Organising and Paying Bills

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Once you have signed for your house, you need to decide what bills are going to have to be paid? There are several you should keep an eye out for

• Electricity
• Gas
• Water
• TV Licence
• TV Cable and Sky
• Telephone
• Broadband
• Council Tax
• Food Essentials

Some such as the TV Licence and the Council Tax come as bills usually come as one lump sum and are easilly paid off quickly as most people come to university with a decent amount of money from the summer. In most cases you do not have to pay council tax as you are students. See the Council Tax page for further details.

When it comes renting a house, money and paying the bills comes as one of the biggest reasons for a house falling apart. To prevent this happening you should set up a house bank account, which everyone pays a reasonable amount of money into at the beginning of each term when the loan comes through.

If you have any meters in your house for measuring electricity, water or gas, note down the numbers on them on the day you get the keys from the landlord. This means that you are not charged for domestic supplies you have not used.

Previous tenants debts

If a previous tenant has run up debts for anything you should refer the company requesting money to your landlord or agency who should have their contact details on file.

Electricity

First thing you must do when you receive your keys is read the meter, take a note of it and keep it in a safe place (just because you phone it in does not mean the supplier won't lose it somehow). You need to then find out who supplied the property you can do this by looking for any welcome letters, asking the landlord/agency or you can also phone up MPAS Make contact with them as soon as possible and register all the students in the house for the date your tenancy started (you are liable if your tenancy started in July even if you don't move in until September). It is important you have everyones name on the account as if there are any unpaid bills you don't want to be getting chased for them.

Have a look around and see where you can get the best deal, websites such as Energy Helpline will be able to do a comparison for you, also note some landlords will not let you change supplier, so check your tenancy agreement. While you are switching or before you switch make sure you are not on a standard tariff, there is nearly always a cheaper tariff available, however you may need to register online for certain tariffs. It is also always cheaper to pay by a monthly direct debit, if you do go this way keep an eye on your monthly payments as they may dramatically increase.

The two most common meters found in a property are a general one rate meter where all usage is charged the same and does not depend on time of day, or there maybe an Economy 7 meter. An Economy 7 meter is a two rate meter which count your usage in the day and night periods separately, these are most commonly found in all electric properties where there are storage heaters and hot water immersion boilers, these take advantage of a cheaper night rate but you do have a slighty more expensive day rate. If possible when on an Economy 7 meter try and use heavy usage items during the 'cheap' hours, such as washing machines, tumble dryers etc.

Avoid estimates bills by providing meter reading regularly, at least every 3 months. And most importantly take a meter reading on your last day of tenancy and provide this to your supplier, you don't want to be paying for the next tenants.

Gas

First of all you need to find out if you are supplied with gas. This should have been made clear to you when you looked around the house

To find who your gas supplier is, contact the National Grid's 'Meter Number Helpline' on 0870 608 1524.

Water

Commonly known as the rates, Water bills are sometimes paid by your landlord as part of your rent. You should check this before you move in. It should be stated in your contract.

In Scotland, Water rates are free provided you have registered your student status with the local council. This is usually sorted out in University Halls of residences and only applies when privately renting.

TV Licence

TV Licence

TV Cable and Sky

Cable and Sky are optional, but some people like to have the comforts of sports and movie channels and the main suppliers of broadband (Virgin Media and Sky) offer some very good packages for TV if you get their broadband.

You can get a limited range of digital channels by purchasing a Freeview box

Telephone

Another optional thing. Many student houses do not bother with a telephone connection unless their internet connection demands it.

Broadband

Almost essential in a student house. Ensure you check the contract and do not sign up for a longer than 12 month contract. To get released from a broadband company should be done automatically, but if not you have to contact some people who I do not know

Council Tax

Council Tax

Food Essentials

Some houses eat together and contribute to the food bill. Some just share essential things like the milk and bread, which everyone contributes to.

Test Edit - Noxid 20:12, 11 August 2007 (BST)