# Prepaid Electricity meters -  any disadvantages for Landlords?



## AlbacoreA (11 Apr 2013)

Prepaid Electricity meters -  any disadvantages for Landlords? Anyone any experience of them? On the face of it these seem like a good idea. Though I wonder what are the potential issues if a tenant decides to go periods without electricity. No alarm,  no heating, insurance issues, or even damp issues. Things like that. For the tenant, is the cost the same.


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## Berni (11 Apr 2013)

The cost is dearer for the tenant. They cannot shop around for any deals, and have to pay more than double the standing charge (262 with prepay power vs €126 with Electric Ireland)

You will also put off a lot of potential tenants with it. 
Those who normally pay their bills without problems aren't going to want the hassle of dealing with this.


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## murphaph (11 Apr 2013)

I'm thinking of getting prepaid gas/electricity meters as well in a property I have that's just a couple minutes walk to a 24h garage with payzone facilities. I'll leave things as they are with the current tenants but for the next ones it's time for me. One less thing to worry about IMO.

I understand some tenants will be put off but some will like them, some home owners even use them to focus the mind.


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## AlbacoreA (11 Apr 2013)

Sometimes the electricity being cut off by the supplier due to it being in arrears is the nudge for a tenant to move on. Considering the recent thread here where a tenant was happy to stay in a house indefinitely without electricity, I was wonder would a prepay system leave the electricity off for significant periods and what would be the effect of that.


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## murphaph (13 Apr 2013)

Well, tenants can still get into arrears with prepay because there's an 80c standing charge taken from the credit each day. If a tenant stops feeding the meter for 2 months and then buys €50 of credit it'll all (bar a fiver I think) be swallowed up by the meter as soon as they put the card in.

I think there is a downside here: tenant stops feeding the meter and you don't know anything about it as the LL. Then when tenant leaves, you find yourself having to cover the SC for the time they weren't feeding the meter.

However...I maintain that tenants who can live without ANY electricity are rare as hen's teeth and you would have to be extremely unlucky to find one. No electricity means no central heating, no hot water (for most heating systems require electricity for the control board, pump etc.). It would be miserable for most people.


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## commonsense (13 Apr 2013)

Berni said:


> The cost is dearer for the tenant. They cannot shop around for any deals, and have to pay more than double the standing charge (262 with prepay power vs €126 with Electric Ireland)
> 
> You will also put off a lot of potential tenants with it.
> Those who normally pay their bills without problems aren't going to want the hassle of dealing with this.



I'm not sure I'd agree with this. I priced these meters and the cost is about 200 per year more (4 euro per week).

The clear advantage here is that there are no big bi-monthly bills, a big draw for tenants in my opinion. There is also the advantage of being able to control the usage as it would instigate prudent use, energy savings etc.

I cannot see any tenant not willing to stick a fiver a week to keep the lights and the fridge on.

I know people who had these installed and would never liek to go back to huge ESB/GAS bills every month and all said that it actually cost them less as they were more conscious of their usage.


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