By Steve Roulstone

For years the biggest issue Letting agents had with Utility providers was that they did not understand how the rental system works and that whilst a Landlord has Tenants in the property, any costs generated were not Landlords responsibility.  The end result was invoices sent willy nilly to all and sundry in an attempt to get somebody to pay for supplies. From day one we have always sent faxes at both the start and end of tenancies confirming changes, names and forwarding addresses.

Too busy.

This was always reliant upon utility providers supplying fax numbers where this information could be sent, but on one classic occasion the manner in which they addressed rental properties shone through, when I was faxing British Gas and because the phone was on a speaker rest, I quite clearly heard the BG employee at the other end say ‘we have had enough fax’s today I am going to turn this machine off’!! Sure enough, it took three days before we could get through again.

Change in approach.

It is hard enough sometimes to find out who Tenants have changes suppliers too, but typical of utility providers, who along with the practice of firing invoices right left and centre never mind how many times we sent them clear information (including on many occasions in the name of the Letting Agent, who of course can never be responsible for costs generated at any property) and sending highly inflated invoices for periods between Tenants (this is a particularly popular practice with the water companies, who when multiplying the cost out charged at up to twice the annual rate for one or two week periods) they have now managed to get legislation introduced which means they may now charge the property owner if they do not have sufficient Tenant details.

A justified approach?

Of course if the services are not contacted and it is the responsibility of the outgoing and incoming person who pays bills to advise of the change, then one can understand their motivation. But if a Tenant does not advise of a forwarding address when they leave, then Landlords could find themselves responsible for the Tenants failure to advise correctly. Because this is part of what we always do as Letting Agents, we should never fall fowl of this new legislation, but Landlords who manage property themselves can no longer hide behind the excuse that it is not their fault. They must now ensure that they supply the information at the end of a Tenancy, even if a property is abandoned, doing nothing is no excuse and contact and information known should be supplied.

Only for water.

The legislation is contained in section 45 of the Flood and Water Management act of 2010 and is therefore at present only available for water utility companies, but I am sure that once the electric and gas providers realize (if they have not already done so) that this is possible, they will quickly lobby for the same powers. For me the biggest problem is that for years they treated the rental industry as a nuisance and now that the figures are obviously much bigger, seek legislation to protect themselves. A pity they could not just be efficient in how they go about dealing with changes at property and adapt themselves to the market, because by using legislation they are implying that they are protecting themselves from people who wish to defraud them through the law, when I believe that the reality is that the legislation has been smuggled through the back door to save them money in coping with what is a major change in trend in this country through efficiency and having to introduce workable but time consuming solutions. How much easier just to invoice the registered property owner!

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