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

dimbo61

So have you got the EPC for the poroperty ?
Has the LL/LA also supplied and had an EICR report done and given you a copy.

https://www.gov.uk/buy-sell-your-home/energy-performance-certificates

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electrical-safety-standards-in-the-private-rented-sector-guidance-for-landlords-tenants-and-local-authorities/guide-for-landlords-electrical-safety-standards-in-the-private-rented-sector

princeofpounds

coralanne22 said:

Just to clear up a few assumptions made by you:

I did complain about the first bill I received months ago and it has taken the letting agency and the energy company this long to get to some sort of a reason. Took the agency 7 weeks to get me a key to the meter room (all meters for the building in a separate locked area of the building) despite me asking for one on the day of move in.

I am not trying to ‘shirk’ the bill because things weren’t ‘spoon fed’ to me. I am not asking to be spoon fed things I am asking for basic information that in previous tenancies I have been provided with on move in. Ie. How to work the heating/ boiler system. (Left instructions in my last property).

Not sure why you assume I’m unfamiliar with heating systems... I am familiar with electric heaters and how expensive they are... I am unfamiliar with hot water cylinders. Not electric heating. I have rented properties before now, with boilers and electric heating systems.

I am aware of the costs of electric heating. My flatmate and I rarely use the heating we are very aware of how expensive it is and are also out the house 12 hours a day so when we come home we tend to sit in the lounge for 2 hours and then switch it all off and go to bed without the heating on. 

This is exactly why I queried the energy bill in the first month as we very rarely use anything, barely have the heating on at all (the place is always cold) and the first bill was £170. Second £250. Third £380.

My assumptions were based on what your wrote in your post. If you were denied access to the controls for 7 weeks, that's a highly relevant piece of information that you simply didn't mention. To anyone reading your initial post, it comes across as if you had an immersion heater sitting in your cupboard for three months and did not look at it once. Don't get too annoyed if people don't guess these things - this isn't a gameshow like Catchphrase.

You were unfamiliar enough with the cylinder to not work out how to control it. As for being unfamiliar with the space heating - that was merely highlighted as a possibility to consider. That was based on two things. One is that if you didn't get immersion cylinders, which are just about the simplest device around, then electric storage heaters (or whatever precise system you have) are just that little bit more complex to control and could be an issue.

The other thing it was based on was your complaint that the last month was a particularly steep bill. Last month was also a particularly cold month. In fact, the progression from 170-250-380 (Nov/Dec/Jan?) strongly points to a weather-related issue. If the immersion tank doesn't account for all of it (though it would account for a chunk) then the next thing to look at is the space heating.

If the heating has been driving your costs, then the good news is that it should start coming down quickly. There is a real spike in energy use for heating in winter, and that will drop to near-zero in summer most likely. Electric heating is really expensive.

davidmcn

princeofpounds said:

coralanne22 said:

Just to clear up a few assumptions made by you:

I did complain about the first bill I received months ago and it has taken the letting agency and the energy company this long to get to some sort of a reason. Took the agency 7 weeks to get me a key to the meter room (all meters for the building in a separate locked area of the building) despite me asking for one on the day of move in.

I am not trying to ‘shirk’ the bill because things weren’t ‘spoon fed’ to me. I am not asking to be spoon fed things I am asking for basic information that in previous tenancies I have been provided with on move in. Ie. How to work the heating/ boiler system. (Left instructions in my last property).

Not sure why you assume I’m unfamiliar with heating systems... I am familiar with electric heaters and how expensive they are... I am unfamiliar with hot water cylinders. Not electric heating. I have rented properties before now, with boilers and electric heating systems.

I am aware of the costs of electric heating. My flatmate and I rarely use the heating we are very aware of how expensive it is and are also out the house 12 hours a day so when we come home we tend to sit in the lounge for 2 hours and then switch it all off and go to bed without the heating on. 

This is exactly why I queried the energy bill in the first month as we very rarely use anything, barely have the heating on at all (the place is always cold) and the first bill was £170. Second £250. Third £380.

If you were denied access to the controls for 7 weeks, that's a highly relevant piece of information that you simply didn't mention.

I think it's just the meter which was inaccessible rather than the controls.

coralanne22

macman said:

This is not about the immersion heater consumption. A properly lagged hot tank will keep warm all day, and because it has a thermostat it will only be running for a couple of hours a day,  dependent on hot water requirements. Furthermore, any heat losses from the thank in the heating seasons are not 'losses' at all, as they serve to warm the property.
You cannot make the jump from 'expensive electricity bill' to 'immersion heater responsible' without any supporting evidence. 

Had an electrician out who told us ‘it’s the immersion heater that’s causing it’ which is the ‘supporting evidence’ you require. 

GDB2222

Normally, the inventory would show the meter reading before moving in.

stevenbecca

if the property is heated with electric heating then that's what has caused it, when we bought a new build flat in 2008 we used £325 of electric in 1month, we quickly learnt that hiw we had set up the storage heaters wasn't correct and they'd basically been on heat input mode 24/7 for an entire month.

numbercruncher8

If you believe this is so, why not get in an electrician to fit a timer on the socket? About one of the straightforward jobs there is and you could hire someone on one of the odd jobs sites very cheaply and at short notice. If you were feeling mean you could keep the old socket and refit before you move out.

Being scared about not to mess around is unfounded, to an electrician this job is more or less the same as someone changing those pesky downlighter spotlights and nobody gets scared of changing them in case they break something.

That would mean you could restrict the use of the immersion to just a couple of blasts per day, which is all that is needed (or maybe not at all if the boiler also heats hot water). The cost of installation would be recouped in probably the first week.

The alternative being just running up more expensive bills while you argue with people about who is going to pay it....

diggingdude

Are we sure your housemate isn't running a cannabis farm in his room?