Renting a Lemon

Opinion

I'd start looking for a new girlfriend, to be honest.

How can you not notice that amount of mould, and the quite obvious lack of a boiler/heating?!!

seraphina

TBH I'd be looking to cut my losses and move to a different flat. Do you really want to deal with all these issues? Not sure what the legal position would be but if the mould is bad you might get away with being able to say the place isn't fit for habitation.

dizziblonde

Short term for the meter - get the readings and settings written down (usually press the button on the front and cycle through the screens, might need the key in to get all of them - write them down, they'll probably make naff all sense to you but handy to have), then call the supplier of your choice and get a new key sent out which should remove the debt - you're not liable but it'll keep taking the £6 a week until it's removed.

Some suppliers want a billing history and charge to remove a prepayment meter, some don't - utilities board is a good place to start, I know E-On at least have reps fairly active on there.

But yeah, I'd be running a mile unless they fix all this pretty sharpish myself - and get the missus's eyes checked!

James_N

Johncore wrote: »

Hi,

My girlfriend and I have just moved into a flat which is turning out to be a nightmare. We moved in on Tuesday without me seeing it (I know, caveat emptor) and when my partner viewed it she missed some fairly important stuff.

No central heating
No boiler
Damp above the header tank
Mouldy bathrooms
Prepayment electric meter
Shoddy wiring all over

Etc etc, the crib sheet is 2 pages long. No inventory was carried out when we moved in. The management company acting as landlords have been pretty good about it, we had a boiler fitted yesterday and today we're getting 8 hours of handyman attention, but I still have some doubts.

Can storage heaters ever be economical and/or efficient? At the moment it's costing about £1/room/night, and the place is still freezing. Can central heating be installed in an electric-only building?

The prepayment meter, I called EON (the current suppliers) and they told me we'd have to wait 12 months to get a credit meter, so I switched to Southern Electric who said that they'd do it immediately after a credit check/charge/DD setup - have I been had? It seems like the previous tenants had outrageous debt, there are bailiffs letters and court summons going back to 2008, so I suppose my credit rating is shot now?

Not only that, the PPM is taking £6/wk standing charge for previous debt - eon say this will clear after we top up 3 times? Do we really have to pay someone else's debt for that time? Just this morning I put £5 on it and was rewarded with 65p of electricity..

The bathrooms are vile, our ensuite ceiling is about 50% covered in this brown-ish mould, as are the towel rail and the sealant on everything.

Now if nothing else, this is a lesson and a cautionary tale - never sign anything for a place you haven't seen. But the more pressing issue is that we have to spend a year here. How much of this is our landlord legally obliged to fix? Will it ever be habitable?

There is an easier way out of this. Ditch the GF, let her live in the appaling mess she's let herself in for, move in with another GF (checking out her accommodation first).
:rotfl::rotfl:

princeofpounds

TBH I'd be looking to cut my losses and move to a different flat. Do you really want to deal with all these issues? Not sure what the legal position would be but if the mould is bad you might get away with being able to say the place isn't fit for habitation.

Wrong advice, sorry. How can you advise somebody to scarper without even being aware what the legal position is, given that is basically what matters.

There is a situation where a contract can become frustrated by an unlivable property, and therefore the tenancy gets terminated, but we are talking the ceiling falling in, an inch of water flooding the whole ground floor, fire damage etc. Some mould, unpleasant as it may be, does not cut it and a tenant who runs away will remain liable for the entire contract.

As I stated before, health issues that not significant enough to make the property *genuinely* unlivable are dealt with by environmental health. You get them in to inspect, and if perhaps it's breeding enough weird lifeforms to be positively dangerous then they can effectively 'condemn' the property at which point the landlord becomes liable to find suitable alternative accomodation and to fix the issues.

mlz1413

OP everyone's heating bill is high at the moment, £1 per room per day seems reasonable considering its the coldest snap on record for most of us.

Sounds like the place has been empty so a lot of the mould will probably go as you live there and the tempertures get up to normal.

The management co sound great, new boiler and a whole day of a handyman by day 2 of living there - your not going to get better service.

EOn should send someone out to remove the debt which is not due to you, but its a bad time of year to be getting instant service on this and you seem to have it in hand, ie changing supplier already sorted out.

