Landlord issues - unfair charges

humanracer

Hi

Me and my partner are tenants in a rented flat in Scotland. Our landlord lives in a different city hours away. We have a gas card that we top up from the shops. Our landlord told us that we should regularly monitor the credit and never let it go to zero. When this happens the gas goes off and we have to reignite the boiler. Even if we top up or use emergency credit right away we have to restart the boiler. The problem is that the boiler is in the garden and the landlord refuses to give us a key. The first time I accidentally let it go to zero our landlord came and put it back on as he was visiting our city anyway. A few months later it has happened again (we forgot to check it) and now the landlord is getting his handyman friend to come over to do it but wants us to pay him for his time (£16). I feel this is unfair as it is a 5 min job (turning the boiler off and on) and would do it myself if given the key. The handyman is also reluctant to give us a receipt as he says it was a "favour" not a proper job and we would have paid more had we got a gas company out. But it was not a proper repair, just restarting the boiler. I have done it myself countless times in other flats where the boiler was in the house.

Any ideas?

Fire_Fox

They obviously don't want you to have access to the boiler, perhaps they are concerned about tenants forgetting to lock up and vandals gaining access given the garden location. There may even be insurance nightmares as well as the obvious safety issues if the thing explodes having not been secured properly.

I don't think it's that unfair, forgetting to top up your gas is no different to forgetting or losing your front door key and locking yourself out - many letting agencies charge for that. It's not simply a five minute job, there is travel time and business overheads. The solution is not to let the credit run down, it's not difficult to keep it in credit all the time if you have a system, set reminders on your mobile phones and aim to keep it at least £30 in credit at all times. Pretty much the same as people on direct debit have to do to prepare for winter.

whalster

The post above is about right , in the past I have said to tenants on the second time of an avoidable problem that if it happens again I'll have to charge this usualy does the trick , nappies and the flushing of them down the loo was a problem once it didn't happen again .
One other thing if you moved into the flat/house with credit meters you could apply to have them removed although this sometimes incurs a cost too

jjlandlord

To be fair, if the landlord prevents his tenant from accessing the boiler, he should not complain to be called to attend every time there is a problem with said boiler. Especially in OP's situation.

Any charge should have been agreed in advance an set out in tenancy agreement.

If I were the OP I would not pay that 'handyman' anything. If anything he works for the landlord so he should paid directly by him.
Plus we all know what "reluctant to give a receipt" means...

DRP

jjlandlord wrote: »

To be fair, if the landlord prevents his tenant from accessing the boiler, he should not complain to be called to attend every time there is a problem with said boiler. Especially in OP's situation.

Any charge should have been agreed in advance an set out in tenancy agreement.

If I were the OP I would not pay that 'handyman' anything. If anything he works for the landlord so he should paid directly by him.
Plus we all know what "reluctant to give a receipt" means...

Agree. No receipt, no payment.

But 'forgetting' is only really an excuse the first time it happens...

mac666_2

It also could be theres a problem with the boiler. Our boiler has been known to blow back in peoples faces :eek: (did it to me the first time i lit it). When the gas runs out they have to vent any trapped air in the system before relighting it to provent this happening.

Ours is very old but has passed all saftey checks just not made to go on a pre-payment gas meter.

Before we got it changed to a direct debit meter we had to call out the agencys gas people to light for us if it went out.