Landlord Changing Heating Cost From Meter to Flat Rate

Spoonie_Turtle

Craigdav1993 said:

yksi said:

What does your lease say?

Here’s the only section of the Tenancy Agreement which mentions utility bills

4 On the signing of this Agreement to have transferred to the Tenants name and to pay directly to the supplier all charges due during the tenancy for the following:-

a) water rates sewage disposal gas fuel oil and electricity supplied to the Property

Am I missing something?  Nobody's mentioned it so I don't know if this is a really naive interpretation, but doesn't this mean the tenant should have their own account and be paying the utilities suppliers, including energy, themselves?

Craigdav1993

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Craigdav1993 said:

yksi said:

What does your lease say?

Here’s the only section of the Tenancy Agreement which mentions utility bills

4 On the signing of this Agreement to have transferred to the Tenants name and to pay directly to the supplier all charges due during the tenancy for the following:-

a) water rates sewage disposal gas fuel oil and electricity supplied to the Property

Am I missing something?  Nobody's mentioned it so I don't know if this is a really naive interpretation, but doesn't this mean the tenant should have their own account and be paying the utilities suppliers, including energy, themselves?

I am assuming because we receive the bill from the meter company which charges us based on the landlord established rates, it would make this legal.

The flat rate would only be for Hot Water / Heating as we pay for electricity etc separately.

Keep in mind this is a 2021 building with B energy rating and excellent insultation, we never used the heating once this winter and had 21/22C at night in the flat whilst in the minus outside (the fact we face SW with big windows helps but is also terrible in summer with 30+ C at night)

Although yes in most cases £42 a month for heating / hot water wouldn’t be too bad, for the limited use we make with one quick shower each daily and no heating sounds excessive.

I think our main concern here is, if we have a meter installed, can the LL suddenly decide to ignore the meter readings and charge a flat rate?

pochase

You are saying you only have 2 showers per day. So you are not heating your home at all, and never will? You are aware that we had an extremely mild winter this year?

And what is a quick shower for you in minutes.

I am sorry, but you are living a dream with a flat rate of £42 for heating and hot water.

Also if this is communal heating/hot water it means that there is no cap at all, so if they find a unit is 50p there is no protection.

Why was it necessary to switch a meter after than a year?