Moved home...can't afford the electricity

Matt_in_Walsall

Hi there

I recently moved into my first house, which is privately rented through a lettings agency. Before i moved in i came and had a look around and was told that the heating was storage heating, this is what the agent was told by the landlord. I was happy with this so i moved in. Since moving in i have found out that there is no heating system and that the heaters are convection heaters. I have them all over the house. I cannot afford to use these heaters as i have a prepayment meter, when just ONE heater is on it used £20 in the first day and have had to purchase some oil filled radiators at £25 each, i only have two at the moment, but will need more as it's quite a big house.

My house is freezing cold and there is condensation everywhere which is now leading to damp in two bedrooms. I am at my wits end and i don't know what to do. I'm averaging £50 a week in the prepayment meter, but i can't afford this much longer. And that is without the convection heaters on. The hot water is run on immersion, but i have to turn it off most of the time! I can't leave the property as i paid a lot of money to come live here and have the tenancy for a year. I can't afford to move. I have spoken to the agents and state that there is nothing they can do to convince the landlord to put a heating system in. I wish i had not moved. There is a house around the corner which is the same price but has Central Heating! I feel like i have been duped!!

This property has not been maintained in the year it has been empty, and the person who has done all the cosmetic work is not a qualified professional. Doors are falling off all over the place, and things are falling off walls! They don't even know the code to the house alarm, and i have no fire alarm either! I'm so tired! The landlord fights the agents every step of the way!

DUTR

So why did you take the property ?
It sounds like you need to seek another accomodation

Yorkie1

DUTR wrote: »

So why did you take the property ?
It sounds like you need to seek another accomodation

That's hardly a helpful reply - OP has said they are tied into a 12 month contract which only recently started. They therefore cannot just give notice and leave, and there is no obligation on the LL to accept a request to terminate the tenancy.

Kirri

The immersion will be very expensive, but you shouldn't need to have it on very much - is there a timer on it? Just set it for 30 mins either end of the day or just before you want to use it, that should be long enough for a shower and some water for washing up.

Could you try and get a dehumidifer, that will make a massive difference to the condensation - they are expensive to buy though unless you can get one off Freecycle etc.

As for repairs, surely the landlord should sort those?

energysavingexp

Matt_in_Walsall wrote: »

Hi there

I recently moved into my first house, which is privately rented through a lettings agency. Before i moved in i came and had a look around and was told that the heating was storage heating, this is what the agent was told by the landlord. I was happy with this so i moved in. Since moving in i have found out that there is no heating system and that the heaters are convection heaters. I have them all over the house. I cannot afford to use these heaters as i have a prepayment meter, when just ONE heater is on it used £20 in the first day and have had to purchase some oil filled radiators at £25 each, i only have two at the moment, but will need more as it's quite a big house.

My house is freezing cold and there is condensation everywhere which is now leading to damp in two bedrooms. I am at my wits end and i don't know what to do. I'm averaging £50 a week in the prepayment meter, but i can't afford this much longer. And that is without the convection heaters on. The hot water is run on immersion, but i have to turn it off most of the time! I can't leave the property as i paid a lot of money to come live here and have the tenancy for a year. I can't afford to move. I have spoken to the agents and state that there is nothing they can do to convince the landlord to put a heating system in. I wish i had not moved. There is a house around the corner which is the same price but has Central Heating! I feel like i have been duped!!

This property has not been maintained in the year it has been empty, and the person who has done all the cosmetic work is not a qualified professional. Doors are falling off all over the place, and things are falling off walls! They don't even know the code to the house alarm, and i have no fire alarm either! I'm so tired! The landlord fights the agents every step of the way!

hi you say you have no fire alarm do you mean smoke detector?
if so that is a legal requirment and you should tell them that as for the state of the house you should not have signed the agreement if you was not happy with it
the electric heating will be the same no matter what you use ie:
oil filled rad or convection heaters 1kw of heat will be the same from both they will both use the same amount of electric for the same output

re the damp you may be better off buying a dehumidifier

Matt_in_Walsall

DUTR wrote: »

So why did you take the property ?
It sounds like you need to seek another accomodation

Yeah that's not helpful! The agents didn't realise it was convection heating either. All this stuff has become apparent since moving in if i'd have know any different i wouldn't have moved in would i?

