Fair Usage Policy

You will find the Fair usage policy which applies to tenancies Commencing July 2022 here and our latest Fair Usage Policy for tenancies coming July 2023 here

Fair Usage Policy (updated 26/09/2022)

The only time we will charge you additional rent for your utilities is if the contract has a fair usage stipulation and you exceed the predetermined fair usage allowance. 

Where gas and electricity are included in your rent, the following fair usage policy will apply. This is to ensure that your energy usage is not excessive and stays within reasonable allowances.

If the limits are exceeded your landlord, reserves the right to apply a supplemental charge to cover the amount by which you exceeded the allowances.

The allowances are designed to be generous and if you are sensible with your energy consumption, it is unlikely you will exceed these limits.

Fair Usage Allowance for Gas and Electricity

For our bills inclusive tenants, all sections of this Policy will apply as all the utilities in your tenancy agreement are subject to Fair and Acceptable usage. Bills inclusive tenants are responsible to ensure that the use of any Services, or goods relating to the Services, by anyone in your household, including visitors, does not in any way contravene the restrictions listed in this Fair and Acceptable Usage Policy.

Where your tenancy agreement is for less than 12 months, the figures on the table in this policy will apply on a pro-rata basis.

Number of Tenants per propertyAnnual Fair Usage allowance per annum for Gas and Electricity
3£2932.29
4£3909.71
5£4887.14
6£5864.57
7£6842.00
8£7819.43
9£8796.86

Water and Sewerage

Many properties are on a rated meter, with fixed rate costs that increase each April by the local water authority. 

For homes where there is a water meter installed, the maximum usage allowed for 1 to 5bed houses is 160 cubic meters of water and 160 cubic meters of sewerage per annum. For each additional bedroom above 5, your allowance increases by 20 cubic meters of water and 20 cubic meters of sewerage per annum.

Internet and Wi-Fi

Security & Other users

You and your co-tenants are responsible for making reasonable efforts to ensure that sensitive information, including usernames, passwords, and login details for any internet services, provided through Pickard Properties, are not divulged, or otherwise made available to any unauthorised persons or third parties. 

You shall not disclose these credentials to any third party or use the same for any purpose connected with the improper use of the network including accessing or attempting to access other parts of the services for which you do not have access rights.

You are responsible for taking all reasonable steps to prevent a third party from obtaining access to the network. You must immediately advise us if you become aware of any violation or suspected violation of these security provisions. You are responsible for all uses made of the internet through your account (whether authorised or unauthorised) and for any breach of this policy whether an unacceptable use occurs or is attempted, whether you knew or should have known about it, whether or not you carried out or attempted the unacceptable use alone, contributed to or acted with others or allowed any unacceptable use to occur by omission.

You shall not disclose these credentials to any third party or use the same for any purpose connected with the improper use of the network including accessing or attempting to access other parts of the services for which you do not have access rights.

You agree that neither Pickard Properties nor the broadband provider are responsible for any of your activities in using our network. Although the internet is designed to appeal to a broad audience, it’s your responsibility to determine whether any of the content accessed via the broadband service is appropriate for children or others in your household home to view or use.

Prohibited Activities in respect of your internet broadband services

Granting access to your broadband service to others not specifically authorised by you.

Activities that invade another’s privacy, cause annoyance, inconvenience, or needless anxiety to any person.

To realise and recognise any material which is offensive, abusive, defamatory, indecent, obscene, unlawful, harassing or menacing or a breach of the copyright, trademark, intellectual property, confidence, privacy or any other rights of any person. And to not send, receive, publish, post, distribute, disseminate, encourage the receipt of, upload, download, record, review, stream or use any of the material formentioned.  

Not to upload any material such as files that contain viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs which is known or likely to cause disruption to the broadband provision, damage any computer’s hardware or software, or equipment owned by Virgin Media or BT/Openreach and/or any other Internet user within the property. 

Anything that may disrupt or interfere with the network or services or cause a host or the network to crash.

Launching “denial of service” attacks; “mail bombing” attacks; or “flooding” attacks against a host or network.

Circumventing the user authentication or security process of a host or network.

Create, transmit, store, or publish any virus such as a Trojan, a corrupting program, or corrupted data. 

