"The No Hassle Solution from CLECOM Software"
"We designed the No Hassle Solution because we wanted students to be able to move into a shared house put down their bags and get on with the rest of their life!"
The supply of gas, electricity and telephone services has become more complex now that many competing utility companies are involved. In addition, new utilities like cable television and Broadband Internet have been added. As a student or young professional your time is limited. With the No Hassle Solution all these complexities are replaced by a single fixed monthly payment and you have:
What is the No Hassle Solution?
It comes as a shock to many prospective tenants intending to share rented houses that the rent does NOT always cover utilities like gas and electricity and that almost all landlords expect tenants to make their own arrangements for the supply of utilities and pay their own bills (although some property management agencies now offer a “bills included” scheme*). Even though the occupants of shared houses are usually friends, they often end up spending hours discussing who pays for what. Some households form committees appointing "ministers" in charge of gas, electricity and telecommunications, with possibly a "prime minister" to act as referee. Fortunately, until a few years ago there was only one supplier for each utility and a few simple phone calls with the meter readings or telephone numbers was sufficient to set up the new arrangements.
Now there is a free market for most utilities and the traditional list of gas, water, electricity and telephone has been extended to cover satellite and cable TV and Internet access. This makes things much more complicated. Almost all utilities can be supplied by a variety of different companies and even when you find the one that supplied the previous tenants of your house you will encounter a variety of different procedures with different degrees of reliability to get the bill put in your name. In addition to this you will be besieged by other companies offering you better terms and special discounts if you sign up with them rather than your current supplier. You may also find that some suppliers require you to sign a contract for a minimum of 12 months or that there is a waiting list for the installation of the service.
With the No Hassle Solution you decide which utilities you would like to have included, then sit back while we make all the arrangements and pay all bills for a fixed monthly fee. This is collected by standing order and we bill you separately for chargeable items, such as pay-per-view movies, premium channels and outgoing telephone calls, on a monthly basis. The arrangement continues until the end of your tenancy. All you have to do is to allow us access to the property to obtain initial and final meter readings, report regular meter readings to us by post or over the web and forward to us any bills that are delivered to the house in error. You can forget about remembering to pay the bills, dividing up costs or informing the supplying companies that you have taken over the property. Any combination of utilities can be supplied; the most popular options are given in the table below. The prices are per person per week (to calculate the monthly fees multiply by 52 and then divide by 12).
Taking just Hi-Tech Utilities
If you just want us to supply Broadband Internet and communications services, these options are available. We have been appointed consultants to the student community by Telewest, the company responsible for the CATV system (your probably seen the boxes in the street), so our fees and terms are identical to theirs except that the minimum contract period ends at the same time as your tenancy. The prices shown are for 1Mbit connections, but 2Mbit and 4Mbit connections are also available. There is also a 256Kbit connection for people who want to be super-economic; however those of you who are used to Broadband will find it rather sluggish.
Networking (sharing Broadband)
Because Broadband is so fast we can supply you with and install a wireless router and network cards to network all the computers in the house, giving you a high-speed Broadband connection from every bedroom. As well as accessing the Internet at high speed you can also exchange information and share computer resources with other house-mates.
Some houses may even have a built in (non-wireless) network already installed. CLECOM has already installed over 100 permanent house networks in Selly Oak alone. Landlords will pay for installation and increase the rent to distribute the cost over a number of years. This allows them to charge more rent in the long term and also increase the value of the house. For more information about this go to http://www.clecomsoftware.com/cablingservices/
For prices go to http://www.clecomsoftware.com/nhsprices/
Summer Saver Scheme -
Not planning to use your house much over the summer?
If your tenancy begins in July but you are not planning to move into your house until near the beginning of term, or if you are planning to use your house only intermittently over the summer, then you should join our Summer Savers Scheme. You sign up in the normal way, make your summer payments normally and receive a refund back at the end of the summer, calculated as follows:
HOW TO SIGN UP?
Simply go to http://www.clecomsoftware.com/nhs and follow the step-by-step instructions. We are running this online system as the primary signup method because we believe that it will eliminate a lot of the hassle that is caused by having a paper-based system. However if you simply can not gain access to the internet then you can telephone us or visit our office in the guild of students or on Croydon Road.