neighbour on at me to keep my heating on

[clovissa]

We've just rented a house, been in a couple of weeks. We have the main house and the back half of the basement. The front half of the basement is a one-bed flat. The night we moved in the switch tripped and we found out the switches are in the other flat, but there is a key over the connecting door, so we're to knock, then let ourselves in if there's no reply. He's an oldish guy, seems nice.

Now it turns out we share all utilities with him. This was never mentioned before, they apply a ratio.

He has been up twice now because we haven't got the heating on and he's cold. He wants us to put it on and then turn down all our radiators if we don't need them on. It's a bit of a jig as we have four floors and are in all day.

He also said our tumble drier was going to run the bills up and he's very careful. I've told him not to worry, we will make sure his bills don't go up but arch.

Also, someone I know nothing about has a key to enter our house. Isn't that a bit weird ?

Houdini spot on that's us. All going well, got DN into a really great school and he's thriving. There really wasn't much choice of houses in the catchment area we needed to be in that was big enough. We're selling my flat in London.

Ah, the British obsession with insurance.
Although funny enough, they were saying on Moneybox today that something like 1.5 million homeowners don't even have building insurance, never mind contents.

Sounds like a Granny Flat conversion that was never formally separated (so may well be illegal).

My concern would be my elevated bills just to keep his property warm, and him stressing because of the tumble drier. You've eye-balled him as harmless, fair enough, but you don't know if any of his friends are dodgy & would relish the opportunity to case your joint (presuming he has a key, too).

If I loved the place I'd put up with whole situtation but have a chat with the flat-man to try to verify he doesn't have a key, and be honest with him that you can't restrict your lekki more than you already do.

This sounds a bit of a nightmare.

I once rented a flat which was the landlord's granny flat. He controlled the heating. Well, he went away skiing for Christmas and turned off the heating. I had a job in which I worked over Christmas and New Year. I was FREEZING and had to sleep in a coat and hat. And then the pipes froze so there was no water/loo wouldn't flush. The landlord was a complete bastard and said that he'd never heard of anyone working at Christmas and assumed I would be away. I hate him to this day (many other instances of bastard behaviour including knocking at the door every time he heard my bathwater running out so he'd get the dubious thrill of seeing me wrapped in a towel...).

Insurance is gambling?

Well you may not think so if the contents of your house are stacked up in your front garden having been smoke damaged. Your house doesn't have to burn down for your stuff to be destroyed.

I'm an inventory clerk, i see those heaters all the time, they are great, and heat a room really well.

Clovissa, glad to hear you are all doing well! GREAT news about DN settling in well!

Thanks Houdini, the move out of London has helped a lot, and the school have been great. Even DN finds it hard to be moody on the beach.

^"Ah, the British obsession with insurance.
Although funny enough, they were saying on Moneybox today that something like 1.5 million homeowners don't even have building insurance, never mind contents."^

If it's the piece I saw on Breakfast News this morning, they were making the point how irresponsible it is not to have house insurance after that lady they showcased lost everything when her terraced cottage burnt to the ground due to a fire that began next door. The neighbour's insurance only paid out for their house, not hers, and she had no insurance at all.

What a strange set up.

That aside, IMO contents insurance is one of those things that you don't think you'll need until you need it.

A friend's father was staying with them for Christmas and got home to find his water tank had burst and ruined EVERYTHING. The whole house was saturated. Everything had to be replaced, not just jewellery and laptops.

Add up what it would cost you to replace the entire contents of your kitchen alone; hundreds, maybe a couple of thousand pounds, then multiply that by all the rooms in your house. Quite a lot to shell out in one go should you need to.

This is creepy. It reminds me of the film Pacific Heights....

If he likes the heating on full time and you go down the route of getting him to have Electric/oil heaters then YOU are going to be hit with a huge bill. He has already had a moan about possible tumble dryer cost. To me the only sensible option is to have the bills separated

Glad you have managed to move OP. And I hope you find a way to resolve this issue.

Back onto the insurance debate. I didn't renew my contents insurance this year. I had two claims which the contents insurance company denied settlement on in the past 8 months. So obviously I'm a bit about insurance at the moment.

When I rang up for the renewal this year, I asked if someone got in through a window and I had a window lock, but hadn't locked it, would I be covered? The answer was no. I have over 25 windows with various locks and I like to air the house, so the windows are shut but not locked once I finished flushing the house of the various smells! I'm certainly not going to go round locking each and every window when I go out.

Leave the key in each window lock then leave it accessible (i.e. in the window lock)? They'll not let you claim if you're broken into in that case either.

Someone could get in, trash the place, flood it, steal everything and I wouldn't be covered. I have nothing of value and I don't put a lot of stock in sentimentality.

I only have building insurance now.

OP is your LL just the man you've been dealing with, or is his sister named in the tenancy agreement as well? If she isn't actually your joint LL in any way, then she shouldn't be blocking the work that needs doing to separate the utilities (which you say her brother is keen to do). She might not want to spend the money, but LLs have responsibilities to their tenants, if she doesn't want to accept the responsibility then they should sell the place, not rent it out! Have you got up to date certs for the gas and electric, smoke detectors etc?

If they won't get the utilities separated, they should provide the basement tenant with plug in heaters (at the LLs expense and maintenance) and disconnect his radiators. The heaters can then be easily fitted with timers, and an agreement added to his tenancy for 'reasonable use'.

Hope you get it sorted soon!

I wonder if he hasn't got planning permission to divide into 2 flats - might also mean he hasn't complied with safety laws

if its been that way long enough to have a sitting tenant, PP isn't going to the sticking point...

sounds more like penny pinching (ok, it could cost quite a bit to divide gas, water and leccy) - but it would just be a single round of cost ...

There's no such thing as a sitting tenant. If the landlord wanted him to move out he could give him notice.

I keep thinking about this thread.

What did you decide to do?