Bills Included, apparently not...

freeisgood

Have a good look online, google can find archived pages,there is a search tool. The ad should be on the web somewhere as only 6 months old. Even If advertised in the local online papers, these are all archived.

G_M

You housemate has been smoking too much - he's just overly laid-back. Do not ignore this.

In the absence of other wording, the wording you quote is enough. Indeed, it is pretty unambiguous.

In a HMO, by law the LL is always liable for council tax (but not other bills).

A S21 has no effect regarding future tenancies - though a reference can make a difference.

Kolokial

@citricsquid - You could be right, and I may well have jumped to the wrong conclusion. So far as I am aware, I was the second tenant to move in (The first one moved in a few weeks before me, and has since moved out, he was not the sort of person to handle bill payments etc.) and previously the house was lived in by the landlord or was recently bought by the landlord, I'm not sure. Three other tenants have moved in and currently live here, all under the assumption bills are included.

@freeisgood - That's a good idea, I will have try and check.

@G_M - Okay, I'll contact the agent via email and make them aware of the situation. I can't make any copies today so that will have to wait until Monday.

Thank you guys so far, I'll update this as soon as I know more.

silvercar

Given that you have used the N word on a public forum, I assume it is OK to use it too.

There is every chance this is yet another mess up by Npower and the bills have actually been paid.

nPower

Kolokial wrote: »

Hi folks,

I might have fallen into a newbie trap here. I'm currently renting a a room in a house, and when I came to view the place I made sure to ask if bills were included in the rental price, to which the Agent said yes. Otherwise I would not have even considered taking the place, as I've been lumbered with bills before and so would prefer I paid the landlord who would take care of the bills and inform me if they had gone up and increase my rent to match.

So I've been here six months now and decided to open a letter addressed to 'The Occupier' to find that it was a 'WARRANT OF ENTRY TO ENTER YOUR HOME', now I'm not phased by this sort of material as I'm aware lots of companies do it all the time to persuade people to pay up, and that most of time it has about zero legitimacy.

However upon reading further down, I see that it's in regards to the energy supplier for this property, NPower. Behind that envelope is a letter from NPower, also addressed to 'The Occupier', I open it up to find that the bill has not been paid for the entirety of the six months I've been here!

Immediately I've gone back to my tenancy agreement to find on the first line it reads '1. Monthly rent £XXXX bills inclusive/exclusive', with exclusive scribbled out. Which lead me to search for the meaning of 'Bills inclusive/exclusive'. Apparently there's a broad legal definition of that term, and without a specific list of what is and is not included, my house mates and I (who were all under the impression that the bills were coming out of our rent too!) may now be liable for a bill that we thought we were already paying. (Though, I should point out there is nothing in the tenancy agreement to state what is and is not included, it's completely ambiguous.)

Is there anything that can be done about this? Is the Agent at fault for misleading me/us, along with a vague line of text in the agreement? Or will we have to bite the bullet and pay up?

Hi Kolokial.

Thanks for your post.

If your tenancy agreement states you aren't responsible for the bills, forward us a copy to the email address on our profile along with your Landlord or Agent details, we'll make sure this is updated on our records.

If the issue is whether or not you are responsible for the bills, this would be classed as a third party dispute and we wouldn't be able to get involved.

As all your other bills are included, unless it specifically states excluding utility bills, I'd be inclined to believe the responsibility lies with the Landlord/Agent. Without viewing the full Tenancy Agreement, however, I wouldn't be able to say for definite.

Thanks

Jess

G_M

Kolokial wrote: »

@G_M - Okay, I'll contact the agent via email and make them aware of the situation. I can't make any copies today so that will have to wait until Monday.

Thank you guys so far, I'll update this as soon as I know more.

You asked for advice - I suggest you take advantage of, and follow, the advice:

Your priority now is a letter (LETTER) to the landlord, at the addressed provided "for the serving of notices", (plus a copy to his agent if there is one.

Homeagain

N Power, scary. I wouldn't be too troubled. Very poor company.
I am in a dispute with them - they say I have overpaid 800 - so I stopped my debit order after they had put through 400.00 in one month. I, (after a whole lot of phone calls) have had a letter saying they suggest I go to the Ombudsman as they 'cannot resolve my issue' and another addressed to 'the occupier' saying they have written off my bill - like hell they will - they owe me! I would switch tomorrow but am awaiting the outcome with interest.
Really, your underlying issue is who pays the bill and it concerns me that you say certain things were deleted on the lease. That could be problematic. However if its NPower - they can't get their act together anyway. You need to really look at your lease.

Kolokial

G_M wrote: »

You asked for advice - I suggest you take advantage of, and follow, the advice:

Thanks G_M, I did...sort of. I emailed the Agent, requesting the Landlords details and informed them of the letter that had arrived. They have since advised me that NPower were incorrectly sending bills and have settled the dispute with them directly, and that any further communication will be going directly to them. It seems they had just not informed NPower, and everything has now been cleared up.

Thank you to everyone who posted!

anotheruser

Homeagain wrote: »

N Power, scary. I wouldn't be too troubled. Very poor company.

You say that, and so do some figures but I have been with them on occasions before and my current company is Npower - they are fine with me.

I don't calculate my bills down to the pence but a bill comes, looks about right and I pay. I seem to be billed about once every 6 months but pay monthly on DD anyway - currently a few hundred pounds in credit.