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How to charge electricity
Our Body Corporate has a bulk meter that reads the electricity on the entire stand. In turn, each owner has there own meter, I assume this is the case in every sectional title scheme. How are the owners suppose to be charged monthly for electricity, for far as the calculation is concerned? I know the electricity gets charged in arrears on our levy statements, but should I wish to check whether we are being charged correctly or over charged, is there a standard or a correct way to charge for the individual units electricity? Is there a formula or a specific way to calculate the electricity?
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RE: How to charge electricity
Hi
The same tariff at which the BC is charged per unit (kWh) should be used to debit the owners' accounts for their consumption.
RE: RE: How to charge electricity
RE.Re: How to charge electricity.
It is not correct to simply state that owners should be charged the same tariff per kWh as the BC.
There are various different tariffs for bulk supplies and each one requires it's own calculation to arrive at the correct cost per kWh.
Not knowing the details of your BC's account from the Council, I can obviously not advise you at this stage, but you may contact me on
tel.021 913 7023 or e-mail: nortier@intekom.co.za
Jan Nortier
RE: How to charge electricity
It's a very difficult calculation. In Randburg, we are charged a "Basic Electricity" (plus VAT) and then our consumption (plus VAT). Our managing agent does the calculations and debits each unit for their consumption. The difference between the total units' consumption and the main meters is for the body corporate, ie security lights, electric fence, etc. Ask around, perhaps your local town council can give you the formula, or perhaps a managing agent in your area could also help you out here.
RE: How to charge electricity
Request the bulk meter account from your BC administration - and do some basic arithmetic.
Usually you will find a fixed levy which also has to be discounted in the per unit rate.
The accurate reading is another matter and would involve you to be present when the individual usage is recorded from month to month.
Although one would expect the distribution to be as close to the actual cost as is "dammit", an allowance of up to 10% is made to facilitate the "resale" - which is not intended to be profitable, but rather to pay for additional admin costs.
RE: How to charge electricity
With the new increase we got a whole umpteen page document from Ekhurleni(East Rand)with tarifs A - G, very confusing! So I went to see our local man at council and he gave me a formula and it works out pretty close and he said it's the safest/fair way with all the new charges etc - total rand value of elect on your statement divide it by total kilowatt per hour and then divide by your number of units. Our bulk meter is also monitored on line (internet)Metering on Line, and we can also watch our usage etc.
RE: How to charge electricity
Hi
In a scheme such as yours with only one "incoming" meter and various individual meters, read internally, the single tariff, which the BC pays, has to be used. How else would the correct amount be recovered to balance the books if some are charged at a lower rate than what the BC is charged?
Unfortunately some owners will be prejudiced who have a lower consumption and would under normal circumstances be charged a different tariff and service fee. If there were individual municipal meters then each one would get charged for the category they fall into for both tariff and daily service fee but when this is not the case it cannot be done....Show More
In Cape Town some of the categories have a daily service charge and a rate/kWh whereas another category could have only the kWh rate and no service (in this case the unit rate is considerably higher to make up for the absence of the service fee).
I have taken part in the following Paddocks courses:
- UCT Sectional Title Scheme Management Course - 2006 12
- Paddocks Sectional Title Bookkeeping Course - 2009 03
- Paddocks Law of Sectional Title Meetings Course - 2009 07
RE: RE: How to charge electricity
Hi, Chere. Your basic assumption is wrong! In our complex, each section has its own pre-paid meter; so the BC does not get involved in paying for residents' power usage at all.
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