EDF wrong meter reading?

Fire_Fox

Palmer89 wrote: »

We always have the bills copied to us, I understand why the landloard wants them in their name as after this year I believe they are no longer renting out their flat. So no conning going on we are sure on that.

JD, cheers, thats exactly what we thought but the landlord tried to suggest otherwise but he may have also made a mistake or not understood us.

I'm sure it's just a honest mistake but we would phone up if it was in our name, hopefully we can get our landloard to phone on our behalf since he has requested the money from us ASAP.

I would be willing to bet that your landlord does not have consent to lease from his lender, if so they do not have to recognise your tenancy leaving your vulnerable to eviction at very short notice. If the bill is in the landlord's name he is liable for it, therefore I would write and politely dispute the accuracy of the readings with him, perhaps including part payment as a gesture of goodwill.

Palmer89 wrote: »

The landlord chose the tariff and company to be with, we had no say in the matter at the time and was just looking for the best place for us 2, it's not a big deal because our bills are usually quite cheap anyway.

If it was up to us we'd probably have chosen something else but the flat is a good price and we don't use alot of electricity as it is so didn't really say too much about it.

The landlord is simply not allowed to choose a supplier and tariff for his tenants unless he is paying the bills. Any clause of this nature in an AST is considered to be unfair by the OFT.

Palmer89

The landlord is paying the bills and then requesting the money from us on his behalf once he had paid for them, at the moment we haven't paid him because we have disputed the amount owed afterall, it is us paying the money.

As I said though, we phoned up and EDF have admitted the reading is wrong, we just need to get back and read the meter for the correct off peak readings, I believe my flat mate is going to do that tommorow after which they said they shall send us a bill worth the correct amount.

jd87

Are they sending the bill to you or to the landlord? If they have switched the account to be in your name then I expect your landlord won't be happy. You don't want to end up on the street, and as others have said, you might not have many rights under your current arrangement so be careful.

Palmer89

It's still all in the landlords name.

The bills get sent to our address before we then send them off to the landlord who gives us photo copies, a little inconvenient but I understand why. Thankfully it was an error it seems.

macman

OP, your whole tenancy arrangement sounds increasingly dubious, have you actually got a valid AST?
Is your landlord complying with such standard requirements as giving you a copy of the annual gas safety certificate, which he is legally required to do?

Toomuchdebt

It'll be interesting to see what the actual reading is.I used to have an economy 7 meter and you had to press a little blue button to get the night reading.

Palmer89

macman wrote: »

OP, your whole tenancy arrangement sounds increasingly dubious, have you actually got a valid AST?
Is your landlord complying with such standard requirements as giving you a copy of the annual gas safety certificate, which he is legally required to do?

We get copies of everything, we've been there now for near 8 months with only a few months left to run, everything has been fine and the landlord has been more than accomodating to our requests/problems so far, not charging us for certain things, keeping us informed of everything going on etc.

Have no qualms over the agreement we signed, it's just the bills being in their name might have been a bit inconvenient which it doesn't appear it will be.

macman

On the contrary, it mean that if you do a runner leaving the bill unpaid, then they can only chase him, as he is solely liable.
Which makes me more convinced that he is not declaring the existence of the tenancy, maybe for mortgage or tax reasons.

Palmer89

What do you mean?

We phoned EDF who have the place down as a rented property, from what I gather it's no too uncommon for tenants to keep the billd in their name, they are private tenants and we know them well enough now. They rented out the property to their son last year before he moved out and have just started renting it out properly.

DVardysShadow

Palmer89 wrote: »

What do you mean?

We phoned EDF who have the place down as a rented property, from what I gather it's no too uncommon for tenants to keep the billd in their name, they are private tenants and we know them well enough now. They rented out the property to their son last year before he moved out and have just started renting it out properly.

tenants -> landlords ? Otherwise this doesn't make sense