Singing Pig

It would depend on how you do it. If it is being misused and you explain to them in a reasonable manner what your plan is, I really do not see why not. Plus, the fact that you are paying the bills means you have a level of management to maintain. Management evolves and is not static. Also, the idea is not to inconvenience them at all but to create a win-win situation. Whatever settings is put on the boiler and timer will have to be reasonable to keep the property in a warm condition with enough hot water. The idea is just so it is not kept on all day, as some tenants will even 'forget' to turn it off. I've personally done this in two separate properties and have had no complaints. I used to walk into a blazing hot property and the tenants had all gone to work, yet no-one knew who had left the heating on. I spoke to my plumber who suggested this, so I went ahead and it worked well. You'll have to gauge what will work well for you. These are simply suggestions of what's worked for others.

Hi all,

 Yes lock the boiler up!, I have done this; it works!
One summer a few years ago I got a gas bill of £140 A MONTH!, because someone was leaving the heating on to dry their clothes, even though it was 80degs outside; I was rather mad!
As for electric it is tricky, I find lots of tenants (in an HMO) have game console, large tv's, stereo's, PC's etc. all on all the time and (of course) as they don't pay the bills leave the lights on.
They never learn or care so I just increase their rent every 6 or 12 months, using increasing energy bills as the excuse. It's usually only £10 per person (so maybe an extra 50 quid per house) but that helps.

But, by including bills in a fixed rent, I do tend to get more calls when a room is vacant. Quite simply they use the electric & gas not me, so they will pay.

Quite often the housemates "blame" one individual for constant electric wastage. So I increase his/her rent more - then they leave. Usually the bills then do drop as you've got rid of the "non-green" tenant! :-)))

 

Cheers

It seems that a lot of households are on a Economy 7 tariff, which only saves money if you have nightstorage heaters. It's worth checking it as you'll be charged a lot more for your daytime energy. The energy supplier will change the meter free of charge and get you on a different, cheaper tariff.

I have just done that. Overpaid for 7 years with 3 different suppliers and none of them gave me this advise. You tent to just go with whatever meter you find in the house... Lucky them - silly me! Approx. £1400 wasted - grrr.

In my uni halls, we had light switches which when pushed in would gradually, over about 30 mins, push out and switch themselves off.

 

Would something like this be an option for the landing, hallway etc? The only problem I can think of is if the tenant wanted the light on for just 2 minutes, they wouldnt be able to switch it off.....just have to wait 30 mins for it to go off by itself.......

 

Any ideas about this???/

Cheers 

You can get a timer switch from Screwfix that you can adjust to keep the light on for between 2 minutes and 2 hours. (I'd go for 2 mins. Those universities are too generous!)

Oh for those halcyon days when you bought a few electric meters out of the Exchange and Mart and wired them in yourself, set them to charge what you wanted, then go round and empty them every week.

 

Thanks for the reply

Have you ever used these switches?? How practical are they??

I'm thinking about it, but will probably just have a word with the tenants.

For those of you with multiple properties and a decent contract you might want to switch all the utilities to Utility Warehouse. Would mean upto £40 extra per letting plus 5% of their spend back as commission. And just one call / web form at the change over of tenants!

Where the utilities are rolled into the rent you are also guaranteed savings over British Gas, local electricity supplier rates and BT (line and calls).

 Utility Warehouse does mobile phones, internet and a cash back card (how would your tenants feel if you got them 5% back on their weekly shop at Sainsburys?)

http://www.purple-piggy.com will take you into the Utility Warehouse site. Utility Warehouse operate on a referral /network marketing basis. They saved me money so I am happy to promote them to others. I get a commission for doing this. So can you.