Temp rental including bills now changed to excluding bills

morgan98

Hi,

I could do with some advice. I’ve rented a short term house on openrent.co.uk with bills included via a pre pay meter that the agent tops up. There was an front payment of a months deposit then monthly / weekly payments and no contract as its advertised as weekly/ monthly let’s like an airbnb. I’ve been here for almost a month and have expressed my intention to stay at least another month while renovations are completed in my house. The agent had been really helpful in topping up the electricity over the past month. However when I msged asking to top up, she’s only topped up 4 days usage saying in future it can now be done by me. The advert clearly states the rent includes bills. What if any rights do I have?

I don’t want to move out as it’s a real hassle as I’m only here for max another 2 months; I also don’t want to have to pay for bills as this wasn’t what I signed up for and I’m always dubious if people offer to “refund me the bills when I move out”.

 Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I’d rather know where I stand before I contact her.

Thanks!

theartfullodger

Your rights are to continue requesting (probably greedy) landlord to comply with terms agreed, if that fails take her to court.

Are you living there as your prime home ?  How does agreement describe itself (eg AST, licence, Airbnb....),?

1616six

theartfullodger said:

if that fails take her to court.

For what?! This is the unfortunate downside to these types of basically holiday bookings where you have no contract or tenancy agreement. You in theory can move out at the end of the week and they can change their booking requirements for the following week if you wish to stay further. 

Not much you can do other than trying to negotiate!

sammyjammy

1616six said:

theartfullodger said:

if that fails take her to court.

For what?! This is the unfortunate downside to these types of basically holiday bookings where you have no contract or tenancy agreement. You in theory can move out at the end of the week and they can change their booking requirements for the following week if you wish to stay further. 

Not much you can do other than trying to negotiate!

Until we have more info you have on idea of OPs situation, even if there is no agreement there maybe a tenancy agreement implied.  

theartfullodger

sammyjammy said:

1616six said:

theartfullodger said:

if that fails take her to court.

For what?! This is the unfortunate downside to these types of basically holiday bookings where you have no contract or tenancy agreement. You in theory can move out at the end of the week and they can change their booking requirements for the following week if you wish to stay further. 

Not much you can do other than trying to negotiate!

Until we have more info you have on idea of OPs situation, even if there is no agreement there maybe a tenancy agreement implied.  

Indeed: And OP stated this is openrent: Who provide and AST agreement - see...
https://www.openrent.co.uk/tenancy-agreement

- sounds like there's a documented agreement. 

Morgan could you kindly let us know what form the agreement takes (eg written..)

morgan98

There is no tenancy; no contract; no paperwork. Just a deposit paid and monthly rent paid for in advance via bank transfer. A verbal agreement was made that I should let the agent know a week before the month is due to end to let them know if I wanted to extend. Given I’ll only be here another 2 months I’m not sure the hassle of court action is something I want to get involved with.

wilfred30

morgan98 said:

Hi,

I could do with some advice. I’ve rented a short term house on openrent.co.uk with bills included via a pre pay meter that the agent tops up. There was an front payment of a months deposit then monthly / weekly payments and no contract as its advertised as weekly/ monthly let’s like an airbnb. I’ve been here for almost a month and have expressed my intention to stay at least another month while renovations are completed in my house. The agent had been really helpful in topping up the electricity over the past month. However when I msged asking to top up, she’s only topped up 4 days usage saying in future it can now be done by me. The advert clearly states the rent includes bills. What if any rights do I have?

I don’t want to move out as it’s a real hassle as I’m only here for max another 2 months; I also don’t want to have to pay for bills as this wasn’t what I signed up for and I’m always dubious if people offer to “refund me the bills when I move out”.

 Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I’d rather know where I stand before I contact her.

Thanks!

Just to be clear.

Did the Agent say that going forward you will have to pay the cost of topping up the pre-payment meter?

Or could it be the case that she will put the money on it but you have to collect the card from her and put it in the meter yourself rather than her having to come round and do it?

Brie

I would simply message her back saying that you'll top up and deduct it from the rent you pay for next month.

theartfullodger

morgan98 said:

There is no tenancy; no contract; no paperwork. Just a deposit paid and monthly rent paid for in advance via bank transfer. A verbal agreement was made that I should let the agent know a week before the month is due to end to let them know if I wanted to extend. Given I’ll only be here another 2 months I’m not sure the hassle of court action is something I want to get involved with.

There is a tenancy, just a verbal one.  In England a verbal tenancy is entirely legal.  

Presumably you can prove how much you've been paying, for how long (? Please ?), and do you have any evidence landlord has been paying electricity?

morgan98

Hi,
I can prove how much I’ve been paying from my bank statement. The landlord must be paying electricity as it’s a pre paid meter in the house. It’s a pre paid digital meter so it increases in credit when money is loaded onto it. It’s electronic so I wouldn’t need to pick any card. It’s fine remotely. I guess they put the address in a top up using a debit/ credit card.

anselld

You have not answered for how long you have paid.  Short term (holiday) let is normally defined as 31 days or less.  Serviced accomodation may be longer but there would need to be some element of "service", cleaning, laundry etc.

By your own admission you took the contract as a temporary let, short term, holiday, whatever you want to call it.  If that is the case as mentioned earlier there is no fixed term contract and the price can potentially vary.  Likewise you can be required to leave if you make yourself unwelcome.  However, if you have stayed longer without some element of service you may have created a tenancy with additional rights if you want to play that card.