Flat-Living.co.uk Energy
A safety net for flat dwellers
John Mills, ARMA’s technical consultant, takes a look at electricity supplies and unearths some shocks.
for the service charges for the unsold flats. the bills for the unpaid electricity for common parts have not been paid because there are no funds. the utility company comes to disconnect the supply for non-payment. You will be left with no lift, no lighting in the stairways at night, no working fire alarm to alert you if there is a fire, and no water supply because it is powered by electricity. You are the managing agent of a block
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of 12 flats in the Midlands. Each quarter a number of lessees delay or do not make payment of their service charges. You receive the quarterly electricity bill but there are no funds to pay it. You receive a reminder for the £200 or so owing and tell the utility company that it will be paid when you get the next quarter’s bills paid and you are back in funds. You are an agent for the resident management company not the landlord; you are chasing the lessees in arrears. The next thing you hear is that the supply to the common parts has been disconnected. There is no fire alarm system and the smoke detectors in flats are also linked to the common parts supply. You find out that the court papers regarding the disconnection were posted into the hallway of the block of flats where they were left unopened, even though the managing agent’s address was on all the previous invoices.
ADDITIONAL COSTS
Both the above events happened. In Salford the local authority stepped in to avoid having to rehouse families who would have had to be evacuated. In the Midlands the agent had to ask the lessees who were regular payers to pay the next quarter early, but the utility company also charged additional costs for the disconnection and reconnecting the supply. There is no procedure or safety net in place to stop the
disconnection of the supply of gas and electricity to common parts of blocks of flats. The big utility companies introduced a safety net for domestic households some years ago and it has been very successful at reducing the number of disconnections and assisting those in genuine financial difficulties. But the disconnection of common parts supplies can have a bigger impact than simply the disconnection of just one flat. It will usually mean the fire safety
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www.flat-living.co.uk
ou live in a new high-rise development in salford where the developer has gone into liquidation and has not paid any contributions
precautions stop working so all residents are at risk in case of a fire. If the water supply and sewerage disposal are pumped in taller blocks then the flats become a health hazard. As usual it is the prompt payers who get punished as well as those in arrears who are causing problems with the cash flow of the block. ARMA, with the assistance of the Federation
of Private Resident Associations and the Local Government Association, has been lobbying the Energy Retail Association (ERA), which represents the 6 big utility companies. The ERA is concerned and some progress is being made. We have asked that a safety net procedure should be in place, which incorporates some of the following:
• A recognition that supplies to common parts are a supply to domestic premises. Unfortunately the utility companies often wrongly assume it is a commercial supply.
• Any paperwork regarding disconnection must be served on the correct party. It is not good enough to address it to the block of flats where it will be left on the floor of the hallway.
• If the block of flats is a new development the supplier should track down the responsible party. It will be the developer; if the developer is in receivership or administration it falls under the responsibility of insolvency practitioner.
• The supplier should establish whether disconnection will affect any vulnerable persons living in the block.
• The supplier should establish whether disconnection will prevent the supply of water and sewerage services to the block.
• The supplier should establish whether disconnection will mean that the fire alarm, emergency lighting and smoke detection systems will cease to operate and so put the occupants’ lives at risk in case of fire.
• The supplier should inform the local authority before any disconnection.
A further meeting with the ERA is taking place soon. We will let
Flat Living readers know the outcome. In the meanwhile if any readers have experienced problems with electricity supplies caused by the utility companies please email
info@arma.org.uk or write to: ARMA, 178 Battersea Park Road, London SW11 4ND
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