Charges for Heating/Bins in new apartment; how much does it cost to heat an apartment

mollymosfet

My new Landlord is looking for €12 a week for heating and bins. I am located in Cork City center.

Basically, the heating is on for 6 hours a day(maximum) for 4 months in the year(maximum). It was only turned on recently so most of October I had to use an electric heater and some parts of the house were very cold. They are looking for €12 a week, for gas heating and bins. It's possible the gas are overcharging.

I've tried working it out. There is one bin for the whole house; it's not a double bin either, one of the larger single ones. There's no recycling(which really annoys me).

This charge amounts to 624 a year. I can't imagine Bin charges being more than about 50 a person, 100 max. We'll say it costs €550 a year for the heating; which amounts to €137 a month during the months it's on, and nearly €5 a day(!), given it's on for 6 hours(probably less) it's nearly a euro an hour.

In my last house, I remember gas being expensive but not that expensive. I'd spend maybe €60 a month during winter for heating and cooking.

It being a standard charge means I can't cut back on my usage too. I spend much of the day out and much of the month back at my parents.

What can I do in this situation? Even with rising gas prices it's unreasonable. How much should it be costing a day to heat the apartment? Keep in mind while it's a fairly large apartment for one person, there's only one radiator that's going to be on most of the time, really.

Does anyone have any experience with this? €12 is a lot for me to be paying.

dudara

Moved to Accommodation & Property

dudara

djimi

What kind of accomodation is it? If its an apartment then tell him to forward you the bills and let you pay for what you use on a month to month basis.

Not really sure how much your bins are costing, but to give you an example to get a 6 month contract with AES in my area would cost €160, which works out at around €26 a month. So youre looking at €25 a month on heating (realistically €50 considering you probably wont have any heat on for 6 months of the year). It costs us about that to heat our apartment using electric heating.

housetypeb

Why don't you ask to put the gas and the bins into your name for the house? That's the usual way of doing things.
Greenstar,for example, will supply 3 medium sized bins for 285/year.
It seems the landlord wants to make a profit supplying services to you.

mollymosfet

It's one large big shared between about 5-6 people in the apartment. I doubt it costs more than €50 each a year.

MariMel

I dont know about where you are but I would love to only have to pay €12 a week for heating and bins. 6hrs a day is a lot to have heating on imo.

you think a bin only costs €50 a year??? or €250 (5 x 5 people)
Even €250 is decent if not cheap. Up here it can work out at approx €30/35 a month and that can only mean 1 collection every 2 weeks.

Personally I think you are getting off light with €12 a week.

Midnight Sundance

12e a week heating AND bins ?? Have you even tried to buy one of those bin tags which is for one bag?? Believe me if you do buy one you will hop skip and jump to the landlord with your 12e and hope that he hasn't hit his head and made a mistake in charging you so little!! I probably wouldn't see the sniff if 50e a week heating , tbh I'd say it will be more now that winters rolling in.
Honestly I wouldn't be complaining...

L1011

Midnight Sundance wrote: »

12e a week heating AND bins ?? Have you even tried to buy one of those bin tags which is for one bag?? Believe me if you do buy one you will hop skip and jump to the landlord with your 12e and hope that he hasn't hit his head and made a mistake in charging you so little!! I probably wouldn't see the sniff if 50e a week heating , tbh I'd say it will be more now that winters rolling in.
Honestly I wouldn't be complaining...

€50 a week heating = 2500 a year. My gas bills for the entire year are about 350 euro... and I'd have the heating on a lot longer than the OP says his is on for, and cook on it.

I don't think the OP is being particularly ripped off but its nowhere near as good a deal as you're making out.

goat2

you sound like someone who has just left home and just finding out about what it costs to live, but this is a great fee

i dont know how you think that you can heat a home and supply bins for only 12 per week, and you are complaining,
my leccy bill for only two of us is about 200e in the two months,
my heating which is only on for about four hours per day, is about 20 euro per week, my bins cost about 400 each year, so now do the sums,
then take into account insurances, upkeeping, and everything else,

you are getting away very lightly with that, i would jump at a chance to have that kind of bill in my place.

ted1

In apartments bins should be included in rent. If It's electric heating then the bill should be in your name. Is it an apartment block or a house converted

The_Conductor

ted1 wrote: »

In apartments bins should be included in rent. If It's electric heating then the bill should be in your name. Is it an apartment block or a house converted

In an apartment- a landlord is obliged to provide bins (refuse collection service), he or she is not obliged to pay for it however- polluter pays principle applies in most cases. You create the waste, you pay to dispose of waste.

With respect of heat- 6 hours a day, 6 months a year, seems pretty reasonable to me.

Its a bit like asking how long is a piece of string given that none of us have seen the apartment, or have any idea of its BER or size- but the 12 quid a week for heating and bins seems remarkable value to me.

