UK Landlord Forum / Life

Good evening
I am new to the forum so hello to all. I have a huge electricity bill that accumulated while the apartment was empty. I now have all the facts and figures. It is obvious that a lot of appliances were left on. My apartment is managed by a letting agent as I live out of area. I know that I am responsible for the bill but surely the letting agent is accountable for not checking appliances culminating in this excessive bill. Any help will be grateful received.
Regards
Michael

if you get any money out of agents, you will be walking on water next 

What appliances? The oven? The 4-ring hob? Leaving the fridge-freezer on isn't a big no-no, nor the alarm system, nor a PIR-controlled security light. What kind of huge electricity bill could you be talking about? I'm going to assume the water heating was on auto. or something? But you need to be express in your instructions when you hand over responsibility for your property to someone else... consider the people (Agents) you are dealing with to be the double-whammy of someone who is a) an idiot and b) really doesn't care about your costs.

When you hand over responsibility to an Agent you don't really hand over any responsibility, you see? The responsibility for anything that really matters still lies with you, sadly.

30KW per day for just over 3 months in an empty 2 bedroom apartment. Usage with tenants prior to this 10KW a day. Now usage is 4KW per day. Basically I had a bill of £650 for 3 months. 

Thank you for the replies. I have had a response from my agent. She will get back to me in a few days. I'll keep you posted.

That kind of consumption suggests it's possible that someone was growing cannabis in your flat.  I expect the locks weren't changed when your tenant moved out? 

I think you need to consider the risk that a criminal has the key.

Quote from: Spingo11 on September 17, 2019, 08:12:41 AM30KW per day for just over 3 months in an empty 2 bedroom apartment. Usage with tenants prior to this 10KW a day. Now usage is 4KW per day. Basically I had a bill of £650 for 3 months.

You're saying it was appliances... indicating you know what was the cause... but do you? You have a large bill, sure... but is it explained? It's good that you're not just talking in £s, but in consumption... indicating something was up-and-running... but what? If the property was truly empty it seems like something is fishy, not just inadvertently left on.