn't making any demands of them, merely giving them the facts. I am sure that I will end up paying a third of this bill. I was just putting it to them in case they wanted to be nice.

And also because I'm suspicious of how negligent they can be.
Example. Arriving home from a night out and finding the little hot air heater left on in the bathroom, taps left running, oven left on, hob left on. It happens not regularly but it's happened enough to be concerned.
Who's to say that they didn't sleep with their heaters on overnight.

It's the only thing that would warrant such a large bill.
And re the meter being faulty, we've ruled that out.

And I know, you're right. This should have been brought up beforehand.
I just feel like I'm paying extra for someone elses comforts.
Which I wouldn't mind, except I'm broke :P

Guess this is a lesson to me.

tanyabond

E660 for four months sounds mind-blowing... Is there absolutely no possibility of a mistake? After all airtricity are claiming to be cheaper than ESB...

D3PO

the answer to your question is in the title

house SHARE. You have a cheek to ask them to pay more of the bill.

Zamboni

Owen2346 wrote: »

Hi,

First bill from airtricity December - January was 129.99, that was based on an estimated meter reading.

Our bill from February - March came in at 574 euros.
I rang them straight away and gave them a meter reading which brought it down to 532 euros.

Personally I think the bill is wrong.
That would be over a years electricity suply for me.

ztoical

D3PO wrote: »

the answer to your question is in the title

house SHARE. You have a cheek to ask them to pay more of the bill.

By that logic though should they not be expected to pay a protion of the solid fuel costs then? The bill is clearly bigger then other bills they've had and it's also clear the major difference between earlier bills and this one was the over use of the heaters which the OP did not use.

I don't agree it's as a black and white as everyone is making out but I do think you've little come back now OP as you've brought the issue up after the fact. The bill doesn't sound overly massive to me if they were running two of those heaters pretty constently for two months, they eat up power so they do. You might just have to take it as a lesson for next time.

JohnK

tanyabond wrote: »

E660 for four months sounds mind-blowing... Is there absolutely no possibility of a mistake? After all airtricity are claiming to be cheaper than ESB...

Zamboni wrote: »

Personally I think the bill is wrong.
That would be over a years electricity suply for me.

While I'm with ESB rather than Airtricity high bills for electric (storage) heaters are an unfortunate reality, I live alone in a two bed appartment and my electricity bill for Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar was for E695 . And its only that low because I basically slashed the heater use in Feb & Mar.

BostonB

Personally I wouldn't share a house with people who use electric heaters over the winter. TBH you should have stopped this when you saw them doing it. Doing it now is a little late.

tanyabond

JohnK wrote: »

While I'm with ESB rather than Airtricity high bills for electric (storage) heaters are an unfortunate reality, I live alone in a two bed appartment and my electricity bill for Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar was for E695 . And its only that low because I basically slashed the heater use in Feb & Mar.

695 is huge!!! Esp for one person. I guess the OPs bill is not too bad then since it's between the three of them...

seanmc1980

your just going to have to take this one on the chin buddy! unless you agreed to and electricty split at the time of moving in, bill should be split evenly down the middle.

Victor

not even wrong wrote: »

Sorry but you are in the wrong, the standard is that all bills are divided equally among flatmates unless specifically agreed otherwise in advance.

Its a little bit mroe complicated than that. Doe shte coal used in the fire count as part of the heating bill?

In providing heat, coal is probably cheaper than electricity.

Amalgam

Electric oil radiators are big energy users, are you sure it is just 25c an hour? that sounds low..

I got stung using one or two around the house. If they're being used or left on during the day..

Have you got a timer on the immersion?

Ste.phen

Amalgam wrote: »

Electric oil radiators are big energy users, are you sure it is just 25c an hour? that sounds low..

A 2KW heater probably costs about 25c an hour, which isn't so bad until you work out how many 25c hours are in each two month bill (an hour a day comes to 15 euro extra on the bill for that one heater)

Knasher

I use a lot of electricity, more than almost all of the other people I've lived down the years, due to all the technology I seem to collect and I've always insisted that I pay a higher percentage of the ESB bill. Obviously I can only make a very rough estimate of how much more I use in compassion to others, but I'd feel pretty guilty in saddling others if I were to insist on splitting it 50/50. I don't think you are being unreasonable at all asking them to pay for more of their usage over the winter.

That being said, if you agreed to an even split when you first moved in, then if they refuse there isn't anything you can really do. Best you can do is insist on a fairer allocation going forward and if they don't agree, move out.

Amalgam

Ste.phen wrote: »

A 2KW heater probably costs about 25c an hour, which isn't so bad until you work out how many 25c hours are in each two month bill (an hour a day comes to 15 euro extra on the bill for that one heater)

Have two on in two different rooms, with no idea when or for how long they might be on..

pooch90

Have you checked the bill properly? I switched to Airtricity and they whacked on a €200 deposit. Are you sure this isn't part of the bill?

