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tenant info >bills

bills

What bills and how much?

Student Houses Cardiff help you set up all your bills and utilities, free of charge. Bills are shared between all the tenants and are on average £9 per person, per week for all water, gas, electricity, broadband and TV licence. (Our properties are well insulated with modern, efficient boilers which helps keep your bills down significantly.) You are liable for payment of all utility charges from the start date of your tenancy agreement.

Paying your Bills

We suggest to tenants that the easiest way to manage bills is to set up a joint household bank account, in everyone's names. Everyone pays in approximately £10 a week by standing order. You can then give your utility suppliers the account details and pay them by direct debit from this account. The £10 a week should cover gas, electricity, water, broadband and tv licence. You usually get a discount for paying by direct debit too.

Gas, Electricity and Water

When you move into a Student Houses Cardiff property water, gas and electricity will all be connected. We contact the providers and give them your names and contact details and the metre readings that we take when you move in.

You will get billed every three months for gas and electricity and every six months for water if it is on a water meter. Monthly payment can be arranged if water is rated (a fixed annual charge).

You are welcome to change providers whenever you like, but ask you to let us know when you have done this.

Contact: to find out who currently supplies the gas and electricity contact the following (you'll need to give them the property address and postcode):

• For Electricity – MPower tel: 01752 502 299
• For Gas – Transco tel: 08706 081 524
• All water is supplied by Welsh Water tel: 0800 052 0145

Internet

All our properties have broadband internet but it is generally turned off when the previous tenants vacate, so new tenants need to arrange a new account and have this activated. If you want this ready for when you move in, you should allow at least 2 weeks to arrange this, as the start of term is a busy time of year. During September Virgin Media and other providers go around student areas with flyers of the latest deals, so it can be best to wait until then.

Installation of satellite or cable
If you want to arrange a new installation of satellite or cable (including Virgin Media) this will be at your cost and you must request our permission in writing in advance. We will need to supervise installation.

Contact: There are a variety of internet providers. One of the most popular with students is Virgin Media. For Virgin Media contact customer services to set up your account and reactivate Virgin Media services (broadband/tv/telephone) in the property.

Telephone

We leave it up to tenants to set up telephone connections. Therefore some of our houses will have connections and some won't, depending on what the previous students set up. Please contact us to check with the previous tenants what services they had.

Any connection charges required by British Telecom or other suppliers must be paid by you. You can save the BT connection charge by taking over the telephone service on the same day the previous tenants vacate (in June before your tenancy starts). Contact us for the tenants' details and you can make arrangements with them to transfer the connection to your name as from the start of your tenancy.

TV licence

A colour tv licence costs £145.50 per year (in 2010) . Most of our houses have a joint tenancy agreement (check with us to make sure). If there is a joint tenancy agreement for the whole house, you only need one licence. If you don't have a licence between you, whoever is found watching TV when an Enquiry Officer visits you is the one who risks a prosecution and a fine. If you have a separate tenancy agreement for your room, you need your own licence.

Council Tax

We inform the Council that our tenants are all students and therefore not liable to Council Tax.

Money Saving Tips

Change of utility supplier
You can save £200 a year by choosing the cheapest gas/electricity supplier when you move in, rather than just sticking with who the previous tenants used. We recommend the following website to compare prices, www.energyhelpline.com You should take over the existing supply first and then switch to the new supplier. Please make sure that if you change your utility supplier you inform us.

Energy Saving Tip
It is worth investing in energy saving lightbulbs. Energy saving light bulbs last up to 12 times longer than ordinary lightbulbs and each bulb can save you £9 per year in electricity or £100 over the bulbs lifetime. If each house installed three energy saving bulbs, it would save enough energy to run the country's street lights for a year.