Landlord has our building listed as commercial.

kirri97

Hello,

I have been searching the forum for a similar issue but can not find anything.
Basically me and my boyfriend are living in a studio (small 1 bed if you like, but there is no door or anything to the bedroom) it's about 30square meter.

We just got a letter today from Thames Water telling us they will bill us for £690. They also wrote our flat will be listed as a 3 bedroom?

We called them up straight away and explained that we have lived here since august 2011, but are being billed from the 1st of february.
The guy on the phone was very confused, couldn't find our details when we gave him the reference number stated on the letter etc and we spent most the time on hold. The only thing he would tell us, is that they have my boyfriends name, but my name is not on their systems, they have other people listed as still living in the building.

I found all of this very confusing. I just want to find out how much we need to pay, as all of this is a big misunderstanding. We believed water was paid by the landlord, neither us or our neighbours (1 flat above us, 1 beneath) have ever been charged for water. In fact we have never seen a letter from thames water at all, addressed to anybody.

In the end the man on the phone just told us he will have to investigate this and will get in touch with us in April as the property is listed as commercial.

Has this happened to anybody else? I'm quite new in the country and feeling very worried now about what will happen.


We have also had some other issues with electricity. There is only one meter in the house for all three flats, and we will be getting pre paid meters.
Gas however, is fine. We all have our separate meters.

I googled a bit about living in a commercial building, and it states this is illegal!

Would really appreciate some advise on this as I'm not sure where to turn. I don't want to call the estate agent at the moment, as now we will have to pay this water and I want to be able to tell them we are paying it etc...

RAS

Hi

Check the council tax listing for your building. Does it have three addresses and thre listings.

Also are you all on the elctoral roll?

kirri97

. voa.gov.uk . I googled and found this website, is that what you mean?

according to this site there is one building, 33, that has been deleted. then there are three new flats listed on 33 : Ground floor, first floor and second + third floor. so that looks okay then as I understand it?

Also I just remember having some issues with the council, when we wanted some old furniture collected. They couldn't find us at all in the system, and told us to put in a neighbours house instead!

We pay our council tax, £121 per month which I think is as it should. I haven't seen any letters from the council for anybody else tho, apart from an old tenant that moved out in 2011.

I am not sure if we're on the electoral roll

CIS

according to this site there is one building, 33, that has been deleted. then there are three new flats listed on 33 : Ground floor, first floor and second + third floor. so that looks okay then as I understand it?

That looks correct, the original building has been split in to 3 properties for council tax purposes.

RAS

Good

Now go to the local Council web-site and see if you can find the planning permission to convert the property.

It may be all above board but the LL and Thames never got the change done?

kirri97

Thank you so much, both of you, for your help! Really appreciate you taking your time


I've gone on the council website. I can see that there is 1 folder on my address, 33, and in it is the three flats. ground floor, first floor and third+fourth. I can not open anything to read tho.

Is that enough? that they are there, does that mean they went though? It kind of just gives me a map with coordinates



Oh.. it might be because it only goes back to 2008? The council tax was changed in 2009, but I guess the planning permission could be much older?