Landlord trying to invoice for extra charges

sugam

Hi,

Our landlord is trying to charge us a part of the service charges that he has to pay the developer in the middle of our tenancy. I have been living in the apartment for 1.5 years and this is the first time I have heard of this. The agent claims that this is for the heating and cooling charges for the building and the landlord wants to make us liable. They want to charge us by square foot area and this is not a usage charge. As I understand, landlord gets one bill from the developer as service / maintenance charges and he wants to charge a part of it to us. He has not given us any details of his total charge and how he came up with the amount billed to us.

They want us to pay £470 extra per year on top of what we pay EDF as normal utility bills. The contract only has a clause that we have to pay all due bills to utility companies invoiced to the tenants and the agents claim that this same clause is being used here, with the only exception that the landlord is the counterparty.

They have sent us an invoice with a seven day deadline to pay them. We think this is unfair but do not know what our rights are or who we should contact to help us settle the matter.

Has anyone had any similar issue where they have been charged for an unexpected item ? Is there a citizen bureau or ombudsman that can help us out ? What options do I have ?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many Thanks
Sugam

withabix

Unless it is referred to in your AST contract as being Tenant's liability, it is 100% the liability of the OWNER (ie the Landlord) and is deemed to be included in the rent.

Your landlord will probably include this in your next AST (as they have effectively omitted it by mistake), so you could well be liable for future charges.

Ulfar

Service charges are 100% the responsibility of the leaseholder in this case your landlord.The clause you have quoted is for you to pay bills invoiced to the tenants, service charges are invoiced to the leaseholder. Tell them to take a flying leap of a short cliff.

It would be quite difficult to put these into a tenancy as the tenants problem because, they vary a lot, include a contribution to a sinking fund and are usually billed for the year.

What happens if a tenant leaves after six months. Do you get your contributions back from the sinking fund when you leave.

What the landlord can do which is easier is put up the rent to account for this business cost.

Whatever you do don't agree to a new contract, this probably means you will be moving soon. I would pre-empt this and find somewhere now.

BitterAndTwisted

Your landlord is an idiot who doesn't know the first thing about what he is doing. Any charges from the freeholder are your landlord's responsibility and not yours. If the landlord failed to make an allowance for these charges when calculating your rent then that is his problem. Find another property as soon as possible. This can only end in tears as is usual when you are dealing with people who are out of their depth.

sugam

Thanks for reply guys, we also felt that the landlord is being unfair to dump these charges on us. How should we fight against this ? Do we need to hire a solicitor or is there a arbitration agency that can help us ?

Ulfar

Just refuse to pay, the tenancy agreement as you have stated earlier does not include these charges.

The service contract is the responsibility of the landlord not you, it is invoiced to him as the owner. The estate agent can't add an exception to the contract without your agreement.

I would be looking for somewhere else to live if I was you as your landlord has no clue as to what he is doing and if he is trying to pass this cost on may be in money trouble.

olly300

sugam wrote: »

Thanks for reply guys, we also felt that the landlord is being unfair to dump these charges on us. How should we fight against this ? Do we need to hire a solicitor or is there a arbitration agency that can help us ?

Ignore the letter.

Make sure you have copies and make notes of all phone calls and letters about this matter. (You should be keeping records of everything to do with your tenancy until it has ended satisfactory anyway i.e. you have paid all bills and have your deposit back.)

If you are chased by letter or telephone send the agent recorded sign for letter in response. Inform them that leaseholder charges are not your legal responsibility but the landlord's as you do not have a contract with the freeholder, and if they keep chasing you about this matter then they are harassing you.

Most agents back down when you mention the word harassment as it's a criminal offence to harass tenants. Even if it's not harassment under the terms of your tenancy it could be harassment under Protection of Harassment Act.

In future with such an idiot landlord and agent it's probably a good idea NOT to discuss anything about their queries or plans to extract money from you on the phone but put all responses in concise letters.

G_M

A single letter denying responsibility. Then do not respond either to written or telephone discussion. Discussion is futile and stressfull, so ignore.

In the nd the LL will have 3 options

1) take you to court, and lose
2) ask you to sign a new tenancy agreement with a new rent which takes this into account, which you need not agree to
3) Issue a S21 Notice (2 months notice to leave)
4) back down