Landlord pays bills - A few issues?

pablakeman

I live in a 6 bedroom house with 6 tenants who all pay rent separately. There are two issues.

Just to clarify on the below, the landlord pays the bills but we 'top-up' if what we pay doesn't cover it. Therefore he collects money to pay the bills from us so he is never left out of pocket.

Smart meters We are getting numerous letters about getting it installed. My landlord doesn't want it installed as he believes it will increase the price (he believes a lot of erroneous things.) Do we as tenants have the right to get these installed anyway (even though we don't pay the bills)

Name on bills We get the bills to our house and they have what appears to be the name of a previous tenant. Should it be the landlords name on the bill? I am just worried about eventual liability if anything were to happen.

This might not be my last post on this forum as there are a few things I am trying to get cleared up! Thanks in advance for help!

theartfullodger

Do you each have written tenancies? (Presumably individual, room, tenancy - e.g. Mr P A Blake, Room 4, 62 Acacia Avenue...")??

What does the tenancy agreement say about utility bills & council tax & who pays??

When you pay rent or a "top-up" (hmmmnnn sounds dodgy..) do you get receipts or do it by bank transfer?

Does the landlord live in the same building? Do you have his address??

pablakeman

theartfullodger wrote: »

Do you each have written tenancies? (Presumably individual, room, tenancy - e.g. Mr P A Blake, Room 4, 62 Acacia Avenue...")??

What does the tenancy agreement say about utility bills & council tax & who pays??

When you pay rent or a "top-up" (hmmmnnn sounds dodgy..) do you get receipts or do it by bank transfer?

Does the landlord live in the same building? Do you have his address??

Cheers for prompt response!

We each have a separate tenancy agreement

As per tenancy agreement, we pay the council tax and the bills (although we actually give it to our landlord)

The top-up is done by bank transfer, and is done when the bills exceed a certain amount.

The landlord doesn't live in the same building, and we have his address (he lives on the same street)

theartfullodger

As you have individual tenancies the property is an HMO (probably not requiring licence) and so landlord pays Council tax. Stop giving him money for council tax: Expect s21 by return.

Who's name is council tax & all utility bills in??

Bet he's on the fiddle - tax etc etc,,,,

pablakeman

theartfullodger wrote: »

As you have individual tenancies the property is an HMO (probably not requiring licence) and so landlord pays Council tax. Stop giving him money for council tax: Expect s21 by return.

Who's name is council tax & all utility bills in??

Bet he's on the fiddle - tax etc etc,,,,

Once again, thanks!

As per tenancy agreement we have to pay landlord for council tax (even though it forms part of the overall rent), so might need to ask him if this is a HMO. Is there any way I can find out whether this property is a HMO without asking him?

No idea whose name council tax is in.

Utility bills have appear to be in the name of a previous tenant (definitely not in landlords name). I would actually like to switch provider as well as getting the smart meter installed, which is why I was posting here too.

Really appreciate the advice!

Miss_Samantha

If the property is an HMO for council tax purposes (and it seems to be) then there is no problem with you agreeing to pay the landlord to cover council tax. The bill should be in his name.
In fact this is the correct way to proceed, as you shouldn't pay the council.

There's nothing wrong with you paying the landlord for utilities either. The bills should also be in his name, and he may only charge you his actual costs, not more.

pablakeman

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

If the property is an HMO for council tax purposes (and it seems to be) then there is no problem with you agreeing to pay the landlord to cover council tax. The bill should be in his name.
In fact this is the correct way to proceed, as you shouldn't pay the council.

There's nothing wrong with you paying the landlord for utilities either. The bills should also be in his name, and he may only charge you his actual costs, not more.

Hi,

Thanks!

I know paying landlord for utilities is normal. However, we pay him the money, yet according to the tenancy agreement we pay the bills ourselves (whereas for water, it says we pay the landlord for this).

If we pay the bills ourselves, I know we are allowed to switch and maybe have more control over getting a smart meter fitted (but looking for clarification).

I am happy we are paying the correct amount, but I know we have the right to change provider if we are in fact the ones paying.

thesaint

I don't understand the hurry up for getting a smart meter fitted.

If the bills aren't in your name, then I would butt out.

Pixie5740

You might not finding it much better having the utilities in your name rather than the landlord's. You don't want to end up being the patsy chasing 5 other people to pay a bill in your name. Then there's ball ache of working out who owes what when one tenant leaves and another comes in.

sniggings

if it were me I would leave alone unless the LL was over charging me.

As the saving from changing supplier/meter will hardly save you much between the 6 of you, and as said, having the bills in someone else's name is a plus as do you really want to worry about getting all 6 of you to pay up, the little extra you may pay for not being able to change the meter might be money well spent, give the LL the hassle and stress.

pablakeman

Thanks for advice everyone!

At the moment the bills aren't in the landlords name which worries me. We could save £50/60 a year each if we switched suppliers, and a smart meter would allow us to keep an eye on what we are using.

It is a house where the people don't know each other before they come in, so a few at the moment use a lot of elec/gas (heating on all day in summer etc...). We don't know if LL is overcharging as we never see bills, but as per our tenancy agreement we do pay them (rather than landlord paying).

Therefore the bills need changing to either the landlord (preferable, because it saves us hassle) or us (not preferable, but then we could at least have more freedom)