Being evicted for challenging a bill

jmsa7

Hello,

I live in a shared house with a private landlord which doesn't live in the property.

Yesterday I got an e-mail (which you can read below) after challenging a bill (gas and council tax) that tells me that I need to leave the house immediately by noon today. I am completely out of words, don't know what to do....

My name is Carla and my landlords are Ryan and Sue.

Below is a copy of the e-mails:

Carla,

You are being evicted under section (o) of the contract. Ryan and I will come to the house at midday tomorrow to check the room and rest of the house against the inventories. Please leave the keys in the top drawer of the 5 drawer chest in your room.

Sue and Ryan

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Dear all,

Just to keep you all informed; Carla has been told to leave the house immediately. Please see the emails below.

Kind regards

Ryan and Sue


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Leave today; any outstanding amount owing to you will be refunded by cheque to your brother's address.

Sue and Ryan

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Carla,

First you do NOT have the support of everyone else in the house.

I object to having my honesty doubted. What you have been charged comes from the bills that I have paid.

You are causing ruptions in the house. Clearly you are unhappy. There is a simple solution, YOU leave immediately.

Sue

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Good morning Ryan and Sue,

Please read the text in red.

Carla, Adam, Isabel and Taegen.

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Sue's calculation, for which you have a copy, clearly shows the amount of units you have consumed as a household plus the cost per unit with additional standing charges and VAT (See note below – Sue) If as a household you think the gas bill is too high then I suggest you reduce the amount of gas you consume - remember the central heating is powered by gas! Going forward, you might consider observing and monitoring the energy meter readings and adjusting your patterns of behaviour accordingly.
What concerns us is not the amount of units that have been used but the gas tariff at which we are being charged against.

A full Landlord's Gas Inspection, which included the oven and boiler, was carried out on 16th October 2014 by British Gas. Both appliances were passed and left in full working order. Since this date, it would appear that the ignition switch to the oven and hob has broken down. We will meet the cost of repair if the fault has been caused by general wear and tear. If however, the problem has been caused by poor housekeeping, then the cost of the repair will be met by all of you. Before I bring in a repairman, are you sure that you have not turned off the switch to the automatic ignition which is underneath the worktop adjacent to the cooker?
Please let us know in which way a "poor housekeeping" can contribute to a faulty ignition switch, if that is proven to be the cause of the problem.

It should also be noted, that although each member of the household is liable, and pays a contribution towards the council tax, we are actually subsidising a sizable portion of the tax in order to help keep your bills to a minimum. Perhaps we should reduce the level of our contribution?
We have checked the amount of council tax for 2014/2015 for the house and it comes up to £2010 (band E). That gives £38.5 per week and it does not include any subsidizes. With that in mind, if 4 people are living in the house each person should pay £9.6 per week. With 5 people we get £7.7 per person per week. Could we ask how much are you actually contributing towards the final bill in terms of council tax?

As much as we like having you all live in the house, it is unlikely that we will be able to extend your tenancies beyond the end of February 2015.
I hope that is helpful.

Regards

Ryan and Sue



NOTE:

· I think you have fallen into the trap of assuming that units are equal: they are NOT! Energy companies use meters which unfortunately do not read in a common unit of consumption - the kWh. Instead a conversion factor has to be applied to all the readings which is NOT the same for the gas and electricity in the house. In order to allow you to take your own readings and relate them to the bill, I have used the raw readings and divided them into the total price charged by OVO for each type of energy (minus the daily standing charge and VAT) to give you a correspondence to 1 unit on each meter. This should allow you to monitor and hence, regulate your consumption.
We are perfectly aware that electricity and gas units are not equal. Electricity units are in KWh and gas units are in cubic metres (m3). Gas units need to be converted first into KWh before the tariff can be applied. Generally speaking, 1 cubic metre of gas corresponds to about 11 KWh of energy. I have checked on OVO energy website and their standard gas tariff for the property is around £0.04 per KWh. That means that each gas unit costs 11 x £0.04 = £0.44 per unit. That is less than half than what you are charging us (£1.20). Please send us a copy of a recent bill so we can confirm the numbers.

· Ryan has read the meters each time a new person has entered the house and since it has been full, every Friday. I have then submitted these to the energy company OVO in blocks. Unfortunately they cannot handle regular submissions as British Gas could, hence the block system. Should there have been any over or under payment by you this will be adjusted next time we get a bill.
Can we have a copy of those meter readings, please?

· The estimates that I gave you originally were based on 18 years of usage in a house which I previously rented out but where the tenants took more care over their consumption. Your bills so far compare favourably with our own bills in a smaller house with 2 adults where we run the heating and electricity for much shorter hours than you do. Sue
We are somehow happy with those estimates. The exceptions are the council tax and the gas tariff (tariff only, not gas standing charge). We just would like to understand better how did you came up with those numbers.


Section (o) of the contract says:

"o) Not to do anything whilst in the property that will become a nuisance, damage or annoyance to the landlord, the tenants or to the occupiers of any of the adjoining premises. Noise level tolerance must be respected to the other tenants and the surrounding occupants"

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Carla

Guest101

Do you have a tenancy or are you a lodger?

mrginge

Guest101 wrote: »

Do you have a tenancy or are you a lodger?

Come on mate RTFS!

theartfullodger

Hope those names aren't real.

As landlord lives elsewhere she is a Tenant.

Thanks to Thatcher's Housing Act 1988 a landlord can evict you for no reason at all, so eventually will get you out. Not fair but legal.

So find somewhere else before you are not in control of the situation.

However to be evict you landlord must issue notice (2months minimum), then go to four etc. If tenancy not renewed it simply rolls on, for ever, landlord can't stop that without eviction process.

Guest101

mrginge wrote: »

Come on mate RTFS!

That doesnt mean anything really.

OP could be a lodger of a tenant. It's easily confused.

Presumebly this is a HMO, with room rented, rather than a joint tenancy. But worth checking before giving advice.

OP chances are you are a tenant.

So you have rights under the protection from eviction act. Phone your LL, tell them that if they attempt to evict you today, you will call the police and they will be arrested.

fairy_lights

theartfullodger wrote: »

As landlord lives elsewhere she is a Tenant.

Thanks to Thatcher's Housing Act 1988 a landlord can evict you for no reason at all, so eventually will get you out. Not fair but legal.

Yes but the can't just turf her out the next day, can they? Unless she's a lodger, they still need to give her proper notice.

cte1111

The landlord would have to get a court order to evict you, they can't just tell you to leave like this.
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/housing_e/housing_renting_a_home_e/renting_from_a_private_landlord.htm#h_the_right_to_stay_in_the_accommodation

Angelicdevil

Under no circumstances leave.

That would be an illegal eviction and they have no right to do this.

If they wish to evict you (one or all) then they will need to issue a Section 21 notice giving 2 months notice and at the end of that go to court to get a court order to remove you.

They sound like a right nasty pair to be honest.

thesaint

Call the landlord/landlady now stating you will leave the property when they serve appropriate notices and a court orders you to leave, or after you yourself serve notice.

Pixie5740

I agree with the others that your LL cannot demand you leave my high noon tomorrow.


I wonder if you're actually living in a HMO in which case the council tax bill should be paid by the LL. I'd check what constitutes a HMO with your local council.


Also, stop communicating in email with your LL. Start sending letters, get proof of postage.

jjlandlord

Dodgy HMOs are a pain.

Angelicdevil wrote: »

That would be an illegal eviction and they have no right to do this.

IMHO, what they are doing is already illegal, and certainly will be if they do show up tomorrow.