Renting and just received a huge water bill

Sgreenwood09

This is all we have ever been told, we can't get any more information from the building management or the landlord ?

Ms_Chocaholic

Are the bills you have received bills from the water company or bills from the encore management company?

Guest101

In this case I suspect the management company is adding it's own charges:

What is the exact wording in the tenancy???

ViolaLass

Can the LL break the bill down? Personally I would refuse to pay it until given more info because it looks extortionate!

Sgreenwood09

The bills we have received are from the encore management company for the building.
We try and get in contact with the LL but that's proven to be very difficult.
In the tenancy agreement it states no where about having to pay half yearly service charge. It only states when the rent is due, what happens if it's not paid. Nowhere does it state about paying for any kind of building management

stator

Do you have a water meter in your flat, or is the whole building on a single water meter?

jjlandlord

If the bills are in your landlord's name they are his to pay.
You pay him only the amount related to water, the rest (esp. service charge) is his problem.

pinkshoes

Sgreenwood09 wrote: »

The bills we have received are from the encore management company for the building.
We try and get in contact with the LL but that's proven to be very difficult.
In the tenancy agreement it states no where about having to pay half yearly service charge. It only states when the rent is due, what happens if it's not paid. Nowhere does it state about paying for any kind of building management

Is your flat a conversions e.g. One property split into lots of flats?

Is there one water meter for all flats? Or just a general unmetered water bill?

I would be asking to see an actual copy of the water bill from the water company before agreeing to pay, as this is excessive.

ognum

I own a flat where the water bill is included in the service charge. I, the LL pay the water bill with my service charge and my tenants get their water included in the rent.

What actually happens is their rent is standard for the area and I pay more service charge but that's fine, it works well.

I would not pass this on to the tenants as it is not broken down into amount used.

hand this bill back to the LL.

nidO

It sounds like your bill is a combined bill for the flat's general service charge and water rates all bundled into one.

If you have two different things on your bill labelled "Service Charge" and "Water Recharges" you effectively have a bill for 2 different things, the water recharges (which you should probably find total up to a sensible amount of water use) are your water bill and the service charge elements of the bill undoubtedly relate to the flat's general service charge cost.
Unless your tenancy agreement stipulates that you're liable for the flat's service charge (in which case you've been had, badly) as well as the water rates, you can tell the landlord to take a hike re the "Service Charge" elements of the bill, as they're his to pay.
If your tenancy agreement doesn't mention you being liable for water rates either, you can tear up the entire bill as it's your landlord's problem.

Edit:
Even if your tenancy agreement does state you're liable for water bills, how it's worded is key - If it specifically states that you're liable for a share of the cost generated by the management agency then you'll have to pay the water recharges element of the bill, but if your agreement states you're liable for your own water usage or words to that effect, demand an actual bill with meter readings reflecting your usage.
The landlord/management company won't be able to provide this (as they have a single meter for the entire building and have divvied the total usage up among the properties), which is their problem, not yours.