Outrageous hike in water and electric bills!

[Liquorice]

waynerooney, on 09 Jul 2014 - 10:54, said:

not cheap in Thailand anymore, my UK bill is 4359 bt per month over a 12 month period, ok no air con but central heating and a much better standard of safety etc.

What do you live in?

My UK water bill is 2,750 baht per month.

Gas & Electric averages 6,000 baht per month.

I lived alone in the UK and I live alone here where my combined Water and Electric is around 1,200 baht per month and that's during these hot months, where I have the air-con on for at least 8 hours a day. That's a massive saving on UK prices.

[KhunDude]

Again... To be clear. All 4 rooms have magnetic cards that must me in to turn on the electric in each room. With 100% occupancy during the 6 month high season, electric averaged 3-4,000THB and wate was always around 800. In May, we had only one room rented the whole month and electricity went to 9,800THB. No other room had even a light on. The tenant in the one room had been in the guesthouse through the entire high season, is a personal friend, and makes a great effort to consume as little as possible. What is even more startling is the wat increase of 1000% with the same 75% reduction in usage!!! I am out of country at the moment, but i am getting the brother-in-law to see what the hell is up with this...

75% reduction in rooms booked should not equal 300% increase in electric and 1000% increase in water.

[KhunDude]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention... It is direct government services. No greedy landlord issues.

[Robert24]

Again... To be clear. All 4 rooms have magnetic cards that must me in to turn on the electric in each room. With 100% occupancy during the 6 month high season, electric averaged 3-4,000THB and wate was always around 800. In May, we had only one room rented the whole month and electricity went to 9,800THB. No other room had even a light on. The tenant in the one room had been in the guesthouse through the entire high season, is a personal friend, and makes a great effort to consume as little as possible. What is even more startling is the wat increase of 1000% with the same 75% reduction in usage!!! I am out of country at the moment, but i am getting the brother-in-law to see what the hell is up with this...

75% reduction in rooms booked should not equal 300% increase in electric and 1000% increase in water.

You do need to check the meter reading as a first step. If the meter reading is up and therefore your bill is increased you need to check who is using your electricity. If the meter reading is not up but the bill is up so much, then you need to check with the government if they have made a mistake with the bill.

Start with the meter and the get to the bottom of it. Did your girlfriend send you a copy of the bill? Did you see it? There is a meter reading indicated vs last month's meter reading the resulting bill. Very straight forward.

[Pib]

Take a look at your past electric and water bills just to see "how many units you have been using per month" and the "price per unit." Just divide the number of units into the total bill to determine price per unit which will include all taxes/fees also.

Now, compare that to your current bill. Did the number of electricity KiloWattsHour (KWH) increase significantly? Did the number of "liters of water" you used increase significantly? Note I'm asking you to look at the "number of units" you are using.

Now I live in a house in Bangkok and there has been no increase cost per unit of electricity or water....the electric and water accounts are in my wife's name so their is no middleman to jack up costs like a lot of condo owners/renters experience But my Apr and May electric bills were about 20% higher than other summer months...not due to any price increase but due to the hottest time of the year making my A/Cs works harder and longer to cool my house down.

And like a previous poster recommend cut off you main power switch and water inlet valve to ensure there is no continued electricity or water flow, especially the water flow since underground leaks from the soi main to your home can occur causing water leaks/usage 24/7 when you are not using any water at all in the residence.

[Kf6vci]

You gotta insist on a proper meter reading. (I caught the owner & manager of apartments cheating over the years. One asked for 10 B per kw/h a decade ago, another one market up the amount she wanted paid).

Keep writing the meter readings in some log book, then draw a graph.

Can you check if guests let the aircon run day and night and when they are out?

A utility company needs to assist you when there is a discrepancy or foul play suspected.

Hope they can do better than base the bills on GUESTIMATES.

[belg]

one of your guests put on airco 24/7 and let the water flow all the time ???

[KhunDude]

please read previuos posts. 4000 electric and 800 for water with FULL booked guesthouse. 9800 electric and 8900 water with one tennant.. The same tennant was there foe the 6 previous months as well. He is "green" consciuos. NO OTHER ROOMS RENTED AND THE ROOMS HAVE AUTO-CUTOFF CARDS for electric. Guests are required to leave the keys and cards at the front desk when they go out. So since we have all of the cards in our front desk, there is no possibility of an AC unit being left on. Water break has been checked to the meter andno breaks after the meter. NO LANDLORD to be cheated by. And I am trying feverishly to find out the exact UNIT USAGE, but I am not in Thailand at the moment, so I must trust the handi-work of my GF. Seems unlikely that we used this much electric with 2 small fridges running, a couple of fans on 12 hours a day, and 1 AC unit on when the customer is home. He keeps the room at 28 degrees and changes to fan once he gets that temerature as he prefers the fan. The water usage should have gone down 75%, not up. So unless they are charging us for a main's break, there should be a sharp DECREASE in our bill...

Edited July 10, 2014 by KhunDude

[Crossy]

You are right, the increase is illogical and something is amiss.

But without meter readings it's all speculation.

Get your GF to scan/email or fax the previous bills to you, say the last 6 months worth, post them here if you don't read Thai

Have you actually SEEN the giant bills?

[dabhand]

You mention you are out of Thailand at the moment. Were you also away during the period covered by these excessive bills?

Any possibility that some visitors were taking advantage of your absence?

Do you have CCTV installed in your guesthouse that would allow you to monitor happenings whilst you are away?