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.

These threads always turn out like this, OP. Don't take it personally. MN is like nothing I have ever seen online before when it comes to interrogations.

Unless you're having fun here, you've probably got what you need from the thread now and you can happily toddle off :)

I once got attacked - no word of a lie - by several people on MN over mothertucking GRAVY. It was insane.

And in fact my very first thread on MN was on this section, asking for a lower mortgage rate. In that thread, many people told me that I could not afford to buy the house in question without knowing a single thing about me.

Err - we'd have had a 2/2.5k disposable income after the mortgage and bills and have no kids or elderly parents to support.

I was just looking for hidden deals my broker didn't have, given he looked at 75 lenders.

Alrighty then!

There's a lot of wtf about this place.

Perhaps I'm overly sensitive today due to too much scotch last night and misremember, I just remember a lot of 'wtf' going on.

People on mumsnet seem to think you need to give them your entire life story (i.e., I have M.E. and cannot stand up for long, so making gravy from scratch by boiling bones and all that jazz is impossible for me) - rather than answering the bloody question actually asked.

Was the question something like 'can you recommend me good gluten free gravy granules please'?

And everyone's there talking about boiling carcasses from scratch, like everyone has the time and the physical capacity to be Fanny blinkin Craddock.

It's very common for a question NOT to be directly answered and when the OP corrects people, they get a ton of gyp for not disclosing EVERY PIECE of information that may be relevant in the opening post.

Been online for 25 years and this is the only place I've ever seen anything like it.

Shrug. I don't enjoy consistently having to talk about not being able to stand up for long, so why the hell should I?

(I found a gravy solution recently that doesn't involve crippling myself!!! - one I thought up on my own!)

All the electrical distributors do. There's several covering the whole country. Signal boxes develop faults, substations get vandalised, birds fly into wires, poles fall over (during windy weather) There'd be outrage if it took days (outside of severe weather) to get the lights back on

OP is not saying she will not pay the bills. However she is entitled to accurate bills for what she had used and not to be subbing out a dodgy LL.

From the information in the thread is would seem that LL should never have let out the house as an AST because it was only registered as a short term let. He may not have the correct documentation for that and could therefore be in for a big fine if reported to the council and the regulator with whom he is required to register. Once you begin to mention reports to local authority, regulator, leaving feedback on appropriate sites dodgy LLs begin to run scared.

Sometime back a dodgy agent tried to charge one of my relatives an extortionate amount for replacement of a 20 year old bath with a history of disrepair. Relative replied that before she would even discuss the matter she wanted to see quotes for the work from 3 separate companies on their letterhead. She never heard any more of the matter.

I would reiterate the advice I gave previously. Send LL a recorded delivery letter in which you state that you are waiting for accurate billing in order to pay for the energy you have used. Therefore you require copies of all bills itemised to the exact property you are renting. This is your position.

Then leave the ball in his court. You have him over a barrel and he knows it. He can take you to court but you can then show that you were willing to pay subject to accurate billing.

Meter reading - that’s all you need. When you arrived, what it is now, work out how much you owe and send it to him with your workings out.

if you think his house is on it, did his house also have no electricity when your DH and UKPN were working on it?

I certainly wouldn't pay until I'd seen the evidence of what I had used and how much that cost. It sounds like he won't be able to provide that.

OP, I'd be just as frustrated and pissed off as you are. Not sure why anyone is giving you a hard time on this.
I'd be tempted to make him pursue you for the money once he's sent the actual bills to you. Not to avoid paying but more so to inconvenience him as much as he did you. If it gave you a chance to bring to light all of his failings as a landlord then even better 🤷‍♀️

The bills are all in his name, he'll have to pay them & then pursue OP for the money, but she isnt liable bc the bills arent in her name.
He doesnt have a case.

OP, @Friendlygingercat has nailed it. Let us know how it pans out!

In which case he has made it clear the bill is his responsibility, you don't have to pay.

Is your tenancy agreement a standard one?

Presumably you took meter readings when you moved in and can take them now, so you can calculate based on your original chosen provider’s rates what you would have paid then send him the money based on those figures in full and final settlement.

Yeah op don’t pay let him try pursue it through the deposit protection scheme and he’ll have to prove what you owe him! Bills are in his name not yours and it’s not up to you to figure out how much you owe him- he needs evidence / proof