Troubles with the landlord regarding electricity meter. Please help us!

zzzLazyDaisy

If LL has attempted to transfer the electricity bill into OP's fiance's name, it can't be backdated. So they can't be held liable by the utility company for any electricity prior to the bill being transfered into his name.

Also, If the LL has put the bill in their name, he would have to give a final meter reading, and that reading would have been on the letter that OP's fiance received from the utility company confirming the transfer into his name. But Op claims LL has never read the meter - in my experience of moving house, it is simply impossible to arrange a changeover of utilities without taking a meter reading.

And if he has put the utility bill in their name, then they will be getting a letter shortly, telling them the starting meter reading and if necessary they can dispute it and ask for the utility company to read the meter.

Although it seems a strange thing for the LL to do now, after they've been there 10 or 11 months, and especially as he is selling the house anyway.

I do wonder if OP hasn't misunderstood the situation?

Clear_Sky

Cardew wrote: »

I thought this might be the case initially but, from a subsequent answer from the OP, they haven't ever paid for electricity.

One cannot help feeling sorry for the OP, but everything points to the fact that the owner has done nothing wrong.

He has lodgers, albeit in an annex.

If in 10 months they haven't paid for any electricity, haven't paid any water charges and been charged £80 a week(for rent and contribution to Council Tax - and not even certain if this has all been paid?)) it would appear they have had an unbelievably good deal.

Yet the whole thrust of their posts(and some replies) is they are are being exploited.

I am trying to make myself clearer. There was never a tenancy agreement between our landlord and us because he avoided this. Our landlord (we call him landlord because we rented this cottage) forced us to sign that 'guests agreement' (he named it like that) because he denies we have paid him the rent. He probably knows it's difficult for us or almost impossible to prove that we have paid it (in these circumstances).
The electricity company representative came here to read the meters (ours and the landlord's) last week but he was not able to read them. We do not know the real reason. We haven't have access to the meter so it is impossible for us to read it. The landlord can't remember when he read it last time but it's a certain he didn't do it when my fiance moved in this cottage. The reality is he hasn't paid his electricity either but this is his issue.
On the other hand, my fiance put a mail box on the gate and the landlord asked him to remove it because he is a businessman and some of his letters might have got in ours. So there is only one mail box and we are not allowed to check it. We haven't got any letter from the electricity company yet regarding the contract. All we know form the landlord is he put the electricity contract on my fiance's name. And we trusted him. After what has happened we have doubts about his honensity.
I will go to CAB today and I'll let you know what they advice me.
Thanks to everyone who replied. We just want to pay our bills fairly.

Cardew

Verginicu,
You stated earlier that you have been told to leave in a month.

I think you need to understand a couple of things about English law. Although it is complicated I will try to simplify the explanation.

Your fiance had an unofficial arrangement to stay in the owner's property. The fact that it is a cottage on the estate makes no difference as it is treated as an Annex. So essentially it is like letting someone stay in a spare bedroom in their house.

If he had given you a formal signed tenancy agreement, that would have given you a lot of rights under UK law, including making it difficult to get you to leave and a requirement to bring the cottage up to certain standards.

You have never had such a tenancy agreement and it seems he has only asked you to sign what is true, you are sharing his property - it doesn't mean sharing your cottage, but he will have access to the cottage if he wants.

As he is selling the property, he has probably been asked to get such a guest's agreement to prove that you don't have any agreement that would give you security of tenure.

From everything you have stated, I cannot see that your 'landlord' has done anything wrong. You have only paid £80 a week to cover rent, water, council tax and electricity.

The simply facts appear to be that he let your fiance and you stay in his property on an unofficial arrangement at a very low rent and he wants that arrangement to end, and you leave.

I hope you manage to find some alternative accomodation.

zzzLazyDaisy

I am seriously beginning to think this is a wind up.

Who, in England, has mail boxes on the gate?

Clear_Sky

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

I am seriously beginning to think this is a wind up.

Who, in England, has mail boxes on the gate?

