Expensive water heater- no timer, not disclosed by letting agency. Who is responsible for bill?

coralanne22

Moved into a rental apartment 30/10 last year. Letting agency did not do a ‘check in’ with us as you would usually receive on commencement of tenancy. We were not given any information or documents on how to use the internal fixtures ie, heating( electric) and hot water cylinder. Basically. Given our tenancy agreement. The keys and told off you go. Nobody came to the property with us as would usually happen on your first day of tenancy. 

Since moving in we have have extortionate electricity bills. Despite barely using the heating and being out the house 12 hours a day 5 days a week and barely in of a weekend. Our last bill was £380 using 2326kwh of electricity in one month!!!!!! We finally got hold of the letting agents and they sent an electrician round who discovered the cause of the bills was the hot water cylinder. He said there should be a timer device fitted to it (there is not) so the tank had been constantly on for 4 months basically eating away at the electricity even when we weren’t there over Xmas.

My question is who is liable for the bill? I am not disputing I used some electricity, since having to run the tank on an off and having it on for only 2 hours a day the bills have come right down to £2.50 a day, which I will happily pay, but I don’t feel it is right for us to have to pay what is now over £1000 in energy usage when the usage has been caused by something we as tenants were a) not made aware of and b) had (and still have) no control over due to there being no timer device fitted. 

Spoken to a heating engineer and he said the tank is not up to current regulations which begs the question shouldn’t the letting agency/ landlord be liable? Is it their duty to make sure they inform tenants about fixtures such as this and that the device is fitted with a timer to stop this from happening. 

I have always been told not to interfere with internal fixtures ie turning the boiler off in past rental properties as if this caused any faults we would be liable as tenants. 

Anyone have any ideas?

We were also never given the EPC and upon googling to check it had one have since found it expired last September and they have never renewed it or given us a copy which it states in the tenancy agreement we should have been given one. 

Thanks in advance. 

Slithery

Is there a switch to turn on/off the immersion cylinder?

davidmcn

coralanne22 said:

I have always been told not to interfere with internal fixtures ie turning the boiler off in past rental properties as if this caused any faults we would be liable as tenants.  

You are allowed to turn heating etc on and off though - or adjust the (non-existent) timer. Presumably you've now found the relevant switch? Was that already turned on when you moved in?

ProDave

2326kWh in 1 month is an AVERAGE of just over 3kW of electricity being used continuously.

It would not be possible for the water heater to use that much.  The immersion heater would switch off when the tank reaches the set temperature and not turn back on until the temperature drops due to usage or heat loss.

Or is the thermostat faulty and the heater really has been on all the time with the water in the tank boiling away and you did not notice the steam and the scalding hot water?

There must as a very minimum be a manual on off switch, usually labelled "water heater" so you can turn it off.  Not everything is the landlords fault.

How is the property heated? you say "electric" is that panel heaters? Storage heaters? or something else?

My best advice serve notice to leave as soon as you can, use the time to find a more eficcient property to rent, preferably one with gas central heating and a good EPC. Yes make sure you see the EPC before agreeing to rent it.

frogglet

If there is a thermostat on the tank, make sure its at an acceptable temperature and is actually touching the tank, ours used to move if something was pushed down the side of the tank.
If its properly insulated the water should stay warm for a long time.

pbartlett

agree with @ProDave - the immetsion heater does not on face value seem.to be the only cause of your problem. 

numbercruncher8

Not gonna be the immersion.
When was the last meter reading?
I wouldn't be surprised if the last tenants simply gave the wrong numbers, thus generating a massive bill this time around.

payless

Electric heating can be very expensive but this seems very high . Have you\ engineer checked that only your flat is on this meter?

You say not to regs, but as well as an EPC ( needs to be valid) an electrical inspection report was a legal requirement on new tenancies last year.  This would highlight any danger but not just out of current regs,

I know covid is an disruption but I have done epc , gas and elec on mine this year ... and if it was empty then no real excuse 

dimbo61

So when you moved in did you take photos of the meters and contact the energy supplier ? Did you set up a new account in your name and get the best energy deal.
uSwitch, compare the market, and lots of other comparison websites !
Did you email the letting agents with the photos attached to send them the meter readings so they can confirm with the old tenants ?
The Letting Agents and the Landlord cannot advertise a property without a valid in date EPC so report them to the Letting Agents redress scheme which they have to be members.
Have you received the EICR report and gas Safe Certificate if you have Gas for the property which is also a legal requirement ?
This could indicate that the Electric emersion heater is not safe and upto spec

princeofpounds

At a basic level, you are expected to behave in a reasonable tenant-like manner by the legal system. That includes taking reasonable steps to figure out how to operate the appliances in the house. And at a very minimum you would be expected to ask, rather than complain about a bill months later.

And your idea about 'not turning off a boiler' is just wrong. There are different types of boiler, most can be turned off if necessary (for most it is not necessary as they are controlled by thermostats and timers which do it for you) without causing any damage, and operating one in a reasonable manner is no cause of liability for damages.

Yes, I get that it's frustrating to be caught out, and very unhelpful of the LL/A. But you can't shirk the bill just because things weren't spoon-fed to you.

Electric immersion heaters do use a lot of expensive electricity. It is possible that it is not your only problem. Given your unfamiliarity with heating systems, I do wonder if your heating has been more active than you thought it would be (last month was particularly cold, and you note your bill was particularly high). That's the most likely cause. Or perhaps the starting meter reading was wrong. Or perhaps someone is abstracting electricity (not likely, but it does happen sometimes - does the LL own any adjacent flats?). Or perhaps you're just unfamiliar with how expensive electric heating is.

[Deleted User]

I don’t think I’ve ever had a check-in as you’ve described when renting. I’ve either been left the manuals on how the appliances work or I’ve googled the make and model to get the manuals myself. You should have a valid EPC though.