Fair Usage Policy

1. Definitions

In this Fair Usage Policy, the following words shall (unless the context otherwise requires) have the following meanings:

“FUP” this Fair Usage Policy.
“Premises” the site address, identified on the Tenancy Agreement.
“Tenancy Agreement” your Assured Periodic Tenancy Agreement (APT), or other contractual rental agreement, relating to the Premises.
“Us, We, Our” the landlord/Westgate One management team.
“Your, You” the tenant, occupier, student of the Premises.

2. Introduction

As a Westgate One tenant, a set amount of energy, water, and internet usage is included in your rent. Therefore, the following Fair Usage Policy applies to you.

This is to ensure that that your energy, internet and water usage is not excessive and kept within reasonable and sensible limits.

These allowances are designed to be accurate based on your property size and if you are sensible with your energy consumption, it is unlikely that you will exceed these limits.

3. Electricity

A set amount of electricity usage is included in your bills package.

To ensure that your energy usage is not excessive and stays within reasonable allowances the following fair usage policy will apply:

A yearly (52 week) allowance of 2,000 kwh will apply to your tenancy (single occupant).

If two people are named on the tenancy agreement, then the allowance is 3,000 kwh per year.

Further terms:
• If your tenancy is less than one calendar year, then this allowance will be pro rata’d accordingly.
• If your tenancy continues beyond one year, then a calculation will be carried out on the anniversary of your tenancy start date. If you have over-used the yearly allowance noted above, then an invoice will be issued to you for the amount noted below.
• This allowance is based on a single occupant. If you have guests stay regularly then your usage may increase beyond this allowance.
• This allowance is calculated by Electrical contractors, and you are therefore unlikely to exceed this limit if you are sensible with your energy usage.
• If you exceed this usage, we reserve the right to apply a charge to cover the amount by which you exceeded the allowance, which will be at the contracted unit rate of £0.3293 p/kwh.*

We complete periodic checks on your usage throughout your tenancy and you will be notified if your pro-rata usage is exceeding the above allowance.

If your usage is excessive before the anniversary of your tenancy start date then you may be charged sooner. The Westgate One team will provide you with information at the time.

* Unit rate charged is subject to change depending on the current energy tariff Westgate One is contracted in at the time of the overcharge being invoiced.

4. Water & Wastewater

A set amount of water usage is included in your bills package.

For metered homes in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, you should not need to use more than 65 m3 (65,000 litres) of water and 60 m3 (60,000 litres) of wastewater per annum for 1 bed houses as single occupancy is.

If two people are named on the tenancy agreement, then the allowance is 100 m3 (100,000 litres) of water and 92.5 m3 (92,500 litres) of wastewater per annum.

Further terms:

• If your tenancy is less than one calendar year, then this allowance will be pro rata’d accordingly.
• If your tenancy continues beyond one year, then a calculation will be carried out on the anniversary of your tenancy start date. If you have over-used the yearly
allowance noted above, then an invoice will be issued to you for the amount noted below.
• This allowance is based on a single occupant. If you have guests stay regularly then your usage may increase beyond this allowance.
• This allowance is calculated based on data taken from Southern Water’s website, found at: https://www.southernwater.co.uk/help-and-support/average-water-use-and-cost/
• If you exceed this usage, we reserve the right to apply a one-time fixed penalty charge of £30.00.

5. Hot Water

In your studio the amount of hot water you use is recorded separately, due to the electricity used to heat the water tank system in the property.

Included in your bills package is 20 m3 (20,000 litres) of hot water usage per year (52 weeks) and if at the end of your tenancy you exceed this usage, you will be charged £0.04 per additional litre.

This is allocated on a per person basis, so if there are two people named on the tenancy agreement then this allowance will be doubled.

Further terms:

• If your tenancy is less than one calendar year, then this allowance will be pro rata’d accordingly.
• If your tenancy continues beyond one year, then a calculation will be carried out on the anniversary of your tenancy start date. If you have over-used the yearly allowance noted above, then an invoice will be issued to you for the amount noted below.
• This allowance is based on a single occupant. If you have guests stay regularly then your usage may increase beyond this allowance.
• This allowance is calculated based on data taken from Southern Water’s website, found at: https://www.southernwater.co.uk/help-and-support/average-water-use-and-cost/
• If you exceed this usage, we reserve the right to charge to cover the amount by which you exceeded the allowance, which will be at the rate of £0.04 p/litre.

6. Internet

The internet service is included in your bills package.

All wi-fi related issues need to be reported directly to SOTA by email clearly noting your address. Email: support@sota.co.uk.

To ensure that your broadband usage is not excessive at peak times, so that the performance is not affected across Westgate One, we ask that you are considerate with the volume of bandwidth you use and the number of videos, files etc that you choose to download at any one time.

There is plenty of bandwidth for everyone and the service has been set up to ensure that everyone gets a fair share of the bandwidth and lots of this is done on a trust basis.

When demand is low there may be extra bandwidth available; please use this considerately and don’t abuse the system by downloading large volumes of music, games, and video etc.

If you have large files or coursework to download, please do this during off peak periods e.g., overnight etc.

Your internet usage will be monitored strictly by SOTA.

The internet service is not to be improperly used.

Examples of improper use are listed below:
• Downloading illegal movies or images.
• Using streaming services, such as BBC iPlayer without a TV licence. This will result in the BBC blocking your connection to this service but also the entire Westgate One development, so it is your responsibility to ensure that you have the correct licensing in place BEFORE you use a TV or any streaming services.
• Streaming or transmitting any unlawful, harassing, abusive, libellous, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene, menacing, or discriminatory material of any kind, which could cause distress to any user.

SOTA reserves the right to access and disclose any information, data, graphics, video, sound, file and other content created by, provided by or accessed by you in order to comply with applicable laws and to protect itself, Westgate One and its users.

Any improper use will result in your internet being suspended effective immediately until the issues have been resolved.

In your apartment you will have a Wireless Access Point, which is a small device mounted on your wall or ceiling.

This equipment is not to be tampered with or switched off at any point and if you have any issues or queries relating to the WAP please contact SOTA support directly at support@sota.co.uk.

Created: May 2026
Review Date: May 2028