Please Help: Letting agent wants me to pay a business rate in a residential building.

lambgo

I recently moved into this building with 5 apartments that was formerly used to run a BnB service, the letting agent hid the fact that the apartments are onto a business electricity tariff contract with the energy supplier. This agent has been unsuccessful in changing the electricity contract, I have paid 320 pounds for electricity in the last 1 month because the energy supplier keeps cutting off supply to my apartment. I contacted the agent to allow me bear 100 pounds out of the 320 and removed the balance from my rent but she has refused and threatened to serve me an eviction notice. Please what should I do? 

MultiFuelBurner

So some rentals do come with a business energy tariff. What the landlord cannot do is make a profit from the tariff and only charge you for your usage and standing charge and no more.

What rates have they advised you are paying per kWh and standing charge?

QrizB

lambgo said:

I recently moved into this building with 5 apartments that was formerly used to run a BnB service, the letting agent hid the fact that the apartments are onto a business electricity tariff contract ... she has refused and threatened to serve me an eviction notice. Please what should I do? 

Personally, I'd move somewhere else.

Sorry to be blunt.

Scot_39

Unless the agent specifically told you in writing you would be on a normal domestic tariff - which would be a strange assumption - as defintiely not the case for a lot of larger HMO / split properties - I have no idea why you think they would be to blame.

The letting agent - is often simply an intermediary - paid by the landlord - to find tennants - and paid by the tennants - to let them the property via admin fees and commissions.

Electric

As to the billed amount. £320 in summer strikes me as a lot - are you 100% sure - that's only your actual usage - and not some debt left by previous tennants etc.

How is that amount arrived at - do you have your own prepay meter, smart card or key ?

Do you know the charges for SC and unit rate (or rates if mutlirate etc)

Have you checked you are paying for the right meter (serial numbers match) ?

Have you checked that is the right meter if in a communal meter cabinet and not your own flat (e.g by doing a meter sanity check - do a search here for methods ) ?

Did you start a fresh contract with supplier, your own card / key and provide your own day 1 readings at start of tennancy ?

Why are they cutting your power off - for running out of credit / then emergency credit - which should last days in summer ?

How much power are they saying you are using etc ?

£320 - about £300 after even most expensive region SC - would buy about 1000 kWh of electricity on a normal domestic supply at last months c30p.  Ofgem average iirc - for 1-2 in a 1-2 bed flat - was 4200 kWh per annum, soon to be 3900 kWh a year.

Even if the commercial rates were double - 500 kWh - and thats still an abnormally high level - for a 1 bed flat conversion.

I would advise a session with someone like citizens advice - to seek advice on the electric situation.

Mixing the 2

You cannot just unilatirily decide not to pay part of one bill - your rent - because you are unhappy with another - your electric. 

It is your responsibility as an adult to arrange and organise your affairs and that includes terms for all utilities, other costs like council tax etc and not just rent - when you take on a tennancy for a property.

Longer Term

If you remain unhappy about the position - then it's probably better to try and move - but beware you have probably also made a minimum commitment in the lease - say minimum 1-2 months notice - but sometimes longer - and so may be liable for additional costs if terminate early.

And as to the evicton threat - I really would advise you not take it as an idle threat.  Before you take action that might see you pushed - as if the agents or rather the landlord do that via a court action - that can become a matter of public record against you.  

And needless to say any requests for a previous landlord's reference for a future tennancy unlikely to be that glowing.

mmmmikey

Hi, unfortunately the landlord is allowed to charge you a commercial rate in circumstances such as this and there isn't much you can do about it. The landlord isn't allowed to make a profit, but again unfortunately commercial rates can be a lot more expensive than domestic rates. I personally think that is completely unfair but that's the way it is.

This is probably in the tenancy agreement you signed but it sounds like either you didn't check it properly or you didn't understand it. If that's the case don't beat yourself up about it - you won't be the first person to have misunderstood what you agreed to and you won't be the last.

I think you're going to have to accept that if you stay where you are you'll have to pay those rates. If you're going to struggle to do that I'm really sorry to say that you face the stark choice of moving to somewhere more affordable (which can be a nightmare) or turning to Citizens Advice for advice on money management.

I'm sure this isn't what you want to hear but best to tell it like it is. Good luck and I hope you get things sorted.

Swipe

If you decide to stay there, you may find this thread useful:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6334019/how-to-live-without-heating-save-000s/p1

markin

You seem to be using a lot even at £1 a kwh or its a previous tenants debt?

ArbitraryRandom

Scot_39 said:

And as to the evicton threat - I really would advise you not take it as an idle threat.  Before you take action that might see you pushed - as if the agents or rather the landlord do that via a court action - that can become a matter of public record against you.  

And needless to say any requests for a previous landlord's reference for a future tennancy unlikely to be that glowing.

I would suggest this is the time to think about a negotiated surrender of the tenancy... 

wild666

I was renting a property about 18 years ago and I was paying business rates on the electric and gas I was using. The property had being converted from a shop into flats and the letting agent was saying that he wanted X amount per month for electric and gas but one day I got access to the meters and it turned out that the letting agency was charging each flat the full amount of the monthly bill each month to every flat. We all got together and took the letting agency to court and won, it took us a while to get the money 75% of each months bill back. I had only being in the flat 3 months when I accessed the meters but others had being there years, so they got back a lot more than me. 
I left the property after 6 months but still went on with the claim for the refund of 75% of the money I had paid each month, it took 9 months to get the money back and the letting agency went out of business about two years after that.