tenant not living in flat .

Wee_Willy_Harris

A clever telephone manner and a bit of charm goes a long way.

Jowo_2

clutton wrote: »

i am wondering now on earth the LL knows anything about the electricity useage of the tenant... Data protection would not allow the utility company to inform him of such usage.....

Good point. I assumed that the electricity meter was outside the flat where the landlord could access it and check if the readings had changed but that's the not the case here. I am wondering that, too, since if the account is in the tenant's name service providers are loathe to talk to people other than the account holder themselves.

Mouseman

It's a pre paid meter. Leave that in your own name as you know debts can't be acrued by tenants. Bingo, call the electric company and they're talking to the acount holder. Simples

Old_Git

Mouseman wrote: »

It's a pre paid meter. Leave that in your own name as you know debts can't be acrued by tenants. Bingo, call the electric company and they're talking to the acount holder. Simples

yip .and as there is only one electric company here the tenant cant chance supplier even if they wanted to . also the flat has Econ 7 heating ,electric cooker ,washer ect . I had my suspicions the electric just added to them .

Old_Git

terryw wrote: »

It is certainly worth mentioning that from the council's viewpoint nil expenditure on power will be prima facie evidence that a person is not living there. In these circumstances, the council will make the first claim against the landlord backdated to the last date of power usage for the return of housing benefit paid to the landlord.

LHA paid direct to the tenant would not reflect upon the landlord or lead to a claim for repayment except possibly where collusion was involved.

OP, this means that you must keep clean hands. You must make the council aware of your suspicions (after talking to the tenant, of course!). There is obviously a rather large rabbit loose here and you have got to try and minimise droppings!

It is not LHA it is housing benefit ,the claim has been going for 5 years snd it is paid to me .I will not be contacting the housing ,but I know If they find out they will want the money back from me and I am not stupid enought to tell them. I have left a note for the tenant saying I will call around on Thursday evening . I havent said why I want to see him .

terryw

Old_Git wrote: »

It is not LHA it is housing benefit .

I am fully aware of this! My first paragraph referred to the fact that HB would be reclaimable against you. In my second para I pointed out that LHA would not be reclaimable against you in normal cirumstances.

sequence

Mouseman wrote: »

It's a pre paid meter. Leave that in your own name as you know debts can't be acrued by tenants. Bingo, call the electric company and they're talking to the acount holder. Simples

I'd just like to point out that you can run up massive debts on a prepay meter if it's set wrong or faulty. We ran up 2K on ours....

bap98189

sharpee wrote: »

I thought most tenancy agreements stated a property shouldn't be left unoccupied for more than 2 weeks without notice to the LL/LA?

How do you define unoccupied. If the tennant goes back there once a week to collect mail, is that unoccupied? What about once a fortnight?

poppysarah

Ask your insurance company what they term as unoccupied. I think it means staying overnight ... but I'd be careful to get the Insurance companies opinion - they are the ones who look for reasons why not to pay out on claims.

Whilst giro drops make peaceful hassle free tenants, there's some element of fraud going on - and that's another bag of worms entirely.

Mupette

could the tennant be in hospital?

do you have any conctact points with them apart from the property, like a mobile?