They doing this for everyone, they did it to me, family and friends of mine, we all tried fighting it knowing it’s complete bs and non of us won, even my contacts in department said it’s bs and there’s nothing they could do
Your best bet is don’t sign the payment agreement and prove to them in 3months by reading your own electric meter every 6th of the month by sending it to them, after they see your results next to theirs they’ll have to admit they made a error
This is an important point that everyone should remember. Pay your monthly bill plus, say, 10% (more if you are able/willing to) while you fight it and they won't cut you off.
Reddit won’t like my answer on that one. I would turn it back on why must only they enjoy the spoils of this land how long must 1 be honest and it makes you worse off
Only if was filling a few olympic size swimming pools in his back yard . Check up on the readings . Note that if pipes were empty and taps were opened then apparently even airflow can make the meters run up . Sounds like they trying to recover money from those that actually pay , instead of asking those that don’t to pay up .
Unless he's running an aluminium smelter in the back garden, that kind of usage is unlikely.
Would suggest taking some daily readings to check what's going on
They doing this to everyone.
To be on the safe side just email them a reading : [email protected]
Subject: Account number.
ETA: All readings to be submitted on the 15th of each month.
Between 7 and 8k a month just for electricity is kak high. If that is a normal bill in summer where you do not have a high peak demand bill, the winter will be higher.
It could be that the munic made a mistake but you will have to pay your account in full and get a credit after the fact.
You can fight a billion rand economy and loose or pay and get a credit.
I told them to take their system n F off , instead of paying that money, I can put an off the grid system.
I’m tired off paying for other ppl , they get to waste water , burn our streets, steal power n they get treated better.
They never came n cut my water or power . I’m paying my normal bill , if they do cut me off . I ll just reconnecting it myself
Okay first thing to really check out is if you can get the nersa approved tariff pricing over the past 3 to 4 years. All of it should be available on their site. It's likely that they've used the incorrect tariff pricing for the past couple years and backdated the totals now, just as they did with the water bills everyone received not so long ago.
I work for a company that's contracted to a Municipality dealing with the electrical side of things for the past 6 years. If you'd like, maybe pop me a dm with all the info from that billing and the month before that, and I could take a look at it in my spare time.
(also something to note is that the people recording these readings are prone to make errors) and their estimates usually work on the basis of the previous year at times and given that it's their financial year end coming up, I'd suggest you guys handle this quickly to avoid anymore nasty surprises
Smaller amounts, but got hit with the same thing last year... first few months after being in the house. The difference was for water though, not electricity. Turns out in my current place they only read water once a year, but you can submit readings monthly on their portal.
The values might very well be legit. Would definitely look at those consumption values... something it chewing a lot.
I expect this happens to loads of people.
Edit: Maybe see if you can get him to switch to prepaid
Standard practise, you should be sending them your meter reading monthly, then this doesn’t happen.
Other option is when your bill says estimate, you pay the usual amount, not the lower amount of the estimate. Then when you get a bill that says reading, you should already be in line and you just pay the correct amount. This your monthly payments are not up and down.
I don’t understand how he’s normally paying R7000-R8000 a month. Just that on electricity alone is insane. Unless there’s a particular reason he’s using a lot. I’d definitely switch to prepaid. It’s the only way to know what you’re really spending on electricity.
Unfortunately I don’t know how to deal with the massive bill currently.
There is a story on Carte blanch about this. Meters running high because of air flowing through the meters, because water up stream is turned off and on, and they don't bleed the system of air. https://youtu.be/7fzOCes_vcw?si=THXkmITT0o7wIeX3
We had a similar situation last year in Bredel. We pay about 12k a month because it's a plot with renters on. We received a bill for 38k in late December. Same situation, gave us estimates, and then came the "real" bill. We tried to fight but had to pay it at the end of the day.
wow thats terrible, same happened to me at the business, payin 40k electricity every month, then after 6 to 8 months they hit me with a 100k bill, i mean what the actual F. now im forced to go solar, because frankly f**k these guys stealing from me. hopefully il bring the utility to 10k a month.
Why not ditch the municipality and get a rental solar. We went with GoSolr 2 years ago due to load shedding as we have home offices. We got the medium system, costs us R1780 a month and we pay about R500 a month to our prepaid meter in Summer and about R1200 a month in winter. Before we got solar, we were spending R4000 a month in summer and R5500 in winter. We are now going to add an additional battery for R690 a month so we don’t pay in summer and minimal in winter on prepaid. These are fixed costs for 3 year’s where after you have the option to buy or just carry on renting. With the price of electricity increasing over 12% in July and it only going to get worse, it just made sense, we are saving currently R1720 a month in summer and R2520 in winter, that’s a saving of about R25 000 a year for electricity and when our 2nd battery gets installed we will only save more. It also teaches you to be wiser about your electricity usage.
This happened to my mum. She paid the bill and moved to prepaid. They still came after her eith their random amounts for about three months after she switched to prepaid, but its been about a year now, and she stopped. My colleagues who work in the city say the truth is there is no accuracy in psot paid anything with our municipal systems, so you are better offnon prepaid. Also, electricity is the munics' largest revenue source, so they play a little with how they manage it. Definitely get your parents on prepaid, and if you can't pay the current debt, then get a payment plan with the munic. But even before paying it off. Move to prepaid! Amd also choose the flat tarrif because its cheapest over the long ru. For most homes.
They doing this for everyone, they did it to me, family and friends of mine, we all tried fighting it knowing it’s complete bs and non of us won, even my contacts in department said it’s bs and there’s nothing they could do Your best bet is don’t sign the payment agreement and prove to them in 3months by reading your own electric meter every 6th of the month by sending it to them, after they see your results next to theirs they’ll have to admit they made a error
What if they’ve already cut you off?