Many LL want PPM's so that T's can't rack up debts, you may need to return this to a PPM before you leave - also when you leave information the LL/LA/Management Co what provider you have changed to so that they don't all curse you when they find out you have changed meter and provider.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Johncore wrote: »

The prepayment meter, I called EON (the current suppliers) and they told me we'd have to wait 12 months to get a credit meter, so I switched to Southern Electric who said that they'd do it immediately after a credit check/charge/DD setup - have I been had? It seems like the previous tenants had outrageous debt, there are bailiffs letters and court summons going back to 2008, so I suppose my credit rating is shot now?

Not only that, the PPM is taking £6/wk standing charge for previous debt - eon say this will clear after we top up 3 times? Do we really have to pay someone else's debt for that time? Just this morning I put £5 on it and was rewarded with 65p of electricity..

Hi Johncore

Sounds like you've inherited a really unpleasant situation. Hopefully, the position with your E.ON Prepayment Meter has eased a little but, if this isn't the case, thought I would offer some general advice.

Firstly, there is no way you should be paying for a previous tenant's debt.

When moving into a property with Prepayment Meters, it is important to contact our Prepayment Home moves team as soon as possible. Advise them of the day responsibility changed and the meter readings at the time.

The old account will be closed down to this information and a new one created for you to cover ongoing usage.

What type of Prepayment Meter do you have? The most widespread type are key meters.

If you have a key meter, you will be advised of a number which can be taken to the shop used to buy credit top ups. The shop will then put the number into their machine and issue a new key.

The new key will need to be registered with the meter before putting credit on.

Once credit is added, the meter will be re-set and all previous debt will be cleared.

If you have previously topped up using the old key and before the number I referred to above was issued, you will have picked up the settings relevant to the previous occupier.

These may include things like deductions for debt, any outstanding emergency credit used by the previous occupier and any accumulation of Standing Charges before responsibility transferred to you. Anything you have paid towards these will need crediting back to you. From your 4th post it seems this may already have been arranged.

As I said earlier, the above refers primarily to key meters. There are other types of prepayment meter out there but with basically similar procedures concerning the clear down of previous settings; albeit with a few variations.

The important thing is to talk to our Prepayment Home moves team. They will be able to issue the necessary meter adjustments/advice.

Hope this is useful Johncore. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

happy35

I would put neat bleach on the brown mould painted on with a paint brush, I personally used domestos (in a property I once lived in and sounds very much like your flat) and then wiped it off with a damp cloth after about an hour. If you do this is should remove most of the staining but you will need to leave the windows open for a while afterwards as it stinks.

I don't know how old you are but I was 20 when we got our first flat and I was so excited that I didn't see all the flaws either, we did stay for the 6 months of the lease and then moved to a house with all the things that the other place didn't have

tbs624

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi Johncore

Sounds like you've inherited a really unpleasant situation. Hopefully, the position with your E.ON Prepayment Meter has eased a little but, if this isn't the case, thought I would offer some general advice.

Firstly, there is no way you should be paying for a previous tenant's debt.

When moving into a property with Prepayment Meters, it is important to contact our Prepayment Home moves team as soon as possible. Advise them of the day responsibility changed and the meter readings at the time.

The old account will be closed down to this information and a new one created for you to cover ongoing usage.

What type of Prepayment Meter do you have? The most widespread type are key meters.

If you have a key meter, you will be advised of a number which can be taken to the shop used to buy credit top ups. The shop will then put the number into their machine and issue a new key.

The new key will need to be registered with the meter before putting credit on.

Once credit is added, the meter will be re-set and all previous debt will be cleared.

If you have previously topped up using the old key and before the number I referred to above was issued, you will have picked up the settings relevant to the previous occupier.

These may include things like deductions for debt, any outstanding emergency credit used by the previous occupier and any accumulation of Standing Charges before responsibility transferred to you. Anything you have paid towards these will need crediting back to you. From your 4th post it seems this may already have been arranged.

As I said earlier, the above refers primarily to key meters. There are other types of prepayment meter out there but with basically similar procedures concerning the clear down of previous settings; albeit with a few variations.

The important thing is to talk to our Prepayment Home moves team. They will be able to issue the necessary meter adjustments/advice.

Hope this is useful Johncore. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

A useful post but as it sounds as though the OP contacted EOn to ask about switching the meter (and presumably explained that he had just moved in) it sounds as though your company failed to explain that he was likely to be lumbered with the previous occupant's debt unless EOn hit the right keys on a computer/transferred the call to the appropriate dept........pretty shoddy , if that was the case.