Landlord wants to increase all inclusive rent? Is it fair?

mazy_m

Hi all,

My boyfriend just told me that the LL today told him he wanted to increase the rent from £550 to £610 from January this year and that it would be increased in the winter months as it was costing more.

I don't mind a fair small increase due to inflation and rising prices etc but am I being really unfair here thinking that IF he's doing that for the two flats the house is converted into it will go up by £120....it doesn't even touch this a month....he only puts a fiver or tenner or a random 20 on here and there....but lets this (and the gas run down so that it switches off!!) so I've come home to a pitch black house and the key was gone because he had it with him but it took him 30 mins to get there! I don't think this is fair and it's happened AT LEAST once a month since we've moved in!

The thing i'm finding unfair is that the rent is the price it is as the property isn't the nicest by far it's tiny, cold, not in a good state really but we put up with it as it's cheap.....we recently redorated and it looked a lot nicer....plus we've had to wait for ages for the LL to sort things out....for example we're still waiting for the gas safety certficates and we moved in 2 years ago.....:eek:

Now the person who lives above us lost his job so has spent a lot more time in the property lately cooking as this is his job.....so I believe this is the reason why it may have been a lot higher lately....

In all honesty we only use I believe a small amount of electricity as it's so small there's only ever the living room or the bedroom or the bathroom light on as I hate leaving lights on...anything that isn't being used is switched off at the mains as the wiring leaves a lot to be desired i've been electrocuted once before from it!! We only use the TV... and laptops when we feel like it....We do use a heater in the winter as there is no central heating but it has to be absolutely freezing for me to put it on as I like to be cool I hate being too hot....when i'm chilly I prefer to snuggle up in a blanket and I was snuggling up in two or three that we leave on the sofa before I'd decide to put the heater on.

The LL himself also spends a lot of time in an outhouse thing in the garden and this is provided with the electricity too. He spends a fair few nights and days here weekly.

We use the cooker maybe the most 3 or 4 times A MONTH... the kitchen is in our living room so it's a chore trying to cook in there and there's hardly any space to put anything.

So he wants to charge us £15 extra a week over the winter months but he's not really specified when these are....Now in the summer the heater isn't used at all and we're probably in the house much less so I feel that we've been paying the same all summer and it should have paid towards the extra in the winter.

I would mind paying a bit more of an increase but I think £60 a month is too much and not fair at all!

I hope he hasn't just asked us to pay it and not the other guy ( I feel bad saying that as I know he's unemployed!!) but we're not well off at all I owe loads in debt and i've been so good paying it off...

I feel really miffed now that i've put up with so much crap from this crappy studio just for the cheapness ...

I don't think he's doing it to be horrible etc he's not like that in fact we do get on with him well... But how do I say to him without sounding like i'm being horrible to the guy above.

Cheers

Maz

mazy_m

Sorry not sure if this is in the right place! !

spiro

Couple of points here:

1) Landlord is not allowed to make a profit from the resale of fuel but can add a reasonable 'admin' charge.
2) You are entitled to see a copy of the rates he pays and the bills (with PPM you get an annual statement).
3) If the individual properties dont have 'sub meters' then the LL has to advise you how the bill is divided. Typically this can be done on square footage but in your instance this also need to include his share.
4) Advise him that you want the gas certificate NOW and that if it is not forthcoming, bearing in mind it has to be done annually, you will be reporting him to the authorities.
5) Look for somewhere else to live.

undaunted

Spiro's point 5 was the first one I thought of I'm afraid.

Unless you have a tenancy quoting a fixed rent for a fixed period I don't see how you can stop him increasing the rent (whether he attributes it to a rise in rent or electricity is surely immaterial in the end)

You don't say what part of the £550 is for utilities at the moment (or whether the rent has previously increased in the two years you've been there) but is the figure for energy and the increase proportionate to likely costs and rising prices? If not you can at least raise your query as to how he came up with the figure with him I suppose

If you do intend to stay however I certainly wouldn't put up with being left in the dark - if you've paid for it you are entitled to get the service on tap not when he feels like topping it up. I also agree with Spiro that after 2 years you have to be firmer on the gas certificates. Sounds to me like the landlord is just winging his way through life to be honest rather than trying to rob you. Unfortunately, if you pay cheap (& though I appreciate sometimes that's the only thing someone can afford) you generally get cheap I'm afraid - but you are still at least entitled to know you are safe

good_advice

£60 extra for the increased electric is alot for a small flat but then it also depends on how insulated it is?
Everyone's fuel bills have gone up and we are all paying more.

