Landlord charging for bills

[kirinm]

We’ve been living in a rental following the sale of our flat. We are finally about to complete on our purchase and have handed in our notice.

When we moved in, we tried to have all of the bills transferred into our names. We succeeded with the water bill and council tax but as the landlord has only ever let the house out as an air BnB, he was a bit funny about us transferring the electricity and gas accounts to us. We agreed that he’d keep the accounts in his name and he’d bill us. Despite us repeatedly asking for the bills he didn’t do it. Now we’ve handed in our notice, he’s apparently finally been able to work out what we owe and is going to dump a 10 month bill on us.

I’m quite pissed off about this. This wasn’t what was agreed and he basically didn’t know what he was doing as a non-professional landlord so didn’t get himself together. It is complicated by the fact he lives directly behind us in a house he built in the garden. Given the size of our water bill, I think it’s possible some of the accounts cover his house and ours.

Anyway, surely having not invoiced us for a period of (I think) 10 months now despite us asking repeatedly, its unreasonable for him to present us with a massive bill at the end? We will pay it (although we will be pushing for reductions because of how shit the house is) but it’s come at the worst time.

You haven’t been paying so you should have been setting aside the money knowing it was coming

Obviously ask for the bills themselves rather than just his word for it

and then pay it

You could say that you’ll pay over 10 months
as you would have done if in your name

That. You've no case at all for not paying.

You must have been putting money aside monthly as you knew you’d have to pay at some point. Is the issue that it’s a lot more than you were expecting? I’d ask him for copies of the actual bills so you can see a breakdown of how much you owe.

id ask for proof - actual bills! and make sure the amount is fair

did you pay a deposit? how much was that?

Then id arrange a payment plan over an amount of months

It’s obvious that he is trying to avoid tax and/or capital gains by claiming to live there.

Ask for a breakdown of costs and pay (if it seems about right amount).

As an amateur landlord has he protected your deposit? He could be looking at a hefty fine if not, which might make him have a rethink if he's been trying to pass off some of his usage as yours...

The CT is in the tenants name so unlikely

How much ££?

You can put the address into here:

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/store/gas-and-electricity/enquiry/

and it will tell you exactly how many kwh of gas and electricity the property has used over the last 12 months, so you can get an idea if what he is charging you is reasonable or not, or if the supply is joint with the other house (which you can guess by the KwH usage). Make sure you go through to the list of suppliers and quotes, and the KwH usage will be at the top of that page.

I use this all the time to see energy usage at houses I'm considering buying or renting.

It's up to date on our own usage to the tune of only being 2-4 weeks behind our current usage for the last year.

If money's tight, you could offer to pay him in instalments. Maybe 3 or 4 would be reasonable - and he'd rather have the money back than not.

I very much doubt it will stop you getting your deposit back btw. The deposit purely focuses on the condition of the property.

It's not a surprise though as you know you owe it. He wasn't just not going to charge you. I know you probably hoped that but you need to pay. But not just figures he's created, you should see the actual energy bills, or account or whatever it is.

This sounds dodgy, have you been able to check your meters?
I’d follow up to see if he kept your deposit properly; if he didn’t he will be liable for large fines and a payment to you.

I would ask to see the actual bills, he could pull a fast one and add to it.

This sums it up.

So you just don't want to pay for the utilities you used despite agreeing a contract to do so?

Well you have too.

If you cannot pay it in one lump sum agree a repayment plan but of course you have to pay it. If you worry it includes another houses costs then ask for proof (your entitled to that).

We can afford to pay any bill that comes our way so long as it’s an accurate bill for what we’ve incurred. we will ask to see the bills though.

It funny how a landlord can not keep to his side of the contract and provide us with bills but we are meant to have guessed how much we should be saving. That isn’t an issue for us but it would be for other people. He doesn’t know what he’s doing and has faffed around with spending any time in sorting it out. I am so relieved we will be out of rented again. I forgot how crap landlords are and how rubbish it is to deal with people who don’t actually know what they’re doing. The contract said to transfer the services into our names but he didn’t want us too. We pushed to do as many as we could but he kicked up a fuss when it came to the energy supplier. He didn’t want us to do water either but we knew we needed bills in our name for our mortgage applications so we ignored him and went to Thames water.

Our deposit has been protected so not worried about that.

We moved in and not one of the windows opened. It took him 3.5 months to fix. I complained about 24 hours after moving in as the house stank and there was no way of getting any fresh air.

Mains electric broke and he didn’t do a thing. Thankfully DP is an electrician and was able to fix it along with UK power networks although it took hours. He didn’t offer to pay - but he will be getting a bill.

He STILL hasn’t given us a bill or even an indication of what has been incurred because he STILL can’t be bothered to do the maths.

I don’t want to pay actually, no. He gets thousands of pounds from us a month for his crap house that should cover the bill. But we will pay.

Turn the gas and electricity off if his goes off it will soon tell you if he's billed you for both properties!

And what exactly is wrong with it, given your case??
I have been renting out property for 25 years, both in my own country and here.
You should absolutely be paying.

No one wants to pay their bills really, but that’s life. If you use a service, you pay for it.

And if you agree terms of a contract you stick to it. Not decide you don’t want the energy supply to be transferred into your tenants name for an unexplained reason.

If it wasn’t for his crap attitude to having sorted out the bills or his crap attitude to the condition of his house then I probably wouldn’t care that much. But I do care because this is his laziness not ours.

Imo, what landlords are and are not prepared to do has shot through the floor since Covid.

Rarely had issues before 2020. Now my life is ruled by shitty problems in shitty rentals that are fixable but involve spending money - the LLs simply gaslight you or get someone they're paying for a 'professional' opinion to gaslight on their behalf.

Windows didn’t open when we moved in. He knew not one of them opened but didn’t disclose that to us before the tenancy started. It took him 3.5 months to get someone out to fix them.

there were mouse droppings when we moved in. When I told him he said ‘oh yeah we do get mice occasionally’. We sealed up access points because he didn’t see any issue with it.

When the mains electrics blew, he just shrugged his shoulders. He knew DP could fix it but has he said thanks to DP or offered to pay? Nope. That was recently but he will be getting a bill. Presumably he will have saved money because he will know he had to pay an electrician eventually.

I think this is fair. He should have facilitated you transferring the bill to your name when you moved in. Yes, of course you owe the money, but it's unfair to expect you to pay 10 months in one go.