landlady has sold house

taylorsmum

hi, any advice please,

we received notice to quit on the 20th dec, the landlady has sold the house we are in.

received a phone call today from the agents stating that the landlady's solicitor wants to know who our gas and electric suppliers are and they want a copy of our water bill, confused as to why the solicitor would want this.seems very strange to me

Alleycat

I'm guessing its for the new buyers? Don't know why they would want a copy of the water bill, unless its so they can find out how much it is per month but why couldn't they just ask you. I would refuse with the water bill as it'll have your personal details on it (reference number etc), but would tell them the gas/electric supplier.

firesidemaid

hi there

when we last sold our house we were also asked to supply these details.

it is so the purchaser/s have an idea of what the bills will be before they exchange/complete. i handed them all over, but you could give a copy with all your personal details blacked out - or otherwise at least let them know all the suppliers details.

but it is perfectly normal.

taylorsmum

sazzacat wrote:

hi there

when we last sold our house we were also asked to supply these details.

it is so the purchaser/s have an idea of what the bills will be before they exchange/complete. i handed them all over, but you could give a copy with all your personal details blacked out - or otherwise at least let them know all the suppliers details.

but it is perfectly normal.

our letting agency have never heard of this before. i do not see what difference it will make at the end of the day we are only the tenants not the owners. we are refusing to do this..

MonkeySaving?

Absolutley, it makes no difference at all at the end of the day. Tell the solicitors to FO.

real1314

shouldn;t make any difference.

as tenants, you will be responsible for the water bill,until you leave/contract ends. same with gas, elec etc.

they don't really need to know, there are phone numbers they can use to check, but for gas/elec, it helps them sort things if they knwo who the biller is.

have you actually changed gas/elec supplier?

taylorsmum

MonkeySaving? wrote:

Absolutley, it makes no difference at all at the end of the day. Tell the solicitors to FO.

thanks monkeysaving, exactly what i thought:laugh:

Madjock

well, it does make a difference. This is information the vendor has to provide to the buyers. It's not as if you are being asked for your financial details, all the want to know is who the utility suppliers are, and what the water rates cost.

prudryden

Tenants have a right to change the utility suppliers, but it probably says in the tenancy contract you agreed to that you need to advise the LL/LA, should you change the supplier.

Water: They already know who the supplier is, but probably want to know what the rateable value of the property is, which is on the bill. Either that, or they want to confirm whether it is on a meter or a flat rate charge.

prudryden

taylorsmum wrote:

our letting agency have never heard of this before. i do not see what difference it will make at the end of the day we are only the tenants not the owners. we are refusing to do this..

Why would you want to refuse? Have you been having a problem with the LL?

Debt_Free_Chick

taylorsmum wrote:

our letting agency have never heard of this before. i do not see what difference it will make at the end of the day we are only the tenants not the owners. we are refusing to do this..

It's makes a difference as it gives the new owners an idea of how much their water bill will be. It's a standard request made by the solicitor handling a property purchase - we certainly had a copy of the seller's bill when we bought our current property in 2002. The letting agent probably has no knowledge of property purchases, but just because they've "never heard of it" doesn't mean it's not common/standard practice (which it is).

It seems somewhat petty to refuse - what difference does it make to you? The only "personal" details on the bill are already known to the buyer - the address and (probably) your name. The reference number and any other information on the bill is of no use to anyone - anyway, the bill is going to a solicitor, not the Mafia