HMO Gas and Electricity fair use agreement wording?

HMO Gas and Electricity fair use agreement wording?

14:32 PM, 16th January 2017, About 8 years ago 4

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Hello all, do you have any sample wording for fair usage of energy agreement and any suggested clause to put on the contract for each tenants?fair use

Thank you

Giorgio


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Neil Patterson

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14:40 PM, 16th January 2017, About 8 years ago

Hi Giorgio,

Tessa Shepperson of Landlord Law has agreements to cover this. Please see >> http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/landlord-law-property-118/

From Tessa's page:

"My agreements

I developed a ‘landlord pays the bills’ agreement several years ago at the request of one of my Landlord Law members. It goes like this:

There is a schedule in the agreement which sets out exactly what bills the landlord is paying. This is essential.
The rent clause states which part of the rent figure is in respect of the bills
The landlord has the right to increase this if the bills he is paying go over this figure but If the tenants challenge this, he cannot charge the rent until he has shown them the invoices to prove the increase he wants to make

That is fair to both parties. The landlord can increase the bills element of the rent if the costs go up so he is not out of pocket, but the tenants have the right to ‘put him to proof’ of the increase."

Giorgio Guglielmino

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9:06 AM, 17th January 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Neil Patterson" at "16/01/2017 - 14:40":

Thank you Neil

rob david

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9:55 AM, 17th January 2017, About 8 years ago

We had the same problem until recently having had to endure late or non payments and even disputes over consumption?? They'll try anything. After installing buylec they can all look after their own accounts. Much fairer as Donald Trump might say !

HMOLandlady

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10:19 AM, 17th January 2017, About 8 years ago

Would it not be easier to put utility controls in place instead? Without metering every room, it's very time consuming to calculate usage, etc. and if your bill is higher than expected, are your tenants going to cough up the extra charges?

Having just looked at my usage; 4 bed HMOs use almost the same gas and electric as a 6 bed HMO. It all depends on the insulation of the building, the siting of the thermostat, location of the radiators and if your tenants have access to the boiler.

If you can explain to your tenants (and me) the definition of "fair usage" then I'm sure there's a clause out there and you can try to get the money off each tenant if it's breached. My view is: the room product is an all inclusive, value for money accommodation option chosen by tenants because it fits their budget and they don't want to organise their own bills. A landlord cannot control tenants' behaviour but they can mitigate it. However, if they set up a marijuana farm in the loft, you may have a point.

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