Private Prepaid Electrical Meters good or bad

[TJFASA]

Hi installed a Private Prepaid Electrical Meter into my Granny Flat. Now my tenants have to pay in advance before consuming electricity. Once I receive payment from my tenant i send them via SMS or Email a unique recharge token number. All they have to do is punch the number into their meter and they have electricity. I think it's an excellent way of preventing tenants from abusing electricity and not paying final bills when they vacate premises.

[Dave A]

Now that sounds like a really fine idea!

[duncan drennan]

Our house has a prepaid meter and it is really great � no worrying about the municipality billing the incorrect amount, etc. Definitely what I would want if I was renting out (especially for a granny flat on my property!)

I'm not sure about the contents of your lease, but you could probably make it even simpler (for yourself) by just letting them buy their own electricity. I normally use EasyPay to buy electricity, but it can also be purchased from shop tills and so on (can't remember all the places off the top of my head).

[Dave A]

I'm not sure about the contents of your lease, but you could probably make it even simpler (for yourself) by just letting them buy their own electricity.

That works if the electrical supply authority will provide a seperate supply. But there are times when they don't. Also, some metros are holding the owner responsible for unpaid electrical bills run up by tenants.

[TJFASA]

The best thing to do is to install a private prepaid meter after the municple meter. Transfer the municple account from the tenant to the landlord. Then the tenant has to pay the landlord for all electricity consumed. The landlord inturn pays the munciplality and there is never any outstanding electrical bills.

[duncan drennan]

The best thing to do is to install a private prepaid meter after the municple meter. Transfer the municple account from the tenant to the landlord. Then the tenant has to pay the landlord for all electricity consumed. The landlord inturn pays the munciplality and there is never any outstanding electrical bills.

Okay, I misunderstood. So you actually have a normal municipal account and the prepaid meter piggy backs onto that? How does that work exactly?

[TJFASA]

You cant remove the munciple meter but you can turn the premises into your own private prepaid system if the premises is being rented. This means that the landlord has the munic account in his name and the tenant has to pay the landlord in advance for electricity.

The landlord installs a prepaid meter after the munic meter and issues the tenant with unique recharge tokens. Tokens are programed to that meter only and are only obtainable from the landlord.

If the landlord lives in a different location, once payment is received he can SMS, Email or fax the token to his tenant.

The Tenant punches the number on the token into the keypad of the meter and energizes the meter for the value of the token. Tokens are sold in differnt amounts such as R50.00 , R100.00 etc.

A third party can also collect revenue from tenants and issue the tokens on behalf of a Landlord- Revenue Management.

[duncan drennan]

Where exactly do you (the landlord) get the tokens from?

[TJFASA]

We supply the meter and sell the tokens to the landlord for R2.00 each. The landlord nominates the values he wants on his tokens. Usually they buy 100 tokens at a time which lasts that meter several months. When the tenant buys electricity from the landlord say for a value of R 100.00 he will also be charged R2.00 for the cost of the token.

[TJFASA]

We supply the meter and the tokens to the landlord. When the tokens run out only the landlord can purchase them from us.

[duncan drennan]

TJ, I think that is a really cool system. When we were considering renting out out granny flat, I found out about putting in a prepaid meter there, but shucks, it would have be really expensive (new cables, municipality, bla-de-bla). Your solution would be perfect.

I think it is a really useful service to offer to landlords who don't want to go through the schlep of installing a whole new cable for a granny flat. I'm not sure how difficult it is to have a prepaid meter installed into a house and connected to the municipality's system, so there may even be scope for landlord's renting out whole houses?

Do you have a website?

[entoserv]

This is very nice but I see a problem here. What stops people from bypassing the meter.

[TJFASA]

You cant bypass the meter without physically cutting into the live wires and going around the meter. The problem is the landlord will detect a drop in consumption and may come and investigate.

The meters themselves are sealed and once opened cannot be resealed without showing evidence of tampering.

Some meters also have tamper latches built into them. If the meter is opened it senses this and shuts down electricity. The landlord then has to recode the meter in order for it to operate again.

[DPA]

Manage an office block which has several rented units. There is only a bulk meter coming into the building. I devide the electricity according to office space. Some Tenants use minimal electricity whilst others use plenty. Would this prepaid metering system work in an office block?

[Dave A]

If you don't have a problem collecting the money we've installed meters in complexes and buildings in a similar situation. From there you'd need to read the meters and bill accordingly.

To my mind, the advantage of the prepaid meter is you don't have to go through meter readings and collecting on bills, but it also removes the opportunity to look for tampering.

There's nothing stopping you from setting up your own meter room other than the capital outlay. If it involves splitting circuits the costs could mount up. I know there's a handy meter available that goes into the db much like a circuit breaker. So if each unit is on its own db, that would be a viable option too.

I'll check with my sparkies when I see them next, get a bit more detail about the metering equipment options and post some feedback here. From there, all you'd need to do is contact a local reliable electrician to work out how much work (and cost) it would involve.

TJFASA, maybe you'd like to give an idea on your equipment costs in the meantime - I'll be passing it on to my teams to present to clients as a possible option too.