Landlord restrictions on heating

lookstraightahead

MultiFuelBurner said:

The boiler is probably not off as it will be heating hot water?

So form the above if the students do have access to the boiler and they do turn the heating on earlier in the year. Are they all prepared to pay for that extra use?

Gas boiler heating will be cheaper for them all rather than individual electric heaters.

Sounds like they all need to agree they want the heat on earlier and maybe later than end of Feb and are all prepared to pay the extra for this comfort.

Doesn't sound from the contract that it is 'extra use' though. They've not signed to say they agree with it only being on for a certain number of months. 

Just sounds like a greedy landlord. Student landlords rake it in and make a fortune (compared with other landlords). 

MultiFuelBurner

lookstraightahead said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

The boiler is probably not off as it will be heating hot water?

So form the above if the students do have access to the boiler and they do turn the heating on earlier in the year. Are they all prepared to pay for that extra use?

Gas boiler heating will be cheaper for them all rather than individual electric heaters.

Sounds like they all need to agree they want the heat on earlier and maybe later than end of Feb and are all prepared to pay the extra for this comfort.

Doesn't sound from the contract that it is 'extra use' though. They've not signed to say they agree with it only being on for a certain number of months. 

Just sounds like a greedy landlord. Student landlords rake it in and make a fortune (compared with other landlords). 

Has anyone ever posted their tenancy agreement in full so we can every truly know either way?

Your take is greedy landlord instantly without knowing any of the details

My take was commenting on the tit bits being released

Does the tenancy have anything about excess energy costs if the property uses more than expected in a period, as a extra bill for early heating use may upset them a second time down the line?
Yes the agreement does state about more than expected costs on the whole not just related to energy, 

Yes I am taking a thermometer tomorrow. I have to say I have met most of the students and they are not the stereotypical type I have to say. I get the impression that the agent is more at fault than the landlord as they can be a little OTT on things.

Yes the agreement does state about more than expected costs on the whole not just related to energy, 

So just from the above my advice was sound in so far that they could expect a bill for the more than expected costs should they turn the boiler heating on now

I don't think there was anything wrong in what I said.

Of course they all need to read the tenancy agreement fully then all agree what to do👍

la531983

All I would say is - if they were paying for the heating themselves unit by unit, would they have put the heating on in September?
I think we know what the answer will have been 

The landlord is likely doing them a favour in the long run tbf, call it a life lesson.

KeshaunGrady

A few days back I was also in the same situation.

MultiFuelBurner

Depending on what part of the country this is milder weather in bound this was just a blip.

FreeBear

Jonboy_1984 said:

I would start by heading to Tesco or similar, and buying a thermometer for a couple of quid to see what the actual ambient temperature is…

I would suggest a Xiaomi Mijia thermometer - It connects to an app (via your phone's bluetooth) and logs temperature & humidity. Alternatively, if you are so inclined, they can be hooked up to a computer (via a BLE interface) for the data to be logged. With graphs in hand, it is much easier to berate the LL if the rooms are too cold.

And only having the heating on from the end of October through to the end of February is unacceptable in my opinion. Last year, I started using the heating towards the end of November and it was still in use in April. A couple of years earlier, we had the Beast from the East which brought sub-zero temperatures for everyone in March 2018.

Ksw3

Is this typical of HMOs? When I was a student we paid all our own utilities, in the 3 different houses I was in. 

lookstraightahead

la531983 said:

All I would say is - if they were paying for the heating themselves unit by unit, would they have put the heating on in September?
I think we know what the answer will have been 

The landlord is likely doing them a favour in the long run tbf, call it a life lesson.

I don't think the landlord needs to get involved teaching them life lessons, apart from how to not get ripped off.

lookstraightahead

Ksw3 said:

Is this typical of HMOs? When I was a student we paid all our own utilities, in the 3 different houses I was in. 

My daughter bills were included in year 2 and year 4, but rent was more. First year of working in London, bills were included in flat share. This year bills are on top.

 So this student landlord will definitely be charging more to compensate. And then it sounds as though they are trying to minimise that spend. There is an argument to say that if you're not paying for bills that the students will be wasteful, but a landlord can't have their cake and eat it. They can't charge extra for bills and then not provide the service. You can't turn the heating off for 8 months of the year, can you imagine that it a private rental with a family, or the elderly, or anyone for that matter. 

la531983

lookstraightahead said:

la531983 said:

All I would say is - if they were paying for the heating themselves unit by unit, would they have put the heating on in September?
I think we know what the answer will have been 

The landlord is likely doing them a favour in the long run tbf, call it a life lesson.

I don't think the landlord needs to get involved teaching them life lessons, apart from how to not get ripped off.

Well yes, I wasnt being entirely serious. 

In any case the contract here does seem to state if they use more, they pay more, so maybe shoving a dressing gown on for an hour isnt the worst course of action tbh at this time of year.

Maybe they can all write a letter, where they all agree for the heating to go on now and they are all happy to pay the extra costs this incurs.
I just hope the OPs son doesnt live with people from warm countries who likely want the heating on in June!