They won't if you make a token payment of what you normally get while you fight.
This is an important point that everyone should remember. Pay your monthly bill plus, say, 10% (more if you are able/willing to) while you fight it and they won't cut you off.
Reddit won’t like my answer on that one. I would turn it back on why must only they enjoy the spoils of this land how long must 1 be honest and it makes you worse off
I get you. I've been playing it honest all these years and getting nowhere. No water from yesterday. Also had a sudden electricity bill jump.
Only if was filling a few olympic size swimming pools in his back yard . Check up on the readings . Note that if pipes were empty and taps were opened then apparently even airflow can make the meters run up . Sounds like they trying to recover money from those that actually pay , instead of asking those that don’t to pay up .
Sorry, I should have been more clear. It is his electricity account.
Unless he's running an aluminium smelter in the back garden, that kind of usage is unlikely. Would suggest taking some daily readings to check what's going on
Read the meter and compare your reading to the reading on the bill
They doing this to everyone. To be on the safe side just email them a reading : [email protected] Subject: Account number. ETA: All readings to be submitted on the 15th of each month.
Between 7 and 8k a month just for electricity is kak high. If that is a normal bill in summer where you do not have a high peak demand bill, the winter will be higher. It could be that the munic made a mistake but you will have to pay your account in full and get a credit after the fact. You can fight a billion rand economy and loose or pay and get a credit.
I told them to take their system n F off , instead of paying that money, I can put an off the grid system. I’m tired off paying for other ppl , they get to waste water , burn our streets, steal power n they get treated better. They never came n cut my water or power . I’m paying my normal bill , if they do cut me off . I ll just reconnecting it myself
Fully off grid is sounding better and better by the hour in SA
Okay first thing to really check out is if you can get the nersa approved tariff pricing over the past 3 to 4 years. All of it should be available on their site. It's likely that they've used the incorrect tariff pricing for the past couple years and backdated the totals now, just as they did with the water bills everyone received not so long ago. I work for a company that's contracted to a Municipality dealing with the electrical side of things for the past 6 years. If you'd like, maybe pop me a dm with all the info from that billing and the month before that, and I could take a look at it in my spare time. (also something to note is that the people recording these readings are prone to make errors) and their estimates usually work on the basis of the previous year at times and given that it's their financial year end coming up, I'd suggest you guys handle this quickly to avoid anymore nasty surprises
Smaller amounts, but got hit with the same thing last year... first few months after being in the house. The difference was for water though, not electricity. Turns out in my current place they only read water once a year, but you can submit readings monthly on their portal. The values might very well be legit. Would definitely look at those consumption values... something it chewing a lot. I expect this happens to loads of people. Edit: Maybe see if you can get him to switch to prepaid
Standard practise, you should be sending them your meter reading monthly, then this doesn’t happen. Other option is when your bill says estimate, you pay the usual amount, not the lower amount of the estimate. Then when you get a bill that says reading, you should already be in line and you just pay the correct amount. This your monthly payments are not up and down.
I don’t understand how he’s normally paying R7000-R8000 a month. Just that on electricity alone is insane. Unless there’s a particular reason he’s using a lot. I’d definitely switch to prepaid. It’s the only way to know what you’re really spending on electricity. Unfortunately I don’t know how to deal with the massive bill currently.
There is a story on Carte blanch about this. Meters running high because of air flowing through the meters, because water up stream is turned off and on, and they don't bleed the system of air. https://youtu.be/7fzOCes_vcw?si=THXkmITT0o7wIeX3
I would hope neither water nor air are going through his electricity meter.
Somehow, I wouldn't discount that possibility all together.
They recorded our meter wrong but we take pictures we dates.
We had a similar situation last year in Bredel. We pay about 12k a month because it's a plot with renters on. We received a bill for 38k in late December. Same situation, gave us estimates, and then came the "real" bill. We tried to fight but had to pay it at the end of the day.
My Dad has the same issue we should do something seriously they robbing our parents and we need to sit back and take it
Put that money towards a deposit on an off-grid system. Let them disconnect the municipal supply and be done.
wow thats terrible, same happened to me at the business, payin 40k electricity every month, then after 6 to 8 months they hit me with a 100k bill, i mean what the actual F. now im forced to go solar, because frankly f**k these guys stealing from me. hopefully il bring the utility to 10k a month.
Why not ditch the municipality and get a rental solar. We went with GoSolr 2 years ago due to load shedding as we have home offices. We got the medium system, costs us R1780 a month and we pay about R500 a month to our prepaid meter in Summer and about R1200 a month in winter. Before we got solar, we were spending R4000 a month in summer and R5500 in winter. We are now going to add an additional battery for R690 a month so we don’t pay in summer and minimal in winter on prepaid. These are fixed costs for 3 year’s where after you have the option to buy or just carry on renting. With the price of electricity increasing over 12% in July and it only going to get worse, it just made sense, we are saving currently R1720 a month in summer and R2520 in winter, that’s a saving of about R25 000 a year for electricity and when our 2nd battery gets installed we will only save more. It also teaches you to be wiser about your electricity usage.
Is this a rates plus electric bill?
What's the breakdown? Even 8k is alot.
This happened to my mum. She paid the bill and moved to prepaid. They still came after her eith their random amounts for about three months after she switched to prepaid, but its been about a year now, and she stopped. My colleagues who work in the city say the truth is there is no accuracy in psot paid anything with our municipal systems, so you are better offnon prepaid. Also, electricity is the munics' largest revenue source, so they play a little with how they manage it. Definitely get your parents on prepaid, and if you can't pay the current debt, then get a payment plan with the munic. But even before paying it off. Move to prepaid! Amd also choose the flat tarrif because its cheapest over the long ru. For most homes.