Government will bring in a law to force landlords to split £400 energy rebate

Am I correct in saying that if an HMO Landlord with 5 tenants utilities included in rent, the Landlord will get one £400.00 but will have to give each tenant £400.00. Plus, the Landlord will not physically receive the £400.00 but it will be credited to his account by his supplier. Is this payment to Tenants tax deductible? Surely this would not stand up in Court if challenged. It absolutely does not make sense once again!!!

That £400 is help towards Energy Bills, so if a Landlord pays the bills it is his money not the tenants, can you not understand simple logic, My tenants were asking me if I was going to get this help, I said yes but none of it is coming to you as you don't pay the bills I do. It is not a treat from Government for tenants to enjoy, it is to pay for sickening high cost of energy that the Government seems to be incapable of stopping these greedy energy producers from increasing charges beyond all imagination. The biggest culprits are OFGEM for authorising energy producers to increase their charges, can we landlords increase our rents as and when we wish? so why stop landlords and why not take action against energy producers, and OFGEM is pretty much useless body and should be dissolved.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 14/10/2022 - 12:59
Oh, it's morally wrong to give it to the tenants, but it is in fact law to do so.

i think the devil might be in the detail here...

If, on the other hand, you pay an ‘all-inclusive’ rent incorporating a fixed charge for energy use, your landlord should pass the Energy Price Guarantee and Energy Bills Support Scheme benefits to you if provided for in your tenancy agreement.

So if the AST just said energy included (but no fixed charge) then there is no issue with LL retaining any credit (its not a money refund) to be used against the total bill that he alone pays ad which the tenant CONTRIBUTES towards.

If that tenant was not renting, then the bill has to be paid by the LL regardless. Credit or not, the application of it does not in any way make it any more detrimental to the tenant than the current status quo. The supply is there and their CONTRIBUTION towards it is the basis of the contract. There is never the detail that says the rent includes energy at a ratio of 90% rent to 10% energy contributions or anything like that so a 'refund' of a credit made by the supplier is just that based a primary contract with the bill payer and supplier.

Reply to the comment left by Dennis Leverett at 14/10/2022 - 12:57
What if a tenant moves *during* the period of the suppliers incremental/staged payments?

Reply to the comment left by Martin Thomas at 14/10/2022 - 11:37
Was this something else I missed that I cannot increase my rent - I rarely do a rent rise when a tenant is in situ - and then just a small increment, my rents don't actually rise much at all as I prefer stable and happy people but clearly coming back to bite me and I need to join the 'greedy landlord' brigade that we are all tainted with anyway - so question is 'how/why can't I increase my rents again' - I don't allocate an amount for energy, I just pay for the central heating and hot water.

This doesn't sound weird at all, in fact it makes a lot of sense.

I assume the tenants of the multi-occupancy places are paying a higher rent to pay for the electricity bills. Were the bills not included, I would assume the rent would be lower.

In scenario 1, the tenant is paying for the electricity they use via the landlord, in scenario 2, the tenant is paying for the electricity they use directly to the utility company.

Ultimately it is the tenant that is paying for the electricity costs, so any rebate or refund should be passed back to them.

Reply to the comment left by The Forever Tenant at 14/10/2022 - 14:52
If the inclusive rent has been put in place to accommodate the rise in energy prices, then it makes sense. But most will have contracts which are not based on the recent price increases, and should not receive the rebate until their rent is increased.

Reply to the comment left by The Forever Tenant at 14/10/2022 - 14:52
For the last 20 years it has not been a problem but with the massive increases the rent has not risen to take this into account. so the landlord is subsidising to a pretty large amount the energy that the tenant uses.
I'm guessing you are a tenant.
I've never had a problem or complained about tenant usage even when I go in and it's like Blackpool illuminations on my account.

Reply to the comment left by Harlequin Garden at 14/10/2022 - 14:58
When everyone else is doing everything possible to reduce their energy use, where is the incentive for rent-inclusive tenants to do the same?