Legal advice required

syciec

Here's my situation:

I am renting a flat in a building, and the building was bought by somebody else in December.

Before this happened, I was on a 6 month contract with my old landlord with lots of paperwork included. Water was included in the rent (even though the contract says otherwise, I called them today and they said that's just a standard clause) so we never had to pay water.

With the new landlord, we have no contract at all, and are on a periodical rolling monthly contract. A few days ago, we received a letter from Bristol water stating that the landlord no longer wishes to pay water for the building, and that we have to pay £503 all of a sudden. (My neighbours are all in the same boat, the ones that I spoke to have had charges of £400-500)

My problem is that I was never told water was suddenly not included in my rent, and I have had no paperwork from the new landlord at all that I could review and sign. (Nothing has been signed at all since he acquired the building)

One of my neighbours has called this new landlord and has been told to review their old contract where it states that water is included. My issue with this is that surely my old contract does not concern him at all?

Also, because the water charges are backdated to December, and the first I've heard of this is 3 days ago, how can they possibly retroactively charge us for this?

None of this seems legal or fair, but I have no legal knowhow.

Advice please?

jamie11

Water was included in the rent (even though the contract says otherwise,

You've answered your own question, your new landlord is simply enforcing the contract.

BUT

My problem is that I was never told water was suddenly not included in my rent, and I have had no paperwork from the new landlord at all that I could review and sign. (Nothing has been signed at all since he acquired the building)

Have you had any correspondence to tell you who the new landlord is and who you should be paying your rent to now? That's known as a S48 notice (Not a special form). Until you have that then you do not need to pay any rent at all, it all becomes payable when the landlord has complied though so don't splurge it.

syciec

Everybody who moved in (about 20 flats in the building) was told that water was included in the rent, and everybody I have spoken with has been very angry about this sudden bill of ~£500.

I've been told that if I can get in writing from the old landlord that they were paying the water bills for everybody, and that it was included in the rent, it would be considered a variation on the contract (which I've been told still applies between us all and the new landlord who acquired the building).

This would mean that the landlord would have to take responsibility for the water bills as none of us were made aware that we would have to start paying for it, and it wasn't part of our original agreement.

Feeling much better, any comments?

G_M

When you say "the building has been bought", what doyou mean?

The freehold has been bought?
Each of the 20 leases have beensold?
Were all 20 leases ownedby one person?

When did your 6 month contract end (date)?
When did the sale take place?
When did you receive the letter from the new owner advising you of his purchase? (Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 S3 )

How long in total have you lived there?
There would be a strong arguement that, notwithstanding the terms of the contract, if the LL has been paying the water charges throughout the tenancy, those charges can be assumed to be included in the rent.

syciec

When I say the building was bought I mean that they acquired the whole building, and we received a letter saying we need to adjust our standing order details to pay the new owners. (I think this is the S3)

We (the 20 flats in the building) all pay this new landlord our rent, and have automatically all been put on to monthly rolling contracts.

Last 6 month contract ended in October 2012.

EDIT: the sale happened on December 19, 2012. Lived here since April 2012. From April 2012-December 2012 we paid no water as it was paid for us as confirmed by my old landlord.

[Deleted User]

£500 is a very high water charge, even for 7 months, in fact that's more than what most people spend in an entire year... for those charges there must be something going on, either there's a problem with the building, the meter readings or you're being billed for much more than 7 months, are you sure the previous landlord actually paid the water bill?

My current water bill is roughly £50 per month for a 5 bedroom 4 bathroom house and the showers here are used at least 4 times per day, often times many more with dish washer / sink etc. also being used frequently. I've lived in flats before and my water charges were well under £30 per month...

Even if you do have to pay the bill you should query the amount because that is not normal for a flat or even a large house in my opinion.

syciec

Well there is no water meters fitted, and on our Bristol Water bill it says we are being charged from Dec 12 to Mar 13 and also from Mar 2013 to Mar 2014 (no idea why we are getting charged for future use)

G_M

syciec wrote: »

When I say the building was bought I mean that they acquired the whole building,

Please answer the question:

When you say "the building has been bought", what doyou mean?

The freehold has been bought?
Each of the 20 leases have been bought?
Were all 20 leases owned by one person?

have automatically all been put on to monthly rolling contracts.

Last 6 month contract ended in October 2012.

You cannot be 'put on to monthly rolling contracts'. However in this case,you were already on a Periodic (monthly rolling) contract

That being so, despite my assertion in my previous post (which I still believe to be correct), if you decline to takeon the water bill, you may receive a S21 Notice (see below)

Ending/Renewing an AST (what happens when the Fixed Term ends?)(What is a Periodic Tenancy?)(How can a LL remove a tenant?)(How can a tenant end a tenancy?)

ValHaller

syciec wrote: »

Well there is no water meters fitted, and on our Bristol Water bill it says we are being charged from Dec 12 to Mar 13 and also from Mar 2013 to Mar 2014 (no idea why we are getting charged for future use)

I believe that unmetered water is charged in advance. So the unusual bit is being charged in arrears - but the reason is obvious. I would suggest that at those prices it is worth going metered although
1. It may not be physically possible due to the plumbing of your building
2. you should check that the correct unmetered tariff is being applied.

Alternatively, it may be advantageous to have your LL go metered and apportion across all flats. Although he won't like the admin.

tim123456789

syciec wrote: »

Well there is no water meters fitted, and on our Bristol Water bill it says we are being charged from Dec 12 to Mar 13 and also from Mar 2013 to Mar 2014 (no idea why we are getting charged for future use)

Because that's how water companies work.

they bill annually in advance and offer monthly payments as a concession.