Electric Bill - Asking Landlord to contribute.

[kenty]

Hello all

Me and my girlfriend moved in to a flat 6 months ago - it was a new build, and converted from offices.

We've had a lot of snagging issues, of which I have written each time to the Landlord to raise. Some they have fixed; a couple remain problematic. The two main ones I am concerned with are:

- A terrible draught from a window in our 2nd bedroom. It was obvious the outside wasn't sealed in any way. They sealed it, but the draught is still bad around the window. I think it is a fault of the window as it is one of those that can be opened both ways. Although not so bad now it's warmer outside, during winter it rendered the room unusable and made keeping the rest of the house warm difficult, even with the doors shut.

- We are supposed to have solar assistance that helps heat our water, and keeps bills low, however we noticed it was doing nothing even when sunny days came along. If we left the immersion off, we'd have no hot water whatsoever. We recently questioned the landlord and it turns out nothing is connected up!

As all of our water and heating is electric we got concerned that all this was starting to cost a lot despite the landlord assuring us that bills were generally low for his existing tenants in other flats.

We realized we hadn't had an electric bill, so I have contacted Central Networks who pointed us in the direction of EON. I gave them our readings and they have come back with a figure of £750. We have to pay £150 now and then can spread the rest over 5 months along with a contribution to our estimated usage. Helpful but not great!

I was wondering if we have any leg to stand on in asking the landlord to make a contribution in light of the snagging issues. We have a good relationship with him in general. He is acting on behalf of his father who is the developer. If it comes to it, I would like to think they would help to keep us as tenants. However I'd like to know before I write to him of any legal precedent (if any) that would back me up?

I have other concerns (as do the flat above us) as to the state of the insulation seeing as we can hear each other closing curtains! I wonder if this has much to do with how difficult our flat was to keep warm but no idea how to quantify or prove it. The above flat have actually bought theirs and are seeking advice on building regulations but I haven't heard any extra news yet.

Any help or advice is very much appreciated.

[jeffrey]

You can ask, of course, but ultimately you're going to have to rely on the Letting Agreement. What of relevance does it state?

[Poppy35]

you say you were supposed to have solar assistance. Have you got this wrriten down anywhere in the particulars for example? If so you could suggest that you only took the house on due to this and perhaps some sort of compromise could be made?

[kenty]

Hello - thanks for your replies.

The LA just states rules about changing supplier and that paying the electric is our responsibility. There is no mention in the contract at all about the solar panels unfortunatley. We were only told verbally by the landlord when we viewed it.

The LA has bits in it about the LL's responsibility to ensure the building is all ship-shape. It is not. We have suffered as a result of these issues and now face a bill that is more than we needed to have paid. I'm just hoping the landlord should be able to be held responsible in some way?

I guess inexperience on our part meant we never realized just how much it would cost us to heat the flat with the electric heaters and missed/ignored the fact that the flat is not properly insulated and sealed, and the solar was not connected.

I am going to write to them basically outlining the above and hope for the best

[Snorkerz]

Were you given an energy performance certificate before you signed the agreement?

It's not illegal to not show you (if you don't ask) but it does have to exist by law. You might want to check if it was done - if not, it might give you some leverage.

[kenty]

Were you given an energy performance certificate before you signed the agreement?

It's not illegal to not show you (if you don't ask) but it does have to exist by law. You might want to check if it was done - if not, it might give you some leverage.

No, I've not seen anything like that to my knowledge. I'll double check our documents. If not I'll write to them to ask to see it - sounds like a good starting point - thanks for your reply!

[kenty]

Could anyone advise if this certificate would include any detail about the solar or the double glazing etc? What can I expect to see on it?

[Snorkerz]

Could anyone advise if this certificate would include any detail about the solar or the double glazing etc? What can I expect to see on it?

Here's an example http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/319282.pdf

[matthew_henson]

Hello all

Me and my girlfriend moved in to a flat 6 months ago - it was a new build, and converted from offices.

We've had a lot of snagging issues, of which I have written each time to the Landlord to raise. Some they have fixed; a couple remain problematic. The two main ones I am concerned with are:

- A terrible draught from a window in our 2nd bedroom. It was obvious the outside wasn't sealed in any way. They sealed it, but the draught is still bad around the window. I think it is a fault of the window as it is one of those that can be opened both ways. Although not so bad now it's warmer outside, during winter it rendered the room unusable and made keeping the rest of the house warm difficult, even with the doors shut.

- We are supposed to have solar assistance that helps heat our water, and keeps bills low, however we noticed it was doing nothing even when sunny days came along. If we left the immersion off, we'd have no hot water whatsoever. We recently questioned the landlord and it turns out nothing is connected up!

As all of our water and heating is electric we got concerned that all this was starting to cost a lot despite the landlord assuring us that bills were generally low for his existing tenants in other flats.

We realized we hadn't had an electric bill, so I have contacted Central Networks who pointed us in the direction of EON. I gave them our readings and they have come back with a figure of £750. We have to pay £150 now and then can spread the rest over 5 months along with a contribution to our estimated usage. Helpful but not great!

I was wondering if we have any leg to stand on in asking the landlord to make a contribution in light of the snagging issues. We have a good relationship with him in general. He is acting on behalf of his father who is the developer. If it comes to it, I would like to think they would help to keep us as tenants. However I'd like to know before I write to him of any legal precedent (if any) that would back me up?

I have other concerns (as do the flat above us) as to the state of the insulation seeing as we can hear each other closing curtains! I wonder if this has much to do with how difficult our flat was to keep warm but no idea how to quantify or prove it. The above flat have actually bought theirs and are seeking advice on building regulations but I haven't heard any extra news yet.

Any help or advice is very much appreciated.

Give the extraordinary cost of energy at the moment and the very cold winter you may find that this is what is costs to heat/provide hot water during such a cold winter. Over the summer you will use less electricity and it should balance out. I use GBP90 of electricity a month and spend a further GBP1400 a year on oil (4 bed house wife and 2 children)

Is it electro-voltaic solar panels or thermal? thermal panels are next to useless in a British winter and EV cell only produce 100-500 watts depending size and sun light which does not have much effect on a hot water tank (an immersion heated is 3000 watts and needs about 2 hours to produce a tank full of hot water, a 100 watts of power would take 3 days assuming no cooling losses and even at 500 watt it would take 12 hours of bright sunlight)