Sparky_Larks

Electricity bill should be split three ways

So should solid fuel bill

Oh_Noes

You've absolutely no comeback on this in reality but if they're reasonable guys then I'd suggest all three of you have a sit around the kitchen table. You present them with some figures in relation to the heater usage and the bill, maybe they'd rather pay than create ill-will in their place of residence. Even if you could agree to split it 20/40/40 or something along those lines. Seems fair enough to me. Worth a shot.

That's on the presumption that your fireplace isn't heating a backburner which then heats the water/radiators. In that case I'd split it three ways and then present them with a solid fuel bill which is also split three ways.

eilo1

Iv lived in a good few house shares over the years and I have to say if I was in that situation I would be pointing out (very nicely) that I had paid for my heating through the solid fuel. (although in reality I would point this out from day one or just get an electric heater and split the bill evenly TBH)

Anyways the point is I don't think you are being unreasonable. However you may just have to bite the bullet for the sake of the house share. Next winter just get an electric heater and share the cost out between you. If you cant beat them..............

johnmcdnl

how much money are you going to save by arguing with them?? just take a hit this time but know for next winter and make sure you tell them in advance that your going to be using solid fuel and your not going to pay for the higher electricity bill...

as you say you don't want to fall out with them so just take a small hit this time and take it as a lesson learned

ArphaRima

http://www.diykyoto.com/uk/wattson/about
Get one of these. You can monitor live energy usage and also graph its use over time. I find it fascinating in my house to see things like the kettle boiling, the iron heating and the electric shower running. Energy abuse is impossible.

Electric heaters are insane things to use to heat a house. You should have brought that up immediately and agreed on a way of paying the inevitably horrific bill.. However now that the bill has arrived you must split it 3 ways -you have no right to enforce an uneven split in the bill. You can only ask, and it is likely as you have learnt that they will tell you to goan sh1te.
Learn from this.

magneticimpulse

I know an Irish guy sharing with 2 Indian students. They had these heaters in their room on 24 hours a day. The bill was similar price. So I do actually believe its a true bill and not a mistake based on other stories ive heard.

The friend put it forward to the housemates asking "why was it so expensive". Eventually the 2 Indian guys owned up to saying they had these heaters on 24 hours a day. I dont blame them since they prob used to 40C back in India and in Ireland it was as low as -17C during winter.

The friend suggested would they not just get some hot water bottles and get warmer clothes/duvets/blankets etc. Obviously its a bit late now to say that (but maybe people on here might learn for future with housemates who come from warm climates to warn them its not cheap in ireland to run electric heaters).

Anyway my point is that eventually these guys paid up extra for how much it cost. They calculated the difference between the "normal bill" with no electric heaters and then the new bill and the Indian guys paid the difference (the bit extra).

You dont really have a stand in this case, only that you could drop hints and make them feel bad and point out that they used this electricity and its not fair.

I wouldnt be too nice to them either. They are just housemates. I would always put my foot down with housemates if they do crazy stuff. Otherwise how will these people ever learn?

They obviously did not take you into consideration when they were baking themselves in the heat x hours a day. So why should you pussy foot around the situation? You should stand your guard. I think they will pay the difference if you go about it the right way. Definitely make them feel bad and drop major hints about how you would love to go out/on holidays but you cant because the bills are getting so expensive etc

jamesbrond

foggy_lad wrote: »

The bill is in your name so they could move out tomorrow and pay you nothing, how you heated your own room is nothing to do with them even though a coal fire would have provided some level of heat for the whole house, but the way they may see it is they used a heater and whatever you used is not their concern and look for the bill to be split equally three ways.

I think you need to understand what is happening to the heat in the rest of the house when you use your fireplace.
You have actually blown their heat up your chimney.
While you may not have been cold due to the radiated heat from the fire in your room, what was actually happening was that you were sucking the warm air from the rest of the house too, under doors etc into your room and pushing it straight out through the chimney.
So then they have to keep the electric heaters on longer to make up for that warm air leaving the rest of the house.

Id say you probably owe them money intead tbh, but its a house share so you divide by 3 regardless of whose fault it was. Even though you didnt realise it, you were causing draughts all over the house. What you should have done was put a balloon into the chimney and not used the fireplace at all, unless it was in a communal room.

jamesbrond

JohnK wrote: »

While I'm with ESB rather than Airtricity high bills for electric (storage) heaters are an unfortunate reality, I live alone in a two bed appartment and my electricity bill for Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar was for E695 . And its only that low because I basically slashed the heater use in Feb & Mar.

We pay the ESB bill for my father who lives in a 2 bed apartment and has only electric storage heating. His bills add up to half yours and hes not out at work either.
Storage heating used correctly should never be that high. Unfortunately most people dont bother to find out how to use it. Id say you will slash your bills if you do some research.