Some expats are now paying through their nose for electricity because of pre-paid meters, according to the EU Nationals Advisory Group.
Patricia Graham, who heads the group, has been informed by the Regulator for Energy and Water Services that, according to current legislation, electricity sub-metering, including pre-payment meters, is not permissible.
Prepaid meters in Malta charging units at €0.75“We have been told that each unit should be metered and billed by Enemalta. We all know that ARMS clients are charged 10.47c for the first units, then 12.98c and 16.07c for each unit.
“We have been contacted by people who pay even 40.27c for each unit,” she told the Times of Malta following an awareness-raising meeting with human resources managers from gaming and financial services companies and real estate agents. She hopes these people, who are the first to come in touch with those settling down in Malta, can pass on information that will save them money.
What started as a small EU residents action group, the EU Nationals Advisory Group has become a non-profit, free service to landlords and tenants, Maltese and non-Maltese nationals alike, who find themselves requiring help and non-legal advice during their stay on the island.
Among others, the founders had fought for equal treatment when it came to bus tariffs for Maltese and non-Maltese and, in 2012, Ms Graham kicked off a court case demanding equal treatment because EU nationals were being charged more than their Maltese neighbours for utility bills through ARMS’s two-tier pricing system.
Since then, those without a Maltese ID card are being allowed to apply for residential rates through an existing form (H), previously available for Maltese only.
This would allow them to shift from the higher utility rates, known as ‘domestic rates’, to the cheaper ones, ‘residential rates’ paid by clients for their primary residence.
However, for tenants to do so, they need their landlord to sign the form, something that some are still refusing to do. The group would be circulating a pack with all the information required by a person settling down in Malta that included how they avoid falling in some trap, Ms Graham noted.
The pack will includes simple tips, such as applying for the cheaper rates via e-mail, rather than in person, to have an acknowledgment receipt in hand. New settlers are also warned to document every single item in the property they are renting to ensure they are not charged for things they did not damage.
It has taken Ms Graham almost nine years to build the handy information pack and while some landlords’ indifference to Form H remains the group’s biggest headache, they are now dealing with pre-paid meters that see tenants being overcharged for electricity.
“People are just giving up and leaving. We have been helping people settle in Malta for a decade,” she said.
“I wouldn’t live anywhere else, even though I sometimes get the wrong end of the stick as a non-Maltese. I just want a fair system for all.”