*Updated*Council billed me £6500 for work I didnt ask for? Rental house

moneyistooshorttomention

travelchick wrote: »

Thank you so much, you are like a font of knowledge with this stuff I'm really grateful.
Xx

BigAunty is one of the most knowledgeable posters on here on this sort of thing, so ...yep...take account of what she says.

travelchick

bitsandpieces wrote: »

Hope you get this sorted out OK. Don't assume the worst because your tenant hasn't got in touch yet, though, and be careful not to call/text so often that it looks like you're hassling them unreasonably. It's the weekend - people often don't respond to non-urgent business things over the weekend.

I didn't contact her again I left a voicemail asking her to call and a text saying the same thing.
But nothing more

red40

travelchick wrote: »

I'm going to appeal on the councils desision because they did not follow the correct procedure in informing me there was a problem.
The cost for the central heating is only £4000 the rest is loads of charges fees and fines that they had to do it and find me and serve me serve me ect, I think it's unfair considering they have my address on file and served legal documents to the wrong address, I also think billing me for a land registry search is very wrong because someone was to lazy to see they already had my details.
Ill find out tomorrow why they installed central heating as its not a legal or inforcible item for a landlord to provide.
And will argue it all the way but I think it's all the extras I've been billed that's bothering me.

I would suggest getting professional advice on this matter.

Councils have a duty to serve, not just notices but also demands for expenses when they carry out works in default of a notice served under the provisions of the Housing Act 2004.

Although way out of time to appeal, you only have 21 days to appeal an Improvement Notice, you may have a very very slim chance to have it heard if you have firm evidence that the council have defaulted on the required procedures under the above legislation. The First-Tier Tribunal - Property Chamber do possess the ability to hear such cases, but after 9 months I suspect that ship has long sailed.

Therefore your next option is to mitigate the expenses incurred and also the relevant charges and whilst I think they are excessive, £2500 in costs, councils do have to be able to justify such costs and there are only certain types of fees/charges that they can consider subject to the Housing Act.

Thrugelmir

anselld wrote: »

Depends on the level of insulation, etc. Plenty of flats are electrically heated.

Night storage heaters in the main. So recharge at a far lower unit cost.

shiprob195

Any developments OP?

travelchick

Good evening all :-)

OK I phoned the council today and ended up dealing with someone who wasnt any help ( No Shock there) I have established that although they billed me £183 to serve me notice they basically posted a letter out which was returned to them as addressee unknown? so I asked him where the letter when and how the could consider charging me £183 for this serving if they only posted a letter? ( baring in mind that the law states they can only charge genuine costs i.e stamp ect)
He said that when the letter was returned unknown they served the legal documents straight to the rental house and to the tenant??
I asked him where he sent these letters as I have lived at my current address for over 6 years, he reeled off an address that my ex husband lived at 12 years ago? and said thats what the land registry search showed as our address?
So I said to him you have sent me a Monthly statement of benefits for the whole times she been in the house and you send it to this house I live in, I said when we had issues with council tax many years ago when the property was vacant we had to write to you and confirm we didnt live there and prove where we did live so we only paid the standing charge, and the council tax department for your council adjusted the file and also sent everything here!
So every letter, statement and piece of information to do with that house, rents and council tax has been sent to my home for about 4/5 years but the one letter thats a legal document you send to an old address that you never had on file in the 1st place?
He basically said it was my fault that they where unable to contact me??? and there for the documents are still sitting in the file marked return to sender!
I did ask how on earth they can miss my address on file when they write to me monthly and he said its my problem not theirs, I should have written to them, ( talk about going in circles)
I argued that central heating is currently not a legal requirement so why did they change it?
He said they felt central heating was required? I explained that there was sufficient heating as there were wall mounted radiators in the property, to which he said the council dont allow them in the bedrooms as they are a fire hazard? However I looked into this and open fires are not allowed, Not wall heaters.
He said its against the law to rent any property out without central heating?
But my argument is thats my house and if the law states that it is my right to say I will no longer be renting the property out and as long as I allow the tenant the 6 month notice period as per the contract i dont need a reason to end the tenancy.
I said the house is mine for when I want to move into it and renting it was a stop gap however they have now basically vandalized it, ruining carpets and walls placing radiators where they feel they should be rather than the sort of heating I might want for my own personal use.
He said will if you had let us know your address you would have got the letter and been able to exercise your right to do that!!
I almost screeched at him, how the hell have you been writing to me monthly at the correct address for all these years then and he said thats not the point we went with the land registry address?
I did point out that they served notice 6 months before they did the land registry search, and how ironic it was that when they wanted the bill paid they contacted the account that the housing benefits where paid to who contacted me and got a response within 3 hours!!!

So tomorrow I will be contacting the appeals office and lodging an appeal to these costs based on the fact they did not follow procedure in making an effort to contact me.
I have years of receipts from them, council tax bills for that house in this address, my tenants tenancy agreement on their file is also in my current address she also has my details both home and mobile (however she decided to not disclose this)
Guess I will have to see what the appeals people say!

Anyone got any further ideas on how I can deal with this mess now, I am more upset that they have done something that isnt a legal requirement and now im meant to pay for it because I would have asked my tenant to leave and used it for personal use until the house was in my own name ( not current joint with my ex) and could get a loan to have done what needed doing to get it ready! At a time I could afford it

Southend1

Seems like there are two lessons here for the future and for other landlords:

1. Make sure the land registry have your correct address
2. Make sure your tenants have a safe means of heating their home

I_have_spoken

Council jobworths will now be in 100% ar*e-covering mode, expect all records, emails, letters etc. to be mysteriously 'lost' in the next 24 hours

Southend1

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Council jobworths will now be in 100% ar*e-covering mode, expect all records, emails, letters etc. to be mysteriously 'lost' in the next 24 hours

Sounds like the council have done everything by the book though?

*Robin*

Jeez! :eek:
Did you record the call, OP?