StillWaters

MYOB wrote: »

€50 a week heating = 2500 a year. My gas bills for the entire year are about 350 euro... and I'd have the heating on a lot longer than the OP says his is on for, and cook on it.

I don't think the OP is being particularly ripped off but its nowhere near as good a deal as you're making out.

I don't believe you heat a house for 6 hours a day, and cook for €30 a month. The low usage charges are more than that.

L1011

StillWaters wrote: »

I don't believe you heat a house for 6 hours a day, and cook for €30 a month. The low usage charges are more than that.

No low usage charge on flogas (mains not tank). Usually have 3 bimonthly bills of less than 30, two about 70 and one over 100

Carawaystick

So it's 3.1k for the apartment for a year? for heating and bins???

I'd ask the ll for receipts for the heating and waste. If the ll is profiting on this then they may need a license from cer for re-selling gas or from the Local authority for waste services. Or the ll might just soften their cough a bit.

ghogie91

I live in an apartment with 3 other people- I pay 15 a week to go towards ESB and FloGas (or whatever the name of the gas is) and then 4.50 every fortnight towards recycling AND refuse

it amounts to 897 a year and thats forecasting using the heating in both summer and winter equally- I understand that this will be up and down during summer and winter months, but overall will average itself out!

jd

Carawaystick wrote: »

So it's 3.1k for the apartment for a year? for heating and bins???

I'd ask the ll for receipts for the heating and waste. If the ll is profiting on this then they may need a license from cer for re-selling gas or from the Local authority for waste services. Or the ll might just soften their cough a bit.

The OP is being charged 624 euro a year for heating and waste. It seems more like a flat (converted house) than an apartment. There is probably one central heating system for all the flats in the house.

mollymosfet

MariMel wrote: »

I dont know about where you are but I would love to only have to pay €12 a week for heating and bins. 6hrs a day is a lot to have heating on imo.

you think a bin only costs €50 a year??? or €250 (5 x 5 people)
Even €250 is decent if not cheap. Up here it can work out at approx €30/35 a month and that can only mean 1 collection every 2 weeks.

Personally I think you are getting off light with €12 a week.

The place I was in cost about €60 max each for the bins(shared bins). This is an house with maybe 5 flats, so it's split. The same goes for the standing charge of the Gas as it's basically one connection.

Heating cost me around €60 a month last winter. It doesn't add up.

you sound like someone who has just left home and just finding out about what it costs to live, but this is a great fee

No, I've been living on my own for some years now. Charges were nowhere near this much in the last flat.

my heating which is only on for about four hours per day, is about 20 euro per week, my bins cost about 400 each year, so now do the sums,

I couldn't even find anywhere that would have cost that much for bins. Your heating sounds extremely inefficient. Where are you living, D4?

With respect of heat- 6 hours a day, 6 months a year, seems pretty reasonable to me.

4 months a year here, and when I just came back to my place today just after 8 the radiators were dead cold. So no clue when they're even on.

I live in an apartment with 3 other people- I pay 15 a week to go towards ESB and FloGas (or whatever the name of the gas is) and then 4.50 every fortnight towards recycling AND refuse

it amounts to 897 a year and thats forecasting using the heating in both summer and winter equally- I understand that this will be up and down during summer and winter months, but overall will average itself out!

This isn't including ESB. And you sound like you're being aped on Bins.

Are people just used to being ripped off here?

The OP is being charged 624 euro a year for heating and waste. It seems more like a flat (converted house) than an apartment. There is probably one central heating system for all the flats in the house.

This is correct. I should have said flat, not apartment. It is a converted house. I am the only person in my flat. I'm basically paying this much for 2, maybe 3 radiators to be on for 4-6 hours a day. Also given the fact that I'm not even here for a week in the month, it's even more of a rip off. I need to be able to control if. Ideally I could just turn my radiators off, and the LL could charge me a little less. That'd make sense to me.

littleredspot

Did you not know about this charge before you moved in?

If the house is being let as separate units, should there not be separate electricity meters for each flat? But then you'd have to pay the standing charge.

Have you asked any of your neighbours (in the house) about the charge?

jd

littleredspot wrote: »

Did you not know about this charge before you moved in?

If the house is being let as separate units, should there not be separate electricity meters for each flat? But then you'd have to pay the standing charge.

Have you asked any of your neighbours (in the house) about the charge?

There is separate electricity but shared central heating. Old house converted into flats.

The_Conductor

12 quid a week doesn't seem extortionate by any means.

mollymosfet

^ 12 quid a week for 4 months worth of heating, 6 hours a day(I had it on more in my old place) meaning it's about 36 quid a week for when it's actually on. Only one connection so standing charge will be split and therefore negligible.

Also, I still have no heating, and no contact from the landlady.