Disastrous private rental - advice please!

Syndy0_1

My son has taken on a private rental - it was done in a hurry because he had a last minute offer to do a PhD starting in January and it's 3 hours from home so he did a virtual viewing. We were made aware of some minor works that were being done before he moved in and told that the electricity is on a card, averaging £35-£45 per month.  He went to collect the keys yesterday to find that the work hasn't been done and the flat hasn't been cleaned.  He spent last night there and with no fridge yet running, his electricity for less than 24 hours was £10! The agent, during the handover, was clearly surprised at the state of the place but got my son to sign the agreement whilst my husband was taking photos of the various issues - stupidly he signed it.  Do we have any get- out clause at all?  Any advice gratefully received - thank  you in advance.

user1977

The electricity is probably more for the Energy board, and I presume not really a landlord/tenant matter, he'd be paying it anyway. But £35-45 sounds very optimistic. Is all the heating/water electric?

PRAISETHESUN

If he's already signed the contract there might be issues, but at least by documenting the state of the property on move in, there will be no obligation to return it to any other condition other than it's current state on moving out.

As for the energy situation, what does the agreement say about who is responsible for the utility bills? If the tenant is responsible, then your son is well within his rights to get the meter changed from a prepayment meter (very expensive) to a standard one

GrumpyDil

And check that your son isn't being charged for debt from before he moved in.

If you are not sure about that I would suggest posting on the energy board where posters know a lot more about that element than I do 

QrizB

PRAISETHESUN said:

As for the energy situation, what does the agreement say about who is responsible for the utility bills? If the tenant is responsible, then your son is well within his rights to get the meter changed from a prepayment meter (very expensive) to a standard one

The wise folk on the Energy board will tell you that prepayment is no more expensive than credit, and can even work out cheaper for some people.

Syndy0_1 said:

We were made aware of some minor works that were being done before he moved in and told that the electricity is on a card, averaging £35-£45 per month.

Energy bills for an all-electric flat will vary, but £1200 a year (£100 a month) wouldn't be unusual. Higher in the winter months, lower in the summer.

RAS

Has he read the meters, contacted the suppliers and reported the readings?

[Deleted User]

Minor jobs, not clean and electric bill more that expected. It sounds disappointing but not a disaster.

Nobody is paying £45 per month to light and heat a house, save for very niche circumstances. I might have paid that in a flat 12 years ago when I didn't heat the place.

 Clearly they need to schedule those repairs (you don't specify what they are) for the new year. Getting tradesmen can take a few weeks especially at this time of year.

It should have been clean but often you move into a place and have to clean it properly anyway.

FlorayG

What a rubbish agent if they never went to look at the property before it was let
One of my friends recently took on a private rental, it was filthy, she stayed with me for two night while she cleaned it. Some landlords just don't care.
Your son needs to chase the agent to get the 'works', whatever they are, done, and just be a pain in their rear end until it's seen to. As for the electric, £45 a month sounds cheap unless it's a two room studio, you should be expecting £100 a month at least if the heating is electric. He needs to check what appliances he is running and contact the supplier if it's £10 a day. As others have said, there may be a debit owing from the last tenant or the landlord while it was empty

Syndy0_1

Thank you everybody for taking the time to reply.