Landlord ran up huge energy bill and wants tenant to pay

exiled_red

If the bill is in her name she will ultimately be the one responsible. She really should have taken meter readings when she moved in to ensure that the she is only paying for what has been used while she is there, if not there could be some backdated stuff in there, but without meter readings it will be impossible to prove. The landlord shouldn't be able to discuss things with the energy company if the bill is in her name.


I suspect that the payments that she made for the first few months were underpaid and she had used more energy than she thinks. You say that she is an overseas student, if she is from a hotter climate she might have had the heat on a lot more than she realises, I had this with some of my flatmates when I was a student. £55 for September to January is not realistic - I would expect the standing charges to be more than that alone.


I imagine the best that she could hope would be to find out from the builder what was done, if they had dehumidifiers and heaters running for a significant period then try and get some details about how much power these things use and how long they were running for and used that to estimate the cost of energy. At which point I would discuss with the landlord that he pay towards these costs or claims it from his insurance. But this relies on the goodwill of the landlord, but as the bill is in her name she is ultimately responsible.


This might reduce the cost somewhat but as I say I still think that she has used more energy than she thinks she has.

A_Nice_Englishman

The only way I can imagine the Landlord being able to discuss energy use at the property with the supplier is if he informed them that the tenant was moving out and took responsibility for the usage himself. In that case he would have his own account separate to the tenant's.

It's all a bit mysterious!

robatwork

Too much here doesn't add up.

I can't tell from all your posts if the tenant actually has an electricity bill in her hand, issued by SSE and in her name.

Or is it a bill that the landlord is somehow passing on?

Also does she have meter readings from day 1 and other significant dates especially the days she moved into the hotel and moved back?

LandlordProb

Thanks for all the replies. To summerise:


She moved into the flat in September and had received two bills(which are in her name and now appear to be on the low side) before moving out for 2 months to stay in a hotel(paid for by land lord's insurance)due to one room being very damp and needing a load of work done on it.When she returned,the next bill was for £775.She asked the land lord how can that be and he told her that SSE had told him that the previous bills were too low and this large bill is to cover the under payment.She asked for the name of the person/contact details that he had been speaking to at SSE and the land lord will not give them her and instead told her that she should leave the country without paying! She is not going to do that,but thinks it's odd advice for a land lord to give a tenant! I'll ask her for some other details(ref meter readings etc)and post the details when I have them.

pinklady21

Right - who is creating these bills that the tenant has?
Is it that the landlord receives a bill from SSE and is then billing her for electricity separately?
If they are from SSE with her name on it, has she tried contacting them directly?

Pixie5740

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Why lucky? That's a fairly standard thing covered by insurance (which landlords should always have) when a property is uninhabitable. If its longer term they'll also pay for alternative rented accommodation.

lookstraightahead wrote: »

I would expect every landlord to do this as standard through insurance. The tenant is not lucky they have a contract for a home to live in. The compensation was a bit tongue in cheek but no one wants to live in a hotel all the time not even owners, let alone ‘insignificant’ tenants.

Well you'd both be wrong. Alternative accommodation is not a standard clause in landlord insurance and legally the landlord doesn't have to offer alternative accommodation unless there's a clause in the AST specifying that (s)he will so yes this tenant did get lucky.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/moving_out_during_repairs

The electricity bill does sound like mess though and I think the OP needs to do a bit more investigating to find out what's what.

Chickenlips

Landlord policies are not designed to cover the financial interests of the tenant. Tenants are supposed to have their own cover, which would cover the additional costs of living during the claim.

The landlords policy will cover the loss of rent. That is it. People are supposed to insure their own separate interests. Tenants: somewhere to live. Landlord: rental income.

kingstreet

Forgive my cynicism, but I suspect the insurer has paid the landlord for equipment and energy to dry out the property while the tenant was absent and the landlord is now trying to stick the tenant with the energy cost under the guise of previous under-payment.

I could be completely wrong though...

Slinky

£100 per month seems a heck of a lot for a 1 bedroom flat even if that was averaged out over several months. Our 4 bed house we pay £87 a month and I work from home (admittedly I only heat 1 room during the day).

Red-Squirrel_2

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Well you'd both be wrong. Alternative accommodation is not a standard clause in landlord insurance and legally the landlord doesn't have to offer alternative accommodation unless there's a clause in the AST specifying that (s)he will so yes this tenant did get lucky.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/moving_out_during_repairs

The electricity bill does sound like mess though and I think the OP needs to do a bit more investigating to find out what's what.

So if a tenant’s home becomes uninhabitable, the landlord is under no obligation at all to provide alternative accommodation at all? That doesn’t seem right.