Landlord owes money and we're paying for it.

Hello TSR,

I have been living in my new house with my course mates for 3 weeks now. Today we had a visit from the gas company saying there was outstanding bills on the gas. Knowing we were students and that it was in control of our landlord, they tried to get in contact with him.

Turns out he owes them a hefty sum. When they finally got a hold of him, he said the bill belonged to the last tenants (as this had gone on since the start of this year) and he couldn't get hold of them. He wasn't prepared to pay what he owed and had previously ignored many letters including court hearings.

This means we are now paying on a meter for our gas, where before it being included in our rent. The contract we signed with him says this. If he refuses to pay it they will take our electricity too and we will have to put money on that to use it as well. We also paid our rent literally days ago (the whole sum for this term Sept-Dec, so that's over £1000).

The gas company guys advised us to ring him to try and get him to pay it, and if not we should leave the property and find somewhere else to live. But I don't know where this leaves us for getting the sum back that we paid for rent a few days ago.

As you can imagine, this is very stressful and inconvenient. Our landlord seemed great in every way. He was more than willing to make any changes to the house that we wanted. He was also praised by another landlord we met whilst house hunting.

I don't know if there's much more advise to be given than what the gas company told us, but if anyone has ever had problems with landlords and debts I'd like to hear about it.

Thanks.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1

DiddyDec01

Find your local Citizens Advice Bureau and ask them for advice. This is a legal matter and you should seek professional legal advice. Take all your documents with you.

Reply 2

balotelli12

This does not make sense.
I have never heard of a landlord laying on utilities. It is usually the responsibility of the tenants. If the previous tenants were responsible for the gas then the landlord is not responsible for their debts. Whatever their debt he owes none of it.
You need to get some legal advice off a solicitor. CAB are no use.

Reply 3

DiddyDec01

Original post by balotelli12

Sometimes the tenants will pay a flat rate for bills which is covered in the rent. Any excess then falls to the landlord to pay.

Also solicitors aren't exactly cheap to hire.

Reply 4

balotelli12

And CAB will just direct you to one.

Reply 5

sazberryftw

All bills were included in the rent for us - and this is written in our contract. Before renting this house, I asked him what would happen if we used over the set amount for gas, electricity etc and he said "It's fine, previously no one has ever gone over the amount".

I just have no idea what the contract was with the previous tenants.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 6

samba

Original post by sazberryftw

It's fairly simple. However the electricity is provided (metered/billed) it's his responsibility to keep it flowing at all times. If it stops flowing, he's in breach. So tell him to put money on the meters or sort it with the energy companies and that you don't care which. If it stops flowing he'll have more serious problems

If he's in breach, that's actionable. It's pretty clear cut that he's gonna have to sort it out. The only real question is whether you should pay anything on the meter to keep your electricity flowing, or stop entirely and take action for the hassle caused. You need to be really assertive when you speak to him; just say you expect the utilities to keep flowing or he's gonna be ending up in court.

Reply 7

Mimsycrafts

Your being taken for a bit of a ride.

Contact the gas company and scan them a copy of your rental agreement stating you are a tenant from that date the bills are not your debt and provide details for the landlord.

Have a chat with uni to get them to talk to the landlord as this is his issue to resolve.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 8

sazberryftw

Original post by samba

Thanks for this response, it really sums it up well. (:

Reply 9

alibee

Just deduct whatever money you put on the prepay meter from the rent that you pay, then at least all your power stays on...

Reply 10

Crumpet1

Does your university not have a housing office or equivalent in the union? They would certainly want to know about bad landlords and they are there specifically to help students. I'd suggest you go there before you go to the CAB.

Reply 11

Kabloomybuzz

As others have said, speak to your CAB, speak to your students union, keep track and keep reciepts of all money you put on the meters.

If, at the end of your tenancy, you've got nowhere, having kept evidence of all money spent on the energy, and kept a copy of your tenancy agreement, take him through small claims, you don't need a solicitor for that and can start the process online. He won't have a leg to stand on provided you have all the evidence. Hopefully, it won't come to that and you'll be able to sort it sooner, but its at least one way of getting him if you can't sort it sooner.