Can this landlord do this?

[Caminante]

A friend of mine has lived in the same studio flat for 10 years.
All bills are currently included in the rent. Heating/hot water is gas and cooker is electric.
Her benefits include housing and a disability allowance as she cannot work.

Landlord had just sent an email saying that all the heating etc is going to be converted to electricity and tenants will be responsible for paying their own bills.

Can this be right? Putting the rent up I could understand but doing it this way means that suddenly that limited living allowance is going to have to cover the cost of electricity which is soon to reach insane levels.

Are the any options for her, other than moving, which she is reluctant to do?

What sort of contract does she have? I don't think the landlord can change the terms while the contract is still valid. If she's out of contract or it's a rolling one, the landlord can. I do see the landlord's position on this. It's unusual for bills to be included as the landlord has no control over how much the tenant uses, and they should not be expected to absorb the increases in energy prices.

Well he can give her notice to leave or put any reasonable rent increase in place so I can't see what he's doing wrong it's sad for her that he won't continue to pay her bills but her housing benefit won't cover electricity bills u nless she's lied and claiming the full amount. Rent claims so shouldn't be being used for that.

What does the contract say?

Is there going to be a reduction in the rent due to it no longer including bills?

Is landlord actually physically changing the heating system?

So he’s going to change the heating system to electric before doing this? Seems like a lot of unnecessary work tbh.

I can understand the landlord wanting to look at how the utilities are covered though with costs going up.

Is she on a rolling contract or not?

Will the rent be lowered to make up for bills now being separate?

I suggest she contacts Citizens' Advice - some areas have charities/not for profits that give energy advice.

However, although tough for your friend, it doesn't seem particularly fair for the landlord to have to absorb the increased costs either (unless this is specifically spelt out in the contract).

What does her contract say?

Also the heating type change may be because the landlord needs to raise the environmental rating to C. If that's the case, that's a positive as the alternative could be selling up...

Thanks for all the replies.

No reduction in rent, that wouldn't help her anyway.

Big converted house with 6 flats, currently all running off one boiler.

Landlord has warned of upcoming building works to convert the heating to electricity.

I totally understand landlord's perspective given rising costs, it's going to be very difficult to manage in reality though.

I don't know the exact details of how it works but it's completely above board, she hasn't lied about anything.

I will ask about the contract and may contact Citizen's Advice when I have more info, thanks for the suggestion.

Might be a case of funding out what other support can be put in place.

So essentially hes putting her rent up then aswell??

I presume he's getting new meters out in each flat? & separate electricity accounts?

who will be benefitting out of the £400 grant?

has he out the rent up since she moved in?

Has the rent changed since she moved in 10 years ago?

If not, then market value will have gone up on rent regardless of the utilities so in that case no rent reduction would be unreasonable.

who will be benefitting out of the £400 grant?

Maybe that’s what the LL is using to split out the utilities to electric in each flat?

Maybe but wouldn't the tenants then become eligible to receive it?

No details yet but I'm assuming prepay meters for each flat?

I will have to check on that.

But yes of course they are entitled to put the rent up to match the market.