ᐅ House purchased. Termination of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) contract.
Created on: 27 Dec 2018 14:26
A
Alexius
Hello dear forum members. We recently bought a house with all the associated contracts. Among them is a gas supply contract with the company Primagas. This includes a rental tank. The representative offered us a new contract with the following conditions:
approx. 15 euros/month meter rental
2.48 euros per cubic meter of liquefied gas (equivalent to 3.93 liters)
Since I found this quite expensive (monthly installments around 150–160 euros), I did some research. An independent supplier would deliver gas at a price of about 42 cents per liter, which corresponds to a price below 1.68 euros per cubic meter.
Now to my problem – unfortunately, I do not yet have the original contract from the previous owners (I hope to get it. It should be from 2008 and could therefore contain a clause that is invalid. This would mean that the collection of the gas tank could not be charged by the company – but this is uncertain).
The plan might be: try to get out of the contract – either by returning the old tank and meter and acquiring our own tank, or by trying to buy the 10-year-old rental tank (however, I have read several times that companies usually do not agree to this).
Are there people here who also use liquefied gas for heating or who have been in a similar situation? I would be grateful for tips and advice, as this needs to be settled fairly quickly.
Best regards
approx. 15 euros/month meter rental
2.48 euros per cubic meter of liquefied gas (equivalent to 3.93 liters)
Since I found this quite expensive (monthly installments around 150–160 euros), I did some research. An independent supplier would deliver gas at a price of about 42 cents per liter, which corresponds to a price below 1.68 euros per cubic meter.
Now to my problem – unfortunately, I do not yet have the original contract from the previous owners (I hope to get it. It should be from 2008 and could therefore contain a clause that is invalid. This would mean that the collection of the gas tank could not be charged by the company – but this is uncertain).
The plan might be: try to get out of the contract – either by returning the old tank and meter and acquiring our own tank, or by trying to buy the 10-year-old rental tank (however, I have read several times that companies usually do not agree to this).
Are there people here who also use liquefied gas for heating or who have been in a similar situation? I would be grateful for tips and advice, as this needs to be settled fairly quickly.
Best regards
Gartenfreund schrieb:
I understand that you probably mean euros per cubic meter, so it should be written that way.
Please don’t be upset about this sentence. It’s just easier to understand what is meant when the correct abbreviations are used.Nonsense, I’m not upset – at first I accidentally wrote square meters and then, when I noticed the mistake, centimeters. In hindsight, that’s really stupid, especially since I actually know better (but I must have lost parts of my brain over the holidays )
Regarding what you wrote otherwise – I don’t find the binding itself so bad – it’s the price control that really annoys me, and on top of that at such outrageous prices. I’ve found out that even the neighbor pays less, although still way too much.
ypg schrieb:
When you buy a house with piped gas, you don’t take over the supplier contract. The previous owner cancels it, and the new owner has to arrange one themselves.
When you buy a house with an oil heating system, the oil becomes the property of the new owner.
With propane/butane (liquefied petroleum gas), it should also be up to you who you choose as the supplier.
I find it surprising that the delivery price of €0.63 per liter is higher than the average prices shown online. Are you perhaps comparing gross prices with net prices somewhere?
What does the contract say about the rented tank?
If the monthly advance payment is €150, it could also mean that the previous owner’s consumption was very high. Consumption obviously depends on the size of the house as well. In that case, €150-160 is not that high. It’s more than for an older semi-detached house or a new build, but still within a reasonable range.
I see now that these numbers are from the new contract. What kind of contract is it? One with flexible terms? Those tend to be expensive... or what consumption figure did you base this on?
I would ask the previous owners for their annual bill and compare carefully.
I just can’t imagine that these rates are significantly more expensive.I am already comparing gross prices with gross prices. The contract I am supposed to sign has a fixed price for two years. Regardless of the amount used, I pay €2.56 per cubic meter (cbm). With the (first) supplier I checked, I would get a price of about €0.41 per liter, which is approximately €164-166 per cubic meter (cbm). On top of that, the Primagas offer includes a monthly basic fee of nearly €15.
To me, this is pure price gouging. Also, thanks for the tip about Stiftung Warentest. The ineffective clause I mentioned in my first post comes from an article referring exactly to that test. According to it, the previous owners might be able to cancel the contract free of charge.
We signed in the purchase agreement that we take over all contracts related to the house. However, rented tanks were not mentioned. Still, I don’t want to hold the sellers responsible because we got good conditions otherwise, and I want to arrange this so that the sellers don’t incur any costs.
Unfortunately, the staff member responsible for us is currently on vacation…
H
HilfeHilfe29 Dec 2018 06:51Just ask the provider what happens if you cancel. After all, you should have a special right of termination. I hardly think they will want to dig up the old tank and pipes. They might offer to sell it to you or make a better offer.