Landlord put lockbox on heating

busylizzy93

Hiya

We live in a shared house and the landlord has come round today to fix a couple broken bits and while he's here he has put a locked box over the thermostat so we are unable to turn the heating or hot water on when needed. Despite upping the rent by £50 a month! Is this legal?! Is there anything we can do or say? 
Thanks in advance! 

The_Unready

Is the heating included in your bills or do you pay for it from the supplier directly?

marcia_

 Thats awful, i one viewed a flat with that in the controls with the temp set to 16 once a day for 1 hour.

 My immediate thought was i could break it off easily, but then find myself homeless.
 I didn't take the tenancy but i don't think it's illegal.

 Id be looking for somewhere else to live. 

tacpot12

While it is not reasonable to restrict your ability to have heating or hot water, if the landlord is covering the cost of fuel, they are going to have concerns about any overusage. 

The best thing to do is to ask to sit down with the landlord to discuss how heating and hot water are going to be provided. You need to agree how your need for heating and hot water will be met, while protecting the landlord from any surprises. Your tenancy agreement might already provide some basis for the arragements, so check what it says first.

I very much doubt your landlord is proposing to leave you without heat and hot water, as this would be illegal, and you can complain to your environmental health department at your local council. 


 

busylizzy93

The_Unready said:

Is the heating included in your bills or do you pay for it from the supplier directly?

Included in the bills which they said they would put up £50 a month to cover the rising cost of gas and electric 

RAS

busylizzy93 said:

The_Unready said:

Is the heating included in your bills or do you pay for it from the supplier directly?

Included in the bills which they said they would put up £50 a month to cover the rising cost of gas and electric 

£50 per month each?

london21

Might not be illegal but does not make it right.

The upcoming increase in bills there will be an increase in such behaviour landlords will exclude bills from rent. 

grumiofoundation

I would post here on subforum dedicated to housing matters. If you no longer have the ability to heat house/water then that is certainly not reasonable (or has ot now been restricted to certain times?)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/house-buying-renting-selling

74jax

An increase in £50 a month for the bills doesn't sound as though it will cover the actual increase in bills.
Could you work out how much electricity and gas you are actually using, and how much this would cost? I understand the landlord would want his bills covered, so is capping the usage. 
What does your contract say about bills, does it give capped usage etc? 

tightauldgit

I believe the LL can probably get away with it unless it's causing you an issue in terms of having the house way too cold or too hot or not having access to hot water. 

It certainly doesn't sound like a nice thing for your LL to have done though, especially if he hasn't consulted you first. A lot of LL's will have been caught out badly by the recent price increases so I can kind of understand that the want to protect themselves but this probably isn't the way to do it. 

Of course, if the LL has set it at something reasonable then it may not be an issue.

easy

Blimey, it's a bit unreasonable to do this if he hasn't mentioned it to the tenants first.  
I think your first action is to talk to him,  and check how it has been set. Presumably at a set temperature and to come on once or twice per day?  

If he's set it in reasonable terms then you can live with it.  Obviously if he hasn't then you will need to negotiate.  
Is there anyone in the house with any health conditions that will need special consideration -  e.g. higher than usual heating or more baths than one might normally expect?

My guess is he's protecting himself,  and you - so he doesn't  have to ask for another rent rise in a few months.  I'd be cross he hadn't discussed it first tho'