Have to pay to do washing please help!!!

Timmy.I

Thanks for the quick response, this is a flatshare with the landlord living elsewhere.

This was bills included and he told me I went have to pay anything apart from rent once I moved in.

The washing machine only turns on once we insert £1 coins into this coin box which I believe he collects.

My deposit is also protected

I hope this helps

FreeBear

I have two lodgers - They will do four to six loads each week. Always on a quick eco setting that doesn't use much water or electricity. They supply their own washing powder, and I've never considered charging extra.

G_M

what does your contract say?


How many sharers and is the property registerd as an HMO?


You and the other sharers could always get your own washing machine. At auctions you can pick them up for about £10!

markin

All tax free for him... he could have just left the box unlocked.

Honeylife

The coin operated washing machine is really not an issue you should have noticed this when you viewed the property and asked questions then.

It wasn't that long ago that renters had to go to the local Laundrette as a matter of course. Washing machines are taken for granted and yes many people use them in the most uneconomic manner.

My lodgers are allowed two loads each per week in my 8k machine, and provide their own washing powder. Absolutely no half loads or one shirt kinda wash. I emphasise Eco wash. (This was the same with my children when they lived at home). No one has ever complained. When i am using the machine, I check if anyone has any smalls they want washed to make up a full load Some lodgers reciprocate.

Read your contract and House Rules again. Did he say Bills or Utilities included. Utilities are not washing machines they are Gas, Electric & Water i.e. the fundamentals. Bills are usually extras e.g. Wifi/Sky/Virgin/TV Licence/Landline phone/cleaner, which are not necessary, but actually extras.

The leaks in the shower and the dirty bathroom! Welcome to the world of private Renting! Sounds like the shower/bathroom was not waterproofed/tanked properly - if at all. Seriously though write it all up and hand it to your Landlord give him x amount of days to rectify and if he doesn't you can approach the local council who will inspect and if its as bad as you say, deal with the landlord directly to get him to rectify the situation. But the downside there is the landlord may consider you a difficult tenant and give you notice.

Do you have a Gas Safety Certificate? Are there smoke alarms on every floor? Is there a Carbon Monoxide monitor? Those are far more important issues than the coin operated washing machine.

need_an_answer

This type of set up is quite normal in many student type houses.

My offspring currently pay £1 per wash and the drier is fed by 20p's and takes a couple of cycles to dry a load fully.


That's with a private LL but in some of the student accommodation run by the likes of Unite the charge for machine washing can be as high as £4 a pop.

It wasn't written in to either tenancy agreement but was fully evident when viewing the properties if you actually looked at the washing facilities.

onwards&upwards

FreeBear wrote: »

I have two lodgers - They will do four to six loads each week. Always on a quick eco setting that doesn't use much water or electricity. They supply their own washing powder, and I've never considered charging extra.

Mega useful post, really helpful to the OP!

theartfullodger

You don't have to pay.

Several options - don't wash clothes, use a commercial laundrette, get a friend to do it.

But I'd grass him up to council & HMRC

Your landlord is the sort that gives decent ones a bad name

diggingdude

I guess I would have to pay £1 a wash but I would go and buy myself a plug-in oil heater and dry all my clothes on it with the window open if electricity was included

Murphybear

Surely a launderette will be much more than £1 a load? The last time I used a launderette was when I was 26 which was 40 years ago, it was expensive back then!