Electricity bill for empty let flat

pompus

Hello,

I would be interested to have your opinion on the following.

I have been letting my main flat for the last 5 years in a fully managed contract with a letting agency.

Last summer my former tenants left, my flat was empty during 6 weeks whilst the agency was looking for new tenants. I quickly went to check everything and I noticed that my bathroom heater was on as well as the central heating. I turned everything off and told the agency they should have done that during checkout.
Now in March I have been told that I have an unpaid electricity bill for £180 for this period of time. The agency is telling me that when the flat is empty it is not legally their responsibility. Nonetheless they are the ones doing the checkout and the viewings during this time.
I am left a bit baffled by the situation, I find it an enormous amount of money to pay for an empty flat that was meant to be fully managed professionally.
Would you have any advice on these kind of situations? Is it common practice from letting agency? Anything I can do to make them assume their responsibility?
Many thanks in advance for your help

Mutton_Geoff

Doesn't your insurance insist on heating in winter and inspection when vacant more than 30 days?

davidmcn

Not very clear which bit you want advice on, but as far as the electricity supplier is concerned, you're the occupier when the property isn't let, so the bill is your responsibility. If you think the agency has left things on unnecessarily then by all means complain to them, though if you turned the heating off "quickly" I'm not sure you can pin any significant amount of the bill on them.

theartfullodger

Get out your letters/emails informing utilities of meter readings & see if bill is correct.

There's usually fees even if empty

greatcrested

Does your contract with the agency including managing and maintaining the property during voids between tenants? As a general rule it would not - usually a 'management' contract means management of the tenancy, not of the property. But I cannot read your contract so can't be sure.

It's common, for example, for overseas landlords to specifically pay for full time property management including paying utilities, council tax etc during voids ie taking on the owner's responsibilites. But for UK based LLs, generally they would prefer to go in to check and manage their property post-tenancy, and hence not pay the agent for this service.

Having said that, a decent agent would secure the property whn inspecting/checking out, including turning of lights and other appliances, nless required eg low-level heating in winter. There again, if they instructed a third party Inventory Clerk to do the check out, he might well se that as beyond his job which is purely to prepare a report.

Falafels

In 2015 my then tenant gave notice, and I asked my letting agent to remarket the property. They did absolutely nothing, didn't respond to emails or even acknowledge them. I suspect, but don't know, that they were undergoing some kind of restructuring at the time. I appointed another agent, who didn't manage to find another tenant, and then my circumstances changed and I decided to move back into the property myself. There was a month between appointing the new agent and me moving in, and I got an electricity bill for £138 - for an empty house where nothing had been turned on other than electric lights when viewing!

I argued my case, but ended up paying the bill rather than be taken to court. When the property's empty, the landlord IS responsible for the bill. When I contacted the energy supplier/switched over to my new supplier, they had a final reading which was well in excess of the one being shown on my meter, but was told that it was within their margin of error (or something to that effect). In the event, it all 'came out in the wash' as I had very low bills until I'd caught up.

It might be an idea to look at the actual amount you're being billed for, and if it's well in excess of your actual usage - especially if it's an estimated bill - then contest it with the supplier.

anselld

Assuming you were not paying the any management fees during the 6 week void that would be a fairly good indication that they were not "managing".