Yes, because the landlord's house is away of the front gate (somewhere in the back of property). The property is almost 16 acres and there is a front gate (the only access way to the property) who is locked all the time with a huge lock. The mail is delivered in the box on the gate. I know it's unbelievable. I know that but it's what has happened to us.
Today I went to C.A.B. and they were surprise to see the contract we signed. They say it's illegally. That contract breakes all tenant's right. We'll go to the Housing Department tomorrow to get advice.
My fiance just received a letter from the electricity company but I can open it so I don't know what is about.

willa

verginicu wrote: »

Hi!
We live in a rented cottage. There was only an oral rental agreement between our landlord and us. When my fiance moved in this cottage he was not informed that on the electric meter there are connected lights from the landlord's stables, garden, sensor lights for the front gate and lights on the front gate. More than that, our electric meter is in the landlord's garage and we don't have access at it. Our landlord asked to the electricity supplier to put the contract in my fiance's name without informing him. On 1st december we were forced to sign a 'guests agreement' with our landlord in which he says we share the cottage with him (that is not true). I say forced because there were only 2 options: sign it or leave. He cut our electricity in a night. I have a son who is 13 years old. What can we do now to pay the right amount for the electricity? We've never seen any bill. Please, give us an advice. We are desperate!

:eek: Is a shame for you to have to do but MOVE NOW! Note/keep whatever evidence you can of his wrongdoings. Good luck.

Clear_Sky

Cardew wrote: »

Verginicu,
You stated earlier that you have been told to leave in a month.

I think you need to understand a couple of things about English law. Although it is complicated I will try to simplify the explanation.

Your fiance had an unofficial arrangement to stay in the owner's property. The fact that it is a cottage on the estate makes no difference as it is treated as an Annex. So essentially it is like letting someone stay in a spare bedroom in their house.

If he had given you a formal signed tenancy agreement, that would have given you a lot of rights under UK law, including making it difficult to get you to leave and a requirement to bring the cottage up to certain standards.

You have never had such a tenancy agreement and it seems he has only asked you to sign what is true, you are sharing his property - it doesn't mean sharing your cottage, but he will have access to the cottage if he wants.

As he is selling the property, he has probably been asked to get such a guest's agreement to prove that you don't have any agreement that would give you security of tenure.

From everything you have stated, I cannot see that your 'landlord' has done anything wrong. You have only paid £80 a week to cover rent, water, council tax and electricity.

The simply facts appear to be that he let your fiance and you stay in his property on an unofficial arrangement at a very low rent and he wants that arrangement to end, and you leave.

I hope you manage to find some alternative accomodation.

I understand what you say.
We pay £80 a week for rent and Council Tax. Water and electricity are paid spearately. I hope the landlord will decide to read the electric meter soon because I can't stand this situation anymore. We just want to find out how much we have to pay and move out from here. In the agreement we signed there is noting written about the rent we pay to him. We have paid it to him weekly and he said to us we don't pay it. That's unbelievable.
Another thing that makes me wonder is that at the end of agreement he wrote: 'The guests fully understand that they have not entered into any Shorthold Tenancy Agreement of any nature whatsoever for the Cottage & are permitted to share the use of the Cottage as guests only & not tenants.' (I just copied what he wrote).

Clear_Sky

willa wrote: »

:eek: Is a shame for you to have to do but MOVE NOW! Note/keep whatever evidence you can of his wrongdoings. Good luck.

Thank you very much.

Premier_2

verginicu wrote: »

...The property is almost 16 acres and there is a front gate (the only access way to the property) who is locked all the time with a huge lock. ...

How odd.

Brampton is a very small village in Cambridgeshire (apart from the RAF base there), and I don't know of any such property in the locality.

Clear_Sky

Premier wrote: »

How odd.

Brampton is a very small village in Cambridgeshire (apart from the RAF base there), and I don't know of any such property in the locality.

Near the Nature reserve on Grafham road. Actually next to nature reserve.