Management company issued a backlog of gas bills, which were actually meant to be included in service charge and recovered from tenant, now saying that it was a oversight from them and they didn’t include it in the service charge and only charged for electricity, not gas. Previous tenant owes a big amount towards his gas usage now but has moved overseas. What are the landlord rights here wrt recovering charges from previous tenant? Had it not been an insanely big amount, I’d have not worried too much. But this is eye watering!
Any advice is appreciated
Thanks
Meghna
What did tenancy agreement say in regard to utility billing, did it say they/any were included within rent?
I would suggest you change your letting model. Asking the tenant to pay the utility bills to the management company means that if the bill is late or the tenant simply doesnt pay it, they will pursue you for the payment as they have no legal relationship with your tenant and cannot enforce payment. I would suggest that you raise the rent by the average consumption and state that the landlord pays the gas bill.
If the tenant is no longer living in the UK, you will almost certainly not be able to recover the costs from them.
No the agreement says the tenants are liable for the utility bills.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.