Monitoring or recording the actions of any person entitled to be in your home without their knowledge or any person or thing outside of your home or premises including, without limitation, any public highway or roadway or another person’s home or business premises.

Not to breach of any other third party’s rights or copyright by downloading, installing or distributing pirated software or other unlicensed software. Or stream, distribute or access any material that you know, or reasonably should know, that is not legally obtained. 

Extent of Service

We do not make any recommendations for particular websites the use of any websites, internet related services, or internet services and your use is carried out entirely at your own risk. 

We have no responsibility for or control over, the Internet Services you access and do not guarantee that any services are error or virus free,

We have no responsibility for, or control over, the information you transmit or receive via the Internet.

We do not guarantee:

The availability of the Internet Service

The speed at which information may be transmitted or received via the internet Service; or

That the Internet Service will be compatible with equipment or any software which you use.

Your Use of the Service

You must not use the Service to access Internet Services or send or receive e-mails, which –

a) Are defamatory, threatening, intimidatory or which could be classed as harassment.

b) Contain obscene, profane, or abusive language or material.

c) Contain pornographic material that is text, pictures, films, video clips of a sexually explicit material. 

d) Contain offensive or derogatory images regarding sex, race, religion, color, origin, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition or sexual orientation.

e) Contain material that infringes third party’s rights (including intellectual property rights);

f) In our reasonable opinion may adversely affect the manner in which we carry out our business; or

g) Are otherwise unlawful or inappropriate; Music, video, pictures, text, and other content on the internet that are copyright works, and you should not download, alter, e-mail, or otherwise use such content unless certain that the owner of such works, has authorised its use by you.

We may terminate or temporarily suspend the Service if we reasonably believe that you are in breach of any provisions of this agreement including but not limited to the clauses above.

Fair Usage Policy 1st August 2021 ( applies to Tenancies commencing July 2022 – June 2023 )

Our Fair Usage Policy is implemented on trust that you shall use this service in a proper and lawful manner.

You can add any of our bills inclusive packages, starting from *£20.00 per person per week, to our standard advertised bills exclusive rents. Gas, electricity, water, contents insurance, and Broadband are included as standard. We are in the enviable position to be able to offer Bills inclusive or Bills Exclusive on any of our student properties 3 bedrooms and above.

From time to time, tenants will ask to see our Fair Usage Policy even though our usage is unlimited. Therefore this policy is implemented to ensure that our tenants use the utilities both legally and within reasonable and sensible limits. We believe this policy will encourage our tenants to be considerate in their use of these services by ensuring there is not unnecessary wastage of energy. Energy is your gas and electricity.

If a property goes over the allowance detailed below, if we ascertain that excess usage is due to unreasonable and illegal usage, we as your Landlord may be entitled to charge you. The allowances detailed below are the highest and most generous compared to any other bills-inclusive provider because our policy is unlimited usage. Where this agreement is for less than 12 months, these figures will apply on a pro-rata basis.

Where we can we are continually investing in retrofitting our portfolio so that our properties are adequately insulated in order to be as energy efficient as possible.

Please be aware that other bills inclusive providers can present you with a bill at the end of the tenancy because they do not have an unlimited usage policy.

Number of TenantsAnnual Allowance of Energy per Property
3£2,184.00
4£2,912.00
5£3,640.00
6£4,368.00
7£5,096.00
8£5,824.00
9£6,552.00
10£7,280.00
11£8,008.00
12£8,736.00
13£9,464.00
14£10,192.00

This Fair Usage Policy refers also to illegal and immoral use of the internet, including but not limited to:

  • Sending, receiving, publishing, posting, distributing, uploading, downloading, recording, reviewing or streaming any material which is offensive, abusive, indecent, obscene, unlawful, harassing or a breach of the copyright, trademark, intellectual property, confidence, privacy or any other rights of any person.
  • Activities that invade another’s privacy, cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to any person.
  • Activities that are in breach of any other third party’s rights, including downloading, installation or distribution of pirated software or other inappropriately licensed software, deletion of any author attributions, legal notices or proprietary designations or labels in any file that is uploaded, falsification of the origin or source of any software or other material.