Paying for Landlords Security Lighting!

poppysarah

chris1973 wrote: »

I imagine that knock will be pretty quick, as it will be pitch dark out there and no doubt he (LL) wont want to be liable for a child slipping or falling. He already knows that I know about the situation so its not a case of proving a point. When challenged his excuse / attitude was that I use the same driveway as everybody else and park in the same parking area and the lights partly light my car etc so i'm getting some benefit from them so why shouldn't I pay?. I've said before that I didn't mind paying a service charge towards them but I don't see why I should foot the amenity lighting bill for what is, after all, a commercial money making activity for him.

But ultimately its solved nothing

Put it in writing to him that you are unhappy about paying for part of his business.

(Does he perhaps claim all the elec used as a business expense?)

If you can switch them off inside your property then I would do this and go out.

Do it several nights.

If he enters your property then you can change the lock.

Repeat until he lets you leave.

chris1973

Is it written in your contract that you have to pay for the external lighting?

No, all that is written in there is that i'm responsible for paying for the utilities and that the choice of supplier will be set by the LL unless otherwise agreed with him.

Is the electricity board that feeds the lights within your property and does the lanloard have to go into your property to gain access to it?

No, its in a meter box located on the wall of an outside carport - basically anybody walking up the drive can access it - with a standard utlity meter box key. I've already turned off the main switch to isolate the annexe when I went on holiday, when I returned it had been turned back on again!. He doesn't need to access my property to do this.

If you can switch them off inside your property then I would do this and go out.

No I can't control the lights from within my flat. They are controlled by P.I.R's dotted around the property. There is a switch on the shared patio but this just overides the PIR and photocell control and turns the lights on permanently 24/7.

There is a master switch for the lights, a fused 13A spur but this is mounted in the landlords locked workshop / garage, next to the floodlight control box which I can't enter and have no right to access.

The only way of switching the lights off, without having access to the spur which controls them would be to pull the 30A fuse which the spur is fed off in my consumer unit, however this also feeds every socket in my flat effectively leaving me without sockets and heating. I think if it came to a standoff he knows my need for Electricity will arise sooner than his, and i'll have to put the fuseback in eventually!.

poppysarah

Well your only control is stop putting money on the meter.
I really would bring this to a head sooner rather than later. The clock change means more people will be about in the dark now.

LudaMusser

Chris1973...

I`ve rented two different apartments over the last three years, the first was so noisy I had to leave after only four months. The second was better but noise was an issue with the apartments below, a woman who was hard of hearing and who worked split shifts so came home around 11pm and then sometimes decided to do the cleaning, I kid you not. We complained but nothings changed.

I know my experiences were both in apartments but where you are now you say that you don`t have a problem with noise or neighbours. You can`t put a price on that.

I too would be really annoyed at paying for the LL`s security lighting but also remember that if you move because this has`nt been sorted out you may be worse off in other ways

HTH

Tixy

I'd start looking for other places - see what else you can get for the same amount of rent etc. If you think you'd be likely to get something similar or that you'd be happy with for less money then I'd write to current landlord, detail that you are not happy with it, include an estimate of how much its costing you a month based on the kws, unit price, estimated time of use etc (£20?) and ask for a reduction to your rent for the same amount. If he won't agree then you can still choose to leave.

chris1973

I know my experiences were both in apartments but where you are now you say that you don`t have a problem with noise or neighbours. You can`t put a price on that.

Yes, I do appreciate what I have, I to have had my fair of anti-social neighbours, which is why this property was my first choice and why its going to be such a difficult decision, but I also have to be practical and its a case of needs must.

The property is all electric, and so far i'm on target / budgeting to be putting in around £90 a month just to run the storage heaters, okay its mild now but in that cold snap the other week, they were eating £3.00 a night in Electricity, so multiply that by 30 nights and you have a rough idea of their monthly running cost, and thats without factoring the bathroom heating (no storage heater) and Immersion. Plus the fact that by mid evening the storage heaters rarely give out enough heat to keep the main rooms above 16c, so in the freezing nights I also need to run additional heating on top of their combined overnight running costs!.

Funding this would probably just be about manageable *IF* i'm very careful with my general usage, however, like most people, I really don't need the additional challenge / burden of upto 50p per Evening or £3.50 a week being eaten or rather wasted by several hours worth of floodlighting which i'm not the main beneficiary of!. The nights haven't finished drawing in yet and by December these floodlights will probably be kicking in as early as 3.20pm, so i'm set to be paying anything upto £5 a week / £20 a month purely to keep the landlords floodlights alight - that £20 is around half of the monthly DD which some households profess to pay on credit meters, spent entirely on somebody elses usage

And thats even before my own general daily non heating usage is taken into account.

What annoys me as I sit here,is that in my effort to save energy now, i've got the 2KW convector switched off, and I dont use the bathroom heater at all. However whilst my 2KW heater is off and i'm making sacrifices to keep my energy costs low, exactly the same amount of energy is being used to run floodlights which dont belong to me so an already well off individual can make more money by renting out his stables!.

It really would be a case sometimes of deciding between floodlights or being warm and I really dont fancy still being in here in January when that decision could be a daily one!.

I'd start looking for other places - see what else you can get for the same amount of rent etc.

Fortunately I am lucky enough to be located in an area (Staffordshire / Derbyshire border) where 1 bed rural barn conversions and cottage type properties are fairly accessible to rent, its just a matter of finding one at the right price and where I can get out to work in bad winter snowfall without owning a 4x4!, this was ideal in this respect as it was near to a main road for haulage, but also isolated enough to be quiet. I guess tonight i'll be spending some time on the property sites searching rental properties again in the area.

Nixer

Hmm, I've seen (and lived in a couple) far too many rural properties owned by the filthy rich but still with crappy storage heaters/no insulation/single skin/bloody pre pay electricity etc. In fact until you said Staffs I thought it might be my ex landlord.

If he won't budge on reducing the rent then I think you have to get out as he is royally taking the urea. I'd report him to HMRC as well as (IME) the rich amateur landlord doth not declare his rental income. I am wondering whether you could claim the costs of running his lights back in the small claims court but I think you'd need someone who specialises in tenancy law to advise.

BTW you don't need a 4WD in snow, you just need a spade and some winter tyres (not to be confused with snow tyres).

chris1973

Hmm, I've seen (and lived in a couple) far too many rural properties owned by the filthy rich but still with crappy storage heaters/no insulation/single skin/bloody pre pay electricity etc.

Yes that pretty much sums it up!. Can't fault the location but the property certainly hasn't had anything spent on it for a Loooong time, insulation non existant, even the DG has only been fitted recently. Some days its actually warmer outside. I did also find out from the LL (some months after I moved in) that the property flooded whilst in the care of the previous tenant, he went back to his main home down South, over Xmas (probably to get warm) and left the heating off, and the pipes burst. I do wonder whether it hasn't properly dried out and thats why the inner walls also feel freezing to the touch, even on a hot summer day, its like living in a fridge. The bedroom is over the open ended car port too, which doesn't help, the floor is always bloody freezing.

Of course the landlords' section has oil CH, and Woodburners in the main rooms, you never see S.H in their properties do you.

BTW you don't need a 4WD in snow, you just need a spade and some winter tyres (not to be confused with snow tyres).

Funny you should say that, after last year i've been considering this. How do you tell between Mud and Snow tyres and general winter ones?, I keep hearing conflicting stories from different places!.

the_big_fact_hunt

i would buy the electric in the smallest denomination available, put it in only when necessary and then burn it all off myself cooking and showering etc, and then sit in the dark wrapped in a quilt until he sorts it out.
I bet the contract does not state that you have to have electricity available for others to use, or credit on the meter at all times

KateLiana27

Write him a polite but firm letter stating that you simply cannot afford the extra lighting cost and are afraid it cannot continue. Offer him a choice of three options:

- he takes over payment of the lighting
- the lighting is switched off so neither of you have to pay
- you will give notice to leave the property