Ended the tenancy. Landlord demands payment for CHP bill.

macman

I'm guessing that this bill is for 18m or maybe longer-certainly not just one year. OP, when did the tenancy commence? LL appears to have been billed monthly, and not paid, so it's hardly credible that only after your occupation ends that he decides to ask you for payment.
It's normal with these DH systems for there to be a meter within the property that can be read by both provider and occupier.
Clearly, you are not liable to the provider for payment, as you have no contract with them. Whether you are liable to the LL is a different matter. I would suggest that, though by default you are normally liable for the utility bills, unless your TA states otherwise, in this case where the contract apparently does not allow the account to be transferred into the name of the tenant (which itself is dubious), it should be made a condition of the TA that the LL will rebill the DH charges onward to the tenant at cost, and on a timely basis (i.e. either monthly or quarterly, depending on the billing). The tenant should also be able to verify the meter readings for themselves.
First step is to check the TA though.

lezion

Yes it looks like its since we moved. I just read TA and it says I am liable for all the utility bills. 

HampshireH

lezion said:

Yes it looks like its since we moved. I just read TA and it says I am liable for all the utility bills. 

It will do.

What does it say about the heating bill specifically seeing as. You cant manage it 

Do you have the readings you took when you moved in and out?

lezion

Hey, Thanks for the answer so far. I really appreciate it.

I found the note in TA about it:

3.3 To pay to the Landlord, all reasonable costs and expenses awarded by the Court or incurred by the

Landlord for the following:

* communal heating and hot water charges

Not sure if that covers it. 

I have meter readings on the moving out inventory report done by the 3rd party. 

Now by looking closely on the report like there was a meter in the Hallway of the property It must have been covered by the wooden box. 
It shows 73840 kWh

On the report done before moving in there is no mention about CHP. Only electricity reading. Probably because meter was hidden behind the wooden box. 

It looks like I might need to pay after all. 

lezion

I found this note on the first page of the contract:

Tenant Bills: The tenant is responsible for the below utility bills. Meter readings will either be located on

your check in/ inventory report or given to you by your landlord. Although we are more than happy to assist

you in any way, it is the tenant’s responsibility to make sure that their utilities/council tax are set up with the

relevant providers.

There was no meter readings for CHP given to us. 

princeofpounds

Yes, you will need to pay, given what your agreement says about paying for communal heating. 

Of course the point that many others have made about making sure you have been properly invoiced for only the period of use is very valid.

The late fees may not be yours to pay, but that depends on who has direct liability to the CHP provider. In many flats, the liability is placed by covenant onto the 'owner' of the flat - your LL. So actually paying the CHP bill is their responsibility, and your responsibility is to repay any charges reasonably incurred back to your LL. 

It is also possible, but less likely, that you have a meter and should have made your own account as an occupant with the CHP provider directly.

RAS

Get a proper breakdown of the usage first.

And refuse to pay the late payment charges; since the LL was responsible for paying the bill and notifying you of the costs, which he did not do promptly. Presumably he has let this flat before and knew he was always going to have to pay ahead and re-charge?

He also had the opportunity to explain when you first queried the bill.

HampshireH

lezion said:

Thank you for your replies. 

I will double check, but one would presumed the tenancy agreement said we are responsible. We were paying for water, electricity, internet. That's the utilities we have been covering. We were worried about the heating but we were unable to resolve the situation with the landlord. Apparently the estate has it so setup that the landlord is unable to transfer bills to the tenant for the CHP.  I am not sure what is the setup with the Meter. It was definitely not accessible to us. 

saajan_12

Where are the late payment charges?

Jumblebumble

macman said:

Your deposit should not be held by the LL, it should be in the deposit scheme. Was it not? if not, sue him for non-protection.

Perhaps you should read up about  insured  deposit scheme before making up fairy stories.

TDS insured is completely free to join. You pay a small fee to protect each deposit, which means you can keep your deposit in your bank account for the duration of the tenancy, keeping the accrued interest.
https://www.tenancydepositscheme.com/tds-insured/

lezion

Deposit payment was released by the renting agent yesterday. I asked LL for the CHP bill breakdown. Hopefully I can pay for the actually usage. Do you recon LL can do claim on my for not paying the late charges?