DUTR

Matt_in_Walsall wrote: »

Yeah that's not helpful! The agents didn't realise it was convection heating either. All this stuff has become apparent since moving in if i'd have know any different i wouldn't have moved in would i?

I don't know, it is pointless thinking the answers have to be dressed up in cotton wool for you, if you hadn't viewed the property then yes you would have a defence, however as you did view the property then there is little defence plus I would suspect the rental is reflected in the state of the property. It is law to have a fire detector in a rented property so perhaps the contract can be voided on that score?

Matt_in_Walsall

energysavingexp wrote: »

hi you say you have no fire alarm do you mean smoke detector?
if so that is a legal requirment and you should tell them that as for the state of the house you should not have signed the agreement if you was not happy with it
the electric heating will be the same no matter what you use ie:
oil filled rad or convection heaters 1kw of heat will be the same from both they will both use the same amount of electric for the same output

re the damp you may be better off buying a dehumidifier

Yes i mean a smoke alarm. When i went to view the house everything was where it should have been, doors weren't falling off. It's all happened since moving in. The place was clean when i viewed, when i came to move in, some work has been done and there was saw dust everywhere. I had to clean it myself.

The convector heaters are more expensive to use as they do not have a thermostat. I can run the oil radiators all day and not use as much as it would cost to run the convector heaters. Basically it looks like they've picked any old heaters and put them up. All the work identified on the itinerary has not been done as requested by the agents. I feel like an idiot for taking the house!

energysavingexp

dont forget is been very mild so far what price per kwh are you paying?

DUTR

Yorkie1 wrote: »

That's hardly a helpful reply - OP has said they are tied into a 12 month contract which only recently started. They therefore cannot just give notice and leave, and there is no obligation on the LL to accept a request to terminate the tenancy.

My bro rents out property, the tenants have a little more leverage than you suspect, naturally the OP may lose a deposit, however chances are the LL agent may not chase him for the agreement if the premise is in a poor state as the OP described.

HappyMJ

Matt_in_Walsall wrote: »

Hi there

I recently moved into my first house, which is privately rented through a lettings agency. Before i moved in i came and had a look around and was told that the heating was storage heating, this is what the agent was told by the landlord. I was happy with this so i moved in. Since moving in i have found out that there is no heating system and that the heaters are convection heaters. I have them all over the house. I cannot afford to use these heaters as i have a prepayment meter, when just ONE heater is on it used £20 in the first day and have had to purchase some oil filled radiators at £25 each, i only have two at the moment, but will need more as it's quite a big house.

My house is freezing cold and there is condensation everywhere which is now leading to damp in two bedrooms. I am at my wits end and i don't know what to do. I'm averaging £50 a week in the prepayment meter, but i can't afford this much longer. And that is without the convection heaters on. The hot water is run on immersion, but i have to turn it off most of the time! I can't leave the property as i paid a lot of money to come live here and have the tenancy for a year. I can't afford to move. I have spoken to the agents and state that there is nothing they can do to convince the landlord to put a heating system in. I wish i had not moved. There is a house around the corner which is the same price but has Central Heating! I feel like i have been duped!!

This property has not been maintained in the year it has been empty, and the person who has done all the cosmetic work is not a qualified professional. Doors are falling off all over the place, and things are falling off walls! They don't even know the code to the house alarm, and i have no fire alarm either! I'm so tired! The landlord fights the agents every step of the way!

Convector heaters are not that expensive. Yes they are more expensive than gas central heating but not by that much. It does not cost £20 for 1 convector heater for 1 day. I use convector heaters most of the time at the moment. They are rated at 2kw each. 6 hours would be 12kWh at 12p per hour that's only £1.44 and that's running at maximum. If it were to run at maximum the room would be far too hot. Normally they switch off for quite a while before the thermostat turns them back on again. In the last week I used 60kWh for the week as it was so mild. On a prepayment meter that would have cost £7.20 plus any standing charges. With Ebico that would have been £10.66. You need to take actual meter readings and figure out why the usage is so high.