What to do in this tenant situation

theartfullodger

It's a mystery  to me why so many landlords (or agents) assume a tenant will supervise what is a landlord's responsibility. Then seem upset when they won't do someone else's job for nothing.

Either LL go to supervise and let in or provide incentives (cash or whatever it is tenant has been desperate for) for tenant to be there, and top up leccy.

It ain't hard.

Artful, landlord since 2000.

With properties 1,000+ mile round trip away used to offer eg £25 to tenant for this sort of thing   Alnoy always worked, money well spent 

propertyrental

Read the HSE guidance:

https://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/landlords/dealing.htm

MultiFuelBurner

Nice to read the opposing views on this.

That's what makes being a LL interesting you can never fully see things from the tenants point of view and vice versa.

So we will consider our next step with all the info above.

Thankyou.

FreeBear

_Penny_Dreadful said:

ProDave said:

Cut off the gas (assuming outside meter) telling them until the boiler is certified, it cannot be used.

That would be harassment and a criminal offence. The landlord is not legally entitled to cut off the gas to the property just because there’s not a valid GSC in place. 

True but there are times when a gas supply can be capped (turned off). If a boiler is deemed at risk, a Gas Safe engineer can disconnect the appliance and plug the pipe. Or if the meter is changed, the pipe will need to be purged and safety checks carried out. If this can not be done, the supply will be capped (has happened to me).

_Penny_Dreadful

FreeBear said:

_Penny_Dreadful said:

ProDave said:

Cut off the gas (assuming outside meter) telling them until the boiler is certified, it cannot be used.

That would be harassment and a criminal offence. The landlord is not legally entitled to cut off the gas to the property just because there’s not a valid GSC in place. 

True but there are times when a gas supply can be capped (turned off). If a boiler is deemed at risk, a Gas Safe engineer can disconnect the appliance and plug the pipe. Or if the meter is changed, the pipe will need to be purged and safety checks carried out. If this can not be done, the supply will be capped (has happened to me).

This would not be one of those times.

ThisIsWeird

FreeBear said:

_Penny_Dreadful said:

ProDave said:

Cut off the gas (assuming outside meter) telling them until the boiler is certified, it cannot be used.

That would be harassment and a criminal offence. The landlord is not legally entitled to cut off the gas to the property just because there’s not a valid GSC in place. 

True but there are times when a gas supply can be capped (turned off). If a boiler is deemed at risk, a Gas Safe engineer can disconnect the appliance and plug the pipe. Or if the meter is changed, the pipe will need to be purged and safety checks carried out. If this can not be done, the supply will be capped (has happened to me).

I presume you just want it done, and there hasn't been a catalogue of other issues?
Your tenants might be finding it hard to budget each month, and are embarrassed. Doesn't help you, tho'.
How easy is it to top up a leccy meter - is it something you or the GS can come prepared with next time? If so, informing them that you'll add, say, £20 to their meter could be a nice incentive? 
Who is doing the contacting with the tenant - the GS or yourself? A friend I know who rents a property just lets the GS and the T arrive at a mutually acceptable time, but then their tenant is normal.

MultiFuelBurner

So to add context before this thread maybe gets derailed with what a normal tenant is (smh)

These tenants are fully up to date with their rent, a little difficult to contact and have completed a rent arrears plan recently where we did offer them out of their contract if they wished to take on one of our cheaper properties.

We do believe there are some financial planning issues so we will take on board paying for some electricity to get this gas safety certification and service done. That seems the course of least resistance.

Just to highlight the above post

but then their tenant is normal.

We would call two previous tenants abnormal many years ago. One who had a penchant for a crossbow and fired them into doors and walls. Once evicted we also found a nice collection of knives under the mattress. Then we had the cannabis factory setup in two rooms tenant.

silvercar

The tenants having no leccy is a concern in itself. The idea that a landlord could just "top up the leccy" to get the GSC completed may not be reasonable. Electric customers are only cut off after building considerable arrears and not engaging with the supplier to pay off arrears. We aren't talking about putting a fiver on a meter to make the problem go away, there could be many hundreds of pounds owed. If they have no leccy, do you know they have gas?

Herzlos

silvercar said:

The tenants having no leccy is a concern in itself. The idea that a landlord could just "top up the leccy" to get the GSC completed may not be reasonable. Electric customers are only cut off after building considerable arrears and not engaging with the supplier to pay off arrears. We aren't talking about putting a fiver on a meter to make the problem go away, there could be many hundreds of pounds owed. If they have no leccy, do you know they have gas?

I dunno, when I was a student we'd often not get round to feeding the meter and lived in emergency credit, so having the electricity cut off was a fairly regular affair and usually fixed for a fiver.

But it depends if it's a pre-pay meter or billed.

Shelldean

silvercar said:

The tenants having no leccy is a concern in itself. The idea that a landlord could just "top up the leccy" to get the GSC completed may not be reasonable. Electric customers are only cut off after building considerable arrears and not engaging with the supplier to pay off arrears. We aren't talking about putting a fiver on a meter to make the problem go away, there could be many hundreds of pounds owed. If they have no leccy, do you know they have gas?

I would guess they still have a prepayment meter, where credit is added to a key and then placed I to the meter.
I often misjudged ours and only realised when the leccy went off!
I'd usually switch it to emergency credit then too up the key. But occasionally it was emergency credit that had just been used.
So no leccy until I topped it up again