I live in rented accommodation, and part of my tenancy agreement is that the two annexes built off the property I rent are connected to the electricity supply that comes into my house. I have to pay the bill for usage by all of us and then invoice those tenants for their usage. It’s not at all an ideal situation, but it’s part of the agreement and ‘goes with the territory’ of renting this property, whose outside facilities are essential to the line of work I’m in.
The check meter for one annex is in my meter cupboard, and that tenant is fine about paying. The check meter for the other annex is in that annex, and the tenant only sporadically gives me meter readings, so the amount can add up. It's now 3 weeks since I provided them with an invoice and I haven't received any money from them. They owe me over £1,600 currently and obviously increasing all the time. I specifically asked them to tell me if they were going to have trouble paying, but they have not said a word to me. This has happened twice before, and I don't understand why they can't save a bit each month, especially when they can see for themselves what they're using and know what the cost is.
I will be contacting Citizens Advice tomorrow to see what they can advise, and could also look at my contents insurance for legal fees assistance, but am wondering if anyone can help with whether I can actually turn the tenant's electricity supply off, for non-payment, provided I give them X amount of warning to get the bill paid and advise that non-payment will result in disconnection and small claims court. Having no electricity will screw them up big time as it’s their only source of heating and they also WFH, but right now, I don't care, especially as I know they have an expensive hobby that they are still happily enjoying.
My landlord isn’t no help in this, frustratingly, but I will be pushing them to get a check meter fitted in my cupboard so that I can invoice much more frequently and not rely on the tenant.