From your posts we are to understand the landlord is paying the fuel bill on behalf of both flats and shed use.
I think you need to ask for your own flat meter. How do you know which flat is using the most of the electric bill?

chris1973

The thing i'm finding unfair is that the rent is the price it is as the property isn't the nicest by far it's tiny, cold, not in a good state really but we put up with it as it's cheap.....we recently redorated and it looked a lot nicer....plus we've had to wait for ages for the LL to sort things out....for example we're still waiting for the gas safety certficates and we moved in 2 years ago

Okay i'm guessing from this that your rent includes all inclusive non individually metered Electricity?

If this is the case, and you are finding that the existing heating is insufficient then just go and buy a couple of cheap portable halogen / fan / convector heaters which can be found for £10 - £15 and use the electricity you are seemingly already paying for, in order to heat your flat to a comfortable level?.

I'm not saying you should take the P*** or go OTT to prove a point and heat it like a Turkish sauna, but you do have the right to maintain a comfortable level and you also need to actively prevent damp etc, as this is often a requirement of the tenancy agreement. So if the existing heating is not sufficient to do this, then just plug in an extra additional heater using the fuel you already pay for within the rent - easily solved.

You have to be careful in situations like this, as it appears from your description that the LL is taking the overall usage from one main central meter and sharing the cost of it out equally between the tenants. Sure, there will always be people using less than others who are subsidising the higher users' share, but Electricity is certainly not cheap and is likely to continue to rise by 10 - 20% increments in the coming year , and coming from a tenant myself, who found himself putting up to £90 a month into a pre-pay meter to keep warm last winter, you may find that pressuring the LL into getting a meter and paying your own bill might work out more expensive in the longer term, so on that basis i'd advise "Be careful what you wish for"

In some ways you are fortunate, although on paper it looks unfair if you are a genuine low user, at least you are not like some people who spend their evenings clutching their Energy monitors looking at the ticking over 'units' they are consuming and having sleepless nights over the inevitable bill. If we do end up having a winter like the last two, at least you can plug in a couple of extra heaters with a clear conscience, and will not be fearing the bill dropping on your doormat in the spring......

mazy_m

Hi all,

Thank you so much for your replies sorry about the delay. Was away for our anniversary for a couple of days.

Some fantastic points there I will have to speak to him about the safety certificates. My mum has gone mad at me about this. I saw on Groupon today a deal for this and was considering getting it or pointing it out to him.

I saw the ideas about getting seperate meters installed and I don't think he'd want that and to be honest neither would we. The reason I rented this place was that it was all inclusive i'm still in debt via my overdraft for paying all my bills in the last property I was in and although we never defaulted on anything it was a huge struggle so it was nice to get away from it.

I understand that there probably was going to be an increase as we hadn't had an increase in the two years we've been here and I'm fine with that it was just the amount of the increase didn't seem fair. From what I see him putting on it as we always have to tell him we've put it on emergency it definitely wouldn't be £60 more from us AND the guy upstairs as there is no way it would be £120 a month ON TOP of what was already paid. I don't know what percentage of the rent goes on what we just pay the set amount for the rent, G & E, CT and Water Rates. We pay for the TV license and a cheap virgin package seperate.

We do have a portable heater that the LL provided us with but it really smells and in all honesty it doesn't seem safe to me so we use an oil heater my nan gave me but we don't put it on for long. Today it's cold so I had the blankets on but put the heater on within 15 mins I was so hot (the living room really is that small lol!) I had to switch it off and take my jumper off.

In terms of insulation it does seem to keep the heat reasonably well in the room however the back door which is also our living room door that we open to get into the garden isn't really sealed properly so I could mention this to him and he might seal this.

In regards to the increase I sent a text explaining that I didn't object to a rise but not to this extreme and that I believed we didn't use that much electricity as we are not here enough to warrant the prices. He rang me straight back and told me not to worry about it and that we could sit down and talk about it and come to an agreement that suited us all.

He's not the sort of guy to try and make money off of it so I think he's just finding it more expensive as the guy upstairs is in more and using the cooker (which uses up so much electricity!!) as he loves to cook. I didn't want to come across as a !!!!! but I didn't see it was fair that I was penalised for someone else being in the property more.

Thanks again for all your replies!!

Maz

spiro

mazy_m wrote: »

In terms of insulation it does seem to keep the heat reasonably well in the room however the back door which is also our living room door that we open to get into the garden isn't really sealed properly so I could mention this to him and he might seal this.

If you dont have a double glazed back door another option is to hang a curtain across the door. You can even by curtain tracks were one end fixes to the door frame and the other end to the door so the curtain swings open when you open the door.

mazy_m

HI spiro....thanks for the idea!! We do have very thick lined dark out curtains over the back door and they're always kept closed...it's just the way the door joins that seems to make it not so insulated.....there's a hole between the bottom of the door and the piece of wood it shuts onto...the same type of door and panel is in the bathroom and it's freezing in there too!! lol!!

Maz