Who does send and get the power bills after tenant has moved out?

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Greendrake

86 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#179145 28-Aug-2015 15:13

Let's say there is a house tenanted by Mr. John Smith and owned by Mr. David Brown.

A while ago, Mr. Smith chose a company A to be his electricity retailer, and has been receiving power bills from them monthly since then. The actual wires that physically deliver electricity to the house are owned by company B, but Mr. Smith does not care about that as it is a matter of relationship between the companies B and A only.

Now, Mr. Smith ends his tenancy and moves out of the property on say the 31st of August. He has sent a notice to company A saying that the 31st of August is the last day he wants them to bill him for power supplied at the property. They said "OK, no problem".

Mr. Brown, the owner of the house, lives elsewhere and has not yet found a new tenant. Meanwhile, shortly after Mr. Smith has moved out, a local homeless guy, Jeff Johnson, noted that nobody is living in the house and decided to take advantage of that. He gets in now and again, boils water, uses electric heaters etc. etc. Here is the question: who, i.e. which company will send the bills for electricity consumed at the property from the 1st of September, and to whom?

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graemeh

2080 posts

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#1375742 28-Aug-2015 15:32

The wire between the house and the network is actually owned by Mr David Brown.

As Mr John Smith (JS) told Company A that he was moving out and to close the account his liability for power stopped on 31 August.

Mr David Brown has not asked a retailer to provide power to the house so he has no liability either.

When Ms Judy Jones (JJ) rents the house and asks Company C to supply power she should provide them with a starting reading and will be responsible to pay for power from that point.

The power supplied to the house between when JS moved out and when JJ moves in is "lost" in the system. I'm not sure if the retailer wears the cost or if it is a "system" cost. Normally this is not a problem because the cost of disconnecting and reconnecting the power would far outweigh the cost of the power consumed.

If the house is empty for long enough the power will be disconnected.

You mention ownership of the wires, normally the customer has no direct relationship with the company who owns the wires although Auckland is a little different with Vector.

raytaylor

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Trusted

#1375835 28-Aug-2015 17:25

Its up to the electricity retailer to request that the power be disconnected.

In 99% of situations, the new home occupant will have organised a power connection before they move in, to be active on the transfer day. If the electricity retailer is the same company, its super easy for them.

The previous occupant will supply a closing meter reading, and at the same time the new occupant will supply a start meter reading.

The lines company that owns the meter will sort out the descrepancy with the retailer.

There is no way for a lines company or power generating company to directly invoice a home owner. It has to go through a retailer and a retailer needs to have a supply agreement in place.

Its very much like the telecommunications industry - chorus cant invoice you directly, chorus can only invoice a retailer, and a retailer can only invoice you if you have requested service.

However this statement will make sense to you:
The lines company charges a daily connection fee - approx $1.50
No retailer will leave the power connected unless they have a paying subscriber. $70 per month can kill their margins on the address so its normal policy to disconnect service ASAP if there is no new paying subscriber that has confirmed they will be continuing service.

Sure power does get "lost" in between tennants but that is generally minimal amounts.

If a customer ends their service, but the retailer keeps the power connected, the retailer will loose money as they still need to pay the daily connection charge and any consumption during the time when they have no official paying subscriber.

Smart meters can be remotely controlled to switch on/off and so disconnections and reconnections are dropping in cost.

Ray Taylor

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