Contractors left the lights and the heating on for weeks

idioma

Hi,
I have been privately renting a ground floor flat in a recently renovated listed building. Repairs works (dry rot) commenced on the 8th of February (still ongoing) to the lobby and other ground floor flats (work in mine is just a recent discovery and we will commence soon). Since the starting of the works, I have been living in temporary accommodations (paid by the landlord, but refunded by the insurance). The contractors outstripped the floor in the lobby and entered my flat for investigation purposes. Doing so, they left the lights and the bathroom heating on. Up to yesterday (20st of March) I had not access to my flat as 1) there was not floor in the lobby 2) the freeholder put a latch and padlock on the front door. I have found a new place and today they put a temporary floor and also gave me the key to the padlock. I, therefore, managed to enter my flat and switched off the light/turn off the heating. Here my question. I think I should be entitled to contest the electricity bill from the 8th of February to the 20th of March and charge the contractors. I notified the landlord few times, but they never took action. NPower is my energy provider and I would like to know how to proceed with this.

Thanks indeed for your help!

Regards,

Ilaria

spiro

The only way I think you'll have a chance of doing that is if you read the meter before you moved out, otherwise you won't be able to prove what they used/wasted.

matelodave

It's between you, the landlord and the contractors.
Npower don't have anything to do with it - you'll have to pay the bill and try to claim off the landlord as I assume he's the one who engaged the contractors and is paying them.
You might find it easier to prove that the power was used if you've got meter readings from when you moved out to when you got back in but I'm not sure you've got any legal redress unless the landlord agreed to pay for the power used during the renovations.

Pagett

idioma wrote: »

Hi,
I have been privately renting a ground floor flat in a recently renovated listed building. Repairs works (dry rot) commenced on the 8th of February (still ongoing) to the lobby and other ground floor flats (work in mine is just a recent discovery and we will commence soon). Since the starting of the works, I have been living in temporary accommodations (paid by the landlord, but refunded by the insurance). The contractors outstripped the floor in the lobby and entered my flat for investigation purposes. Doing so, they left the lights and the bathroom heating on. Up to yesterday (20st of March) I had not access to my flat as 1) there was not floor in the lobby 2) the freeholder put a latch and padlock on the front door. I have found a new place and today they put a temporary floor and also gave me the key to the padlock. I, therefore, managed to enter my flat and switched off the light/turn off the heating. Here my question. I think I should be entitled to contest the electricity bill from the 8th of February to the 20th of March and charge the contractors. I notified the landlord few times, but they never took action. NPower is my energy provider and I would like to know how to proceed with this.

Thanks indeed for your help!

Regards,

Ilaria

You should have closed down the utility bills when the property was effectively repossessed for repair works.
Presumably, although insurance paid for alternative accomodation for you, you had to open utility accounts at the new address, so that should have been a clue

As you didn't, you remain totally liable to the supplier for the usage.
You may be able to recover the costs from the landlord, but unless you had the meter readings agreed with the LL when you left and when you return, that may prove difficult.

Pay the bill and close the accounts today. Better late than never as they say ...