Help! Immersion heater

moneysaver6

Hi All

We moved into rented accommodation in March, and our Boiler hasn't been working properly - the central heating and water was not turning off when on a timer.

Gas man came out today and he told us that the switch for the emergency immersion heater was switched on. He was actually pretty useless and told me to leave it on (I don't think I'll be doing that!)

The switch has been on since March when we moved in, and our Elecricity bills went up £40 a month over the summer since we moved - we had no idea why considering we are out all day and had lighter nights etc.

Can anybody give me any advice in terms of the agency/landlord being liable for the switch being left on? My partner and I only have a small 2 bed house and we really can't afford to pay £100+ a month for gas and electric. We are now in debt to SSE and I'm rather worried about the financial implications of this.

Thanks!

Farway

Do you not have eyes or common sense?

Why is anyone, apart from you, liable for a switch being left on?

sheffield_lad

I can't see anyone wanting to stick their hand in the air on this one.

You are going to have to take it on the chin.

One worrying point of your post is you not being able to afford £100+ I have to warn you that the typical bill is around £130 per month. Maybe your place is smaller but £100+ really is the norm.

GL

matelodave

Who checks your other switches & lights in the house - surely its down to you to make sure stuff is turned on or off.

How have you managed to heat your hot water if the timer hasn't been working properly.

You can't blame someone else for not keeping an eye on your consumption and therefore not noticing that something was amiss

moneysaver6

First of all, thanks for the boost of confidence. Feeling really great for the community spirit and all that. Cheers.

Secondly, even though we have been in since march, they take 6 monthly readings so they have only just put our payment up since taking a reading September. I'm not one for taking a reading every day to check my consumption. I have other things to do in life.

Thirdly, the switch is out of sight, so we did not know it was on. It has been on since the day we moved in.

Finally, the issue with the timer was that the boiler wouldn't turn off. Bearing this in mind, heating our hot water clearly wouldn't be an issue. British Gas just happened to tell us about the switch when they were fixing the timer problem.

I actually do have eyes and a common sense (but thanks for checking).

GL thanks for raising the point regarding bills being over £100, we paid £60 a month at our last place, so perhaps that was the exception to the rule.