UK Landlord Forum / Life

This is a long one so I appreciate anyone who makes it to the end. My mum who is in her 80´s has rented an apartment in Essex for 30 years. When she first moved in it was rented to her by an agency to whom she paid the rent. Over the years the property changed hands and for the last 20 years she has paid the owner/landlord directly. So far no problem. Here is where it starts, she does not have a contract. Her landlord would like her to now move over to an agency - I am worried that they will try and get her to sign a new insecure/ short term contract. Obviously over 30 years property/ rent prices have increased a lot plus the flat is 5 minutes from a C2C train line. On top of this he has recently asked her to start paying the water bills ( I have no problems with this as I understand that all utilities are now much more expensive than 30 years ago). He has registered her without any consultation as a new tenant to the water authority again no problem I can help her with those details. But now he wants her to back pay the water bill for the last two years as he says is a giant bill (he says that she has been using 160 cubic metres of water a year (she lives on her own, no garden and no dishwasher). There is some confusion about which water metre goes to which apartment and the possibility of a leak. This whole thing is really getting her down. I have spoken to the landlord on the phone and said that I will work with him to get an amicable result but he is asking for over 2,000 pounds which is way above what a single pensioner should be paying for water (he even tried to get her to call the water company to ask to take over the debt - because rightfully it is in his name). I live outside the Uk so I would really appreciate a few pointers as to what I can do. I am in the process of applying to be an authorised person so that I can speak directly with the water company. I have also been trying to get in touch with a local housing lawyer just to get accurate information visa vi my mums rights but as its the holiday season understandably responses have been slow. Anyway if you made it this far I appreciate your dedication. Any info or links to similar posts would be really helpful. Many thanks Lee

It would help to know exactly when she first moved in.

It's not usual for rent in England to include utilities when there's only one tenant in the property. But if it's always been included, the landlord can't simply change the deal unilaterally or back date it.

The risk is that the landlord decides to end the tenancy rather than let it continue in an unsatisfactory manner. That wouldn't be easy, but it's probably not impossible (again, influenced by the actual start date).

Thank you for the reply. She moved in mid 1990´s. So she has been there a long time and the current landlord  ´ inherited ` her when he bought several flats and shops in the area around 20 years ago. I know that the landlord has no real right to charge her for back payment for the water but she is really settled there and as she is in her mid 80's she is not looking to move. If the landlord asked for a realistic amount ie what a single person would use, against my better judgment I would pay it to keep the peace. However he is trying to claw back an enormous amount from a bill he was paying and should have flagged 2 years ago. There is no sign of an external water leak so we are trying to get to the bottom of why the bill has been so high. I am trying to get the water company to come out and check the metre etc.

If she moved in in the mid 1990's your mum doesn't have any particular rights over any other tenant, so there's not much to be lost by agreeing a new tenancy agreement, should push come to shove. The basic regulations cover the tenancy anyway, regardless of there being no written agreement in place. That doesn't mean that your mother should rush to sign any new agreement (or that the terms are worth looking at), but it's not as if it's going to make a massive difference to anything in itself.

While it's possible something has changed (because I agree that it's likely that your mother's use of water hasn't changed much over time), like adding a meter instead of paying a rate based charge. But water (and sewage) rates haven't gone up that much over the past 30 years. They're controlled by the government and the average water bill was £361 a year in 1995 and its £421 a year now.

I think the landlord's issue (and therefore the key issue) isn't simply the amount of money/water. It's that the rent seems to have included the water supply for decades and they're now trying to change the basis of the contract. With no written agreement, providing the water supply at no charge since the mid nineties would be persuasive that it's part of the service covered by the rent - and the landlord would have to somehow show that it wasn't - because they've been paying it up to now.

On the other hand, water contracts are based on deemed usage, so by using the water and sewers, your mother could be shown to have agreed to pay for the water and sewerage unless she can show that it was agreed that this was included in the rent. The lack of clarity isn't helpful. If the landlord can assert that they've simply been paying it in error and that the bill should always have been your mother's, that might